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.

Harvest in Bourgueil with Pierre-Jacques Druet

Some pictures taken at the end of last week when we visited Pierre-Jacques Druet. Despite being inundated with trailors of grapes arriving, he still found plenty of time to give us an excellent tasting and explain the process of winemaking to our clients from San Francisco.

Cabernet Franc grapes arriving at the winery

Pump is primed ready to take the free-run juice straight to a settling tank for the rosé

An amazing amount of free-run juice comes straight from the trailor

Pierre-Jacques checks the juice with his refractometer - good news - 12.5

The harvesters still find time to select a few wild mushrooms for dinner, carefully stored in a trug balanced on the front of the trailer

Once the free-run juice has stopped flowing, grapes are manually pulled into the crusher destemmer giving the 'must' which is then pumped directly into tank

Care is taken in the winery to ensure everything goes smoothly

Tank full and ready for fermentation to start

The plight of the ancient mariner - Le Thoureil

Every year, Le Thoureil (our nearest village on the banks of the river Loire), hosts a regatta which is a great day out if the weather is fine. Yesterday, we were in luck - the sun shone, the boats arrived and the band played. In the morning we hosted a tasting for a group of clients from Russia and Paris and afterwards walked down to the river together to have lunch (prepared and cooked by local volunteers) and to join in the festivities.

These local events are still commonplace in France - simple catering, local micro-brewery selling its beers, basic wine at 5€ a bottle, stalls selling soaps, arts and crafts and the local fishermen showing the art of weaving fishing nets.

I was a little taken aback therefore to be approached by a very disgruntled mariner who offered to sell me his lunch ticket for 5€ instead of the normal 10€. In years gone by, the mariners who took the time to sail their boats upstream to support the celebration were given a free lunch. This year, there had been a change of policy - now the mariners were expected to pay 5€ for their lunch and no prior notice was given. 5€ isn't going to break the bank I know but I'm inclined to see his point of view. The regatta would not exist if the boats were not there and they are expensive to run. It takes planning and effort to sail to Le Thoureil - these boats are old and beautiful and the day would not be the same without them. No doubt this was a committee decision - to charge the mariners for their lunch, but a short sighted one in my opinion. Maybe it was a result of last year - it tipped down with rain all day so visitors were sparse and a free lunch still had to be provided for the mariners. The mariner I was talking to told me that he won't be back next year. This is a shame - he may not be the only one.

That aside, we had a great afternoon. After tasting wines during the morning we enjoyed a couple of beers from La Piautre - a small micro-brewery just over the river at La Menitré. This year they had produced good quality plastic 'glasses' for which they charged a 1€ deposit. Branded and with some background information about the brewery this was an attempt to reduce litter and encourge recycling - a great idea.

Another positive note - it was wonderful to see the local amateur fisherman's association demonstrating the art of weaving fishing nets and also to see so many of the older generation joining in the fun of the day.

So thank you to our clients to helped make the day a memorable one and to all the mariners who sailed their boats along the river to provide us with a glimpse of the past. I hope to see them all back at Le Thoureil next year for what is a traditional celebration of life on the river Loire.