Chateau de Minière - Bourgueil

Chateau de Minière has a tradition of being run by women over the centuries and Kathleen Van den Berghe who has recently taken over this Bourgueil estate is intent on maintaining it.

This will eventually become a delightful tasting/event area for guests

The tuffeau chateau dates back to the 17th century and has always been managed by women. It was in the same family for 2 centuries and then another family until 2010. Kathleen, (who works in construction) and her husband (who works in mining) fell in love with the chateau and are now intent on seeing this beautifully situated estate back on the map.

There have been changes since they took over the property - restoration work is well under way to produce a lovely tasting room in the chateau, a new winemaker has been employed (Eric Goujat who has 10 years experience of working in Montlouis), a small parcel has been replanted, missing vines replaced and new barrels purchased. Kathleen is a perfectionist and is looking to make big improvements in wine quality over the next few years. Purchase of the property took some time so she bought the base wine in July 2009 from the former owners to ensure that they had some wine to sell and the 2010 vintage was vinified by them under the control of the previous winemaker.

The 2011 vintage will be under their total control from grape to bottle so it will be interesting to see how the wines evolve over time.

There are around 18 hectares in total - around 2-3 in the walled clos, another 2-3 just outside with the remainder up on the nearby hill. Around 1 hectare of vines are 100 years old.

To the wines - obviously what is available now is not necessarily in the style of what will come in the future but here are my notes for the wines we tasted during our visit.

Chateau de Minière Rose 2010

Peachy apricot tones, clear and bright. Quite creamy, peachy, soft slightly lactic style on the nose. Cream soda - nice and dry on the palate.

Chevalier de Minière 2010

Nice fresh purpley colour. A little sharp on the palate, quite high acidity on the palate with a bitterness that comes through on the finish. Could use some time to soften up a bit.

Chateau de Minière 2009

Deep blackberry colour. Seems lighter in style than the Chevalier although it should be the other way round. Again, quite high acidity and quite a lot of tannin at the end although nice bramble fruit on the mid-palate.

Vieilles Vignes 2009

Part of this wine has been aged in barrels (2 wine Bordeaux). More concentration on the nose, quite aromatic. Much softer and lighter on the palate than the previous two wines. Tannins are more gentle and rounded - better.

Chateau de Minière 2008

Nice sweet bramble fruit on the nose that is missing on the 09. A hint of violets and blueberries on the palate Lightish in weight and tannins less present. Ok for drinking now.

Vieilles Vignes 2005

Deeper rubyish colour. More savoury on the nose with a slightly animal quality. Ripe stone fruit comes through on the mid-palate. Quite a bit of tannin and a dry finish.

To summarise - expect to see some big changes at this estate over the next few years. Perched along the cycle route in Bourgueil it is perfectly situated and after the restorations are finished it will be a very pretty property indeed. Kathleen has a very clear vision of what she is hoping to achieve and we can expect it to become a good wine tourism venue. Watch this space.

Vignoble de la Jarnoterie - St Nicolas de Bourgueil

My first stop on Monday at the Salon des Vins was Vignoble de la Jarnoterie. A family run vineyard of 24 hectares within the St Nicolas de Bourgueil appellation, I tasted 4 wines, one rosé and 3 reds.

Full details have been posted on the News section of the le tasting room website. In essence, we found the wines to be light and easy in style with good fruit expression and soft tannins. I particularly liked the Improvisation 2008 which is made from vines 40 - 60 years old and aged predominantly in large chestnut barrels with about 30% going in to small oak barrels for around 6 months.

www.mabileau-reze.com

Planting Vines

Visited our local pépinière viticole yesterday to pick up a few vines for le tasting room. We decided upon half a dozen Cabernet Franc and half a dozen Chenin Blanc and intend to plant them in two different ways, as a trained row with posts and wires and as bush vines, untrained on the ground.

We first visited the pépinière in the autumn last year to discuss our requirements and were a little hesitant when asking for just 1 dozen grafted vines for our business. The reception and advice we received as to the choice of vine and relevant rootstocks was helpful even though our order was likely to be miniscule compared with other customers. We eventually decided to opt for Chenin and Cabernert Franc on a Fercal rootstock (one that tolerates high levels of chalk) and agreed to return in the Spring this year to discuss it further.

We arrived, without appointment, to be met by the proprietor, who remembered us instantly, went inside to collect a ready typed 'devis' (quote), collected the vines from the refrigerated holding room, bundled them up, labelled them and shook our hand. Great service from a local supplier.

Now all we have to do it get them planted and we can then look forward to sharing their development, pruning and training methods with our clients when they come to see us.

As a side note, the reason why vines have to be grafted is so that they are resistant to Phylloxera - a little louse-like pest that infected European vineyards towards the end of the 19th Century. It was first brought over from America by keen Victorian English gardeners wanting to plant rare and exotic specimens in their conservatories. They unwittingly brought with them, the Phylloxera louse which in turn made its way to France and many other countries in Europe as well. This louse, which destroys the roots of the vine, went on to destroy a large proportion of Europe's vineyards and it was some time before a 'cure' was discovered. The answer was and remains today, to graft the vines on to American rootstock. There are some producers who today plant their vines ungrafted such as Henry Marionnet but they take the risk that their vines will eventually become infected and the vineyards will have to be uprooted and replaced over time.

Pépinière Viticole
La Magaudière
49320 St Jean des Mauvrets