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Report from the 2010 Salon des Vins de Loire

It's been another hectic three days of visits, tastings and chat at the annual Salon des Vins de Loire in Angers this year, preceded by two days of the same at the annual Renaissance event, during which Nicolas Joly, Marc Angeli and their biological and biodynamic acolytes show their wines. Throw in three dinners ('official' dinners that is - obviously I did eat on the fourth evening as well) and a vins clairs tasting at Langlois-Chateau in Saumur, as well as visits to Philippe Germain at Chateau de la Roulerie and Victor Lebreton at Domaine de Montgilet, and hopefully you will agree that I have been busy!

First, a quick update on the state of the chateau at Angers, which suffered severe fire damage last year - as is evident in my image accompanying my 2009 Salon report. Work is well underway, under the cover of a shell of scaffolding and protective white tarpaulin, the latter lending a rather ghostly feel to the structure. Repair work will take some time, but the French seem particularly experienced at restoring (as opposed to preserving) ancient buildings such as this, so I am sure the results will be good.

Naturally the wines are the true stars of the show, although I think I will always remember this trip for the horrendous return journey I have just experienced. Discovering the week before I set out that there was a national rail strike planned by all four unions relevant to SNCF employees, I made alternative arrangements; I hired a car, and packed my SatNav. The evening before returning I checked in at the station to verify that my train was definitely cancelled - it was - and then also checked that the car agency were in receipt of my booking - they were. I was being organised! So having picked up my car the following day, I enjoyed a few hours tasting before setting out, leaving a leisurely six hours to complete a journey that probably needed only three. But with the rail strike I anticipated road mayhem, so I wanted a huge safety buffer.

Fortunately that was a good decision; although the roads were in fact clear of any problems all the way past Paris, as I approached the airport - probably about ten minutes away - I hit gridlock. That ten minutes became two and a half hours as I crawled along. A crash had completely closed the south access road to the airport, and once we were underway again my SatNav went into status epilepticus as it tried to deal with my peristent failure to follow its instructions. Such disobedience was required, as my electronic companion persisted in creating ever more convoluted routes in order to send me down the road I knew - having seen the rescue cranes and derelict vehicles from an overpass - to be closed. Eventually I made it onto the autoroute approaching the airport from the north and I arrived, only three hours later than expected, with a vehicle rather more empty of fuel than it should have been. I will add the inflated cost I will no doubt be charged for filling up to the autoroute tolls and hire fee and send an invoice to M Sarkozy, I think.

Cider-Tasting at the Renaissance des Non-Appellations

This tasting was once called the Renaissance des Appellations, but in recognition of the fact that a number of prominent participants - including head paysan artisanale Marc Angeli - now eschew appellation status and use the vin de table designation instead the name has been dropped. In fact there now doesn't seem to be a name for the event, the tasting booklet simply declaring it a Degustation de Vins - so I'll just continue to refer to it as the Renaissance tasting. So what about the wines I found here, and at the Salon? These are two very different events of course, although they are similar in that they both provide first, exposure to a huge selection of individual wines to be tasted and written up and, secondly, a chance to form more general and broader opinions. These might concern a vintage, and of course most were looking for the much-hoped-for success from 2009, or perhaps an appellation (I tasted a lot of Vouvray, and had some good thoughts there), or even a particular style, winemaking technique or philosophy. The latter was certainly foremost in my mind at the Renaissance tasting, where the desire for 'natural' winemaking has forced many down a minimal- or no-sulphur route.

Now I am all for the reduction in the over-liberal use of chemicals, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. Vineyards are best if tended on organic lines I am sure, encouraging biodiversity and the growth of healthy vines. There is no more beautiful sight than the eruption of spring and summer flowers amongst the vines on land where herbicides and similar agents have long been consigned to the dustbin. Carrying this through into the cellar may also have benefits, but there are also risks, and the main enemy here is oxygen. 'Natural' winemakers, who eschew sulphur, run the risk of bottling a wine that is overtly oxidised, and I certainly experienced more than a handful of such wines at the Renaissance tasting. It is not a style that appeals, to me at least. Clearly, there are some styles where oxidation is a part of the entire picture, although I confess they are not wines I often enjoy. And even in table wines oxidation has its fans; the white Chateau Musar has something of a cult following, while I abhor it.

Despite this apparent acceptance by many - winemakers and some critics - that the oxidised table wine is a part of the pantheon of natural wines, I can not bring myself to accept it. To me, young and dynamic winemakers who follow the ultra-natural route are throwing their hard work into the same bin as they threw their chemicals if they fail to maintain the beauty of the wine, and once the aromas and flavours are dominated by the apple-cider notes that signify oxidation this is exactly what has happened. Young Chenin Blanc should smell of flowers and stones, perhaps sweet and crisp pears and apples - not like cider, more like the fresh aromas of sweetly ripe fruit - and sometimes there may be citrus fruits, or occasionally something even more exotic. Depending on ripeness and also on time in bottle there may be honey, autumnal or dried fruits, and a complex array of aromas and flavours that informs us as to why Chenin Blanc is one of the world's greatest varieties of vitis vinifera. To ride roughshod over such potentially exquisite splendour by fabricating a wine that smells no better than a Normandy cider-maker's underpants should be made a crime. It is not an act that would be beyond the officious French Department of Agriculture, who love to enshrine all things vinous in law. Perhaps I should add a little note to Sarkozy's invoice?

A True Renaissance

Attending events such as these is always formative; five days of solid tastings is just as likely to teach you something about yourself as it is about the wine. And the 2010 Salon is perhaps the time that I rediscovered Sauvignon Blanc, a personal realisation that the vineyards of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé (and all the other associated appellations, of course) should not be Winedoctor afterthoughts. In terms of my personal wine history, it was without doubt Sancerre that first drew me to the Loire, and when I first toured the vineyards of this river in 1993 I made sure to visit this little hilltop town, overlooking now well-established favourites along the way, most notably Vouvray.

For some people the Loire seemingly has nothing to offer beyond Sauvignon Blanc and the wines of the Central Vineyards. Indeed, there was one attendee at the Salon who, whenever I spotted her, was tasting Sancerre. Or occasionally Pouilly-Fumé. This certainly isn't true of me. Indeed, during the many years that have passed since that trip in 1993 I have come to drink less and less of these wines (which can naturally be white or red, but I am talking specifically about Sauvignon Blanc here), having developed a strong preference for Chenin Blanc instead. I think that is a trend that ends now, following the discovery of some fabulous wines, wines that spoke of terroir, of limestone, of clay, of flint, characteristics spiced with gentle notes of citrus fruits or peach, wines that are a world away from the rather brutal grass, green pepper and methylpyrazine-infused wines that have so often dominated my thoughts about Sauvignon Blanc.

It is time for a Renaissance de Sauvignon Blanc on Winedoctor, and I will start as soon as possible with some new Sancerre profiles. The box above lists all my visits and tastings during the last five days, so expect new notes, new profiles and updates during the forthcoming weeks and months. (4/2/10)