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Tasting Feature 2006: The Red Wines of the Loire

Tasting Features 2006:

The Reds of the Loire
My main theme for 2006, with regular weekly additions, showcases the red wines of Chinon, Bourgueil, Sancerre and more, featuring some recent, great vintages.

The Champagne Trail
My secondary theme is an irregular open-ended paper-chase, on the trail of the best RM Champagne producers. Join me in a genuine journey of discovery.

Every Monday I add a new tasting note along a theme, and for the foreseeable future I'll be revisiting a region in which I have a special interest; the Loire Valley. I have been an irregular visitor to the Loire, meeting vignerons and tasting their wines, since 1993. And although it was Sancerre that really drew me to the region, on my first visit I had considerable exposure to the red wines of the Loire. And some of them were simply fabulous. In particular I recall visiting Couly-Dutheil, and tasting (and purchasing) their top cuvée of the time, Clos de l'Echo. Although I can no longer lay my hands on my tasting notes from that time, I'm fairly sure it was the marvellous 1989 vintage. The bottles that I returned with served me very well, displaying all the complexity that Cabernet Franc has to offer in a successful vintage. I have fond memories of taking one to a graduation dinner (it was a BYO affair - how sensible) where it was magnificent.

As the years have passed, however, I have found myself drinking less and less Loire reds. Certainly I have tasted a few, such as the impressive portfolio of wines from Charles Joguet, showing very well indeed in the 2003 vintage, which I tasted with Alain Delauney in May 2005. But not much drinking. This is a problem that afflicts my cellar; a perhaps excessively large proportion of it is Bordeaux, with too little from the less exalted regions that still turn out fabulous wines, such as Jurançon, The red wines of the Loire Chinon and grower Champagnes. The Loire is in fact well represented, but predominantly by sweet wines; Quarts de Chaume, Coteaux du Layon, and sweet (and dry!) Vouvray, largely purchased on recent visits to the region, in 2003 and 2004. It is time that the balance is redressed, and my weekly tasting feature (which has previously covered Burgundy, Alsace, Germany, classic Italy, and most recently the South & South-West of France) is an obvious method of achieving this.

Over the next few months I'll be looking, with the help of some new, appropriately detailed profiles, at the top red wines of the Loire. My gaze will focus on Chinon and Bourgueil, but I shall also take in red Sancerre as well as Saumur-Champigny, Touraine and even the odd Vin de Pays. As always expect the featured winemaking domaines to be a select example of the very best the region has to offer; I'll be checking out Mabileau, Druet and Domaine la Lande, to name just three, as well as old favourites I first visited over a decade ago such as Vacheron and Couly-Dutheil. I know I'm going to enjoy it, and learn a lot from it, I hope it proves useful for my ever-growing band of readers.

And in case you're thinking - "What of Jurançon and those grower Champagnes?" - fear not. Not only have I just added some Jurançon to the cellar - from Henri Ramonteu, who else - but I will also be looking at Récoltant-Manipulant Champagnes, in a forthcoming series of infrequent articles. (31/10/05)

Loire Producer Profiles
Wine Guide: The Wines of the Loire
My secondary theme for 2006: The Champagne Trail
Last year's theme: The Beautiful South