Vert de l'Or - Baumard

While tasting at Domaine des Baumard in Rochefort sur Loire the other day we purchased a bottle of Vert de l'Or. The name is a play on words. The name Vert de l'Or sounds like the grape variety from which the wine is made, Verdelho.

A Portugese grape variety most closely associated with the wines of Madeira, it's rare to find it in France but was apparently introduced to the Loire in 1810. It has always been bottled as a table wine and has no information concerning either the vintage or the grape variety on the label as prior to 2009 this was not permitted.

2009 saw the introduction of new legislation allowing table wines to be renamed Vins de France and enabling both a vintage and a grape variety to be stated on the label. Good news you might think - no so for Domaine des Baumard and Vert de l'Or. Despite its history, Verdelho became increasingly rare after the 1950's and when a definitive list of grape varieties was published in 1955 it was not mentioned. It was also not included in the 'Catalogue Officiel des Variétés de Vigne cultivées en France' published in1995. The result of this is that under todays legislation, this wine is illegal and Baumard has been told it cannot produce it any longer.

A great example of crazy French legislation. An unusual wine made by a quality producer who discovered it by accident in the vineyard some years ago and vinified it separately is now no longer permitted to make it because it does appear on an official list of grape varieties.

To the wine - it's pale in colour and has a crisp Spring freshness on the nose and palate. Good acidity makes it a flexible food wine that would be good with seafood, fish and white meat dishes or as a crisp aperitif on its own.

As a grape variety, budburst, flowering and ripening are all a little in advance of Chenin (around 10 - 12 days). Picking the right moment for harvest is crucial to ensure good fruit flavour and balance.

In my opinion it would be a great shame if Baumard is forced to grub up this small parcel. I gather they are currently in discussion with the authorities in an attempt to try and stop this happening.

I think we paid around 6.50 Euros for it and although it's not a wine that will change the world, - for the historical interest, the rarity value and the story, I for one am happy to pay for that.

A couple of winning wines from the Lebretons.

We've enjoyed a couple of delicious wines over the past couple of nights that come from the various Lebreton estates in St Jean des Mauvrets and Juigne sur Loire.

The night before last we returned from Tours having braved a quick dash around Ikea for essentials (candles, water glasses, paper napkins) and picked up friends from the airport. It was a long day and we popped into the supermarket to buy a ready roasted chicken, some new potatoes and salad for a quick supper on our return. To the wine - we opened a bottle of Domaine de Mongilet's Les Yvonnais 2002.

What a delight. Soft perfumed Cabernet Franc fruit with smoky notes on the nose, smooth and fruity on the palate, quite light but with some tannin remaining. The perfect choice to lift what was an ordinary supper. If this is what appellation Anjou Villages Brissac is like after a few years ageing then I'm all for it.

Anjou Villages Brissac is a newish appellation created in the 90's for so-called 'vins de garde', wines that require ageing to show their full potential. Only vineyards from around a dozen individually selected sites are entitled to use it and wines must not be bottled until September 1st following the year of harvest. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are both permitted so allowing a variety of different styles being made by individual producers. We like Jacques Beaujeau's version - 100% Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 - powerful and perfumed with a real concentration, drinkable now because of the great fruit but will be better in a few years time. We also like Christophe Daviau's Rocca Nigra and Terra Alba both of which have amazing structure but are very tannic at present (we have the 05) - give them another 5 years or so and they will be softer and more ready.

Back to Montgilet's Les Yvonnais - the vignes have an average of 49 years old and come from a parcel planted on decomposed schist with a clay layer on top. No commercial yeast is added and as soon as the alcoholic fermentation is complete, the wine is moved into barriques to undergo its malo lactic fermentation where it stays until bottling 12 months later. Barriques of 1, 2 and 3 wines are used as Montgilet is not looking to extract tannins from the wood but rather to impart a richness of flavour to the wine. It's delicious and for us resembles the elegant wines that we have come to enjoy from Pierre-Jacques Druet in Bourgueil. Ready to drink now, it costs 10.50 Euros cellar door.

Last night we enjoyed a family meal together and I cooked a seafood risotto. I pre-cooked the mussels and retained the liquor, shelled king prawns and made a stock with the shells, cut salmon into large dice. I fried a finely chopped onion in butter, added the arborio rice, deglazed the pan with a glass of Noilly Prat and then used the stock I had made earlier. At the end I slipped the mussels and prawns back in, added a smidgeon of cream, some chopped tarragon and lastly stirred in the raw salmon, turned off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes before eating.

To go with this, we choose the lovely, crisp Domaine des Rochelles, Roches de Rochelles 2008.


100% Chenin Blanc, the wine has a real purity of fruit with a strong mineral edge. Vines are around 30 years old and are manually harvested (a small proportion being affected by botrytis). After a 12 hour maceration on the skins, the juice is fermented and the wine then aged for 12 months in 400L oak barrels that are 3 years old. Grapefruit and citrus with a touch of lemon verbena and refreshing acidity made it the perfect match with the seafood. Around 8 Euros cellar door.

www.domainedesrochelles.eu
www.montgilet.com

Le Petit Manoir - St Melaine (near Angers)

Following an excellent tasting at Domaine des Rochelles in St Jean des Mauvrets this week, we tried out a restaurant in St Melaine that we had not been to before. In the heart of the village, it was refurbished last year and we've been meaning to try it since then.

It was packed with locals (always a good sign), most of them eating the ouvrier's menu which at just over 10 Euros for entrée, plat, fromage, dessert, coffee and wine , sounded like tremendous value to me. As we had a little more time on our hands we opted for the 18 Euro menu. I enjoyed a croustillant of goats cheese served with an aubergine caviar and balsamic dressed salad leaves. Other starters were a smoked duck, and foie gras salad with walnuts and orange, and a pressé of sardines. For my main course I had the plat du jour which was a fillet of merlu (white fish), served with a mirepoix of vegetables (tiny cubes of pepper, courgette, onion, garlic, aubergine). The others had kidneys in a rich grain mustard and wine sauce with smashed new potatoes.

We drank a bottle of Damien Laureau's Savennières, Les Genets 2006 which was a little closed but had good minerality on the palate and went well with the fish.

Service was swift for those eating the ouvriers menu (who were incidentally enjoying a Magnum ice cream for dessert - welcome on a very hot day) and slightly more relaxed in the main restaurant where we were seated. The decor is attractive and there is a nice garden out the back although it was so hot that we opted to stay inside.

We'll be back to try out the ouvrier's menu but in the meantime, we can certainly recommend it.

La Pointe - A Perfect Picnic Spot

If you are looking for a beautiful spot for a picnic I can highly recommend the pretty riverside village of la Pointe. In between Bouchmaine and Savennières, this old fishing port is quiet and unspoilt with beautiful views of the river where the Maine meets the Loire.

The village boasts a number of restaurants including La Terrace which overlooks the river and has a very good local wine list.

You can walk alongside the river and find a quiet place to sit and watch the world go by. The vineyards of Savennières are just a 5 minute drive away so it's an ideal place to stop if you are looking for a little rest and recuperation after a hard morning's wine tasting.

Wine & Chocolate Tasting at Domaine de la Soucherie

Our group outside on the tasting terrace - splendid veiws over the Coteaux du Layon

We enjoyed a very unusual and interesting tasting at Chateau de Soucherie this week. The estate was bought by the current owners in 2007 from the Tijou family (an old established wine-making family going back generations). The chateau is based in the Coteaux du Layon, not far from Beaulieu and has some of the best views in the Loire valley.

Clearly a lot of money has been spent refurbishing the chateau and estate. I did not have the opportunity to ask too many questions of the owners as we were with clients but I am led to believe that this was a new project for them and the first time they have been involved in making wine.

As well as completely renovating the chateau, La Soucherie also offers a very contemporary reception room (available for private meetings, dinners, events), a maison des amis (which can be used as accommodation in conjunction with the meeting room), a slick inside tasting room and a stunning terrace with the most beautiful views of the Coteaux du Layon.

A range of hand-made chocolates has been created in conjuction with a Parisien chocolatier and these are served together with the wines to create a unique and unusual tasting experience. I have to admit this was a first for us - chocolate can be a difficult fit when it comes to wine at the best of times so this approach is new and just a little off-beat.

We tried their 2008 Savennières with strips of dark chocolate containing a sharp lemon paste/jelly - the outside dusted with fennel seeds. The idea is that the citrussy aspect of the wine is complemented by the citrus aspect of the chocolate. A new approach but interesting and in fact not a clash as I would have expected.

We then tasted the 2009 Rosé de Loire - light, fresh summer fruits backed up with fresh crisp acidity. A good summer wine.

The 2008 Cabernet d'Anjou was served with a tablet of dark chocolate studded with chunks of dried banana and strawberry - again the idea being to marry the fruity aromas in the wine with that of the fruit. I found the strawberry aspect worked quite well but the dried banana did not particularly enhance the match.

The very contemporary meeting room/salle de reception.

We finished with two sweet wines, the Coteaux du Layon 2007 which was light and fresh with honey and pear aromas - easy to drink with good balanced acidity, a good aperitif wine. Finally we had the Chaume 2007 which was served with a dark chocolate covered dried apricot. The rich golden wine had aromas of honey, apricot and spices and it went surprisingly well with the chocolate.

The terrace overlooking the Layon has the best views we have enjoyed since moving to live here in 2006. They are just spectacular and I can recommend a visit to Chateau Soucherie for this alone. When the weather is fine (as it was on this occasion), I can't think of a better place to be. As for the modern approach - well, part of me loved it and a little part of me feels that it has been over-renovated. We almost felt like we weren't in the Loire valley any more. Certainly we got the impression that the owners are trying to push the boundaries, to create something unusual, unique and different.

I'm sure we'll be back again as it provides a complete contrast to the normal tasting experience. We were warmly welcomed and our clients absolutely loved it.

I'll be interested to hear your views.

www.domaine-de-la-soucherie.fr
La Soucherie
49750 Beaulieu-sur-Layon

02 41 78 31 18

le tasting room is THE BEST!

Just once in a while I feel we have to blow our own trumpet a little. We welcomed Diane and her parents to le tasting room last week for a Loire Wine Discovery day - a one day wine discovery tour from Paris.

In the morning we tasted a range of Loire valley wines, discussed appellation and production in the region.

We enjoyed a tour of the impressive Chateau de Pimpéan with owner/winemaker Maryse Tugenhadt and a vertical tasting of her Cuvée Passion.

Lunch was in the old barrel maturation cellar underneath our home

Jean-Hubert Lebreton led us through a comprehensive tasting of his wines at Domaine des Rochelles in the afternoon.

I think it was Sybil our chocolate labrador that made the day!

Here is Diane's review on TripAdvisor. A big thank you to her and her parents for making the day so enjoyable and also for taking the time to write up such a special review.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g187196-d1441140-r63823489-Le_Tasting_room-Loire_Valley_Centre.html

Good Cheese from the Market in Gennes

Just back from the market in Gennes where we always stock up on good cheese, particularly when we are providing picnics for our customers.

Our cheese supplier has a shop in Seiches sur Loire, does the market in Gennes on a Tuesday morning and the big market by the Place du Mail in Angers on a Saturday. Although it's expensive, the difference in quality compared with cheese found in the big supermarkets is very evident.

Today we bought some St Nectaire Fermier, a Langres, a Cabichou from Poitou, some Tomme de Savoie, a quarter of Brébis de Corse and a demi of Reblochon. We have yet to find a better Reblochon anywhere - soft and creamy with a wonderful fruity flavour, it gradually slides across the cheeseboard. The Brébis de Corse is the best we have ever tasted too - soft and moist, envelopped in a crust of herbs from the South - at the same time aromatic and gentle.

Can't wait to share them with our customers tomorrow.