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Loire 2008: Introduction

Summer 2008, and another chance to return to the Loire and to broaden my experience of this region's wines just a little further. But who to visit? I drew up a shortlist, with the intention of creating a core group of viticulteurs that I simply had to meet this year. Some on the list were well known, some not so well known, and I slowly whittled it down to just four names. That wasn't to say that I only intended four visits, not at all, but these were the four must-have appointments. Others I knew I could arrange when in the Loire, or in some cases stop off without prior arrangement, but these four would definitely involve a little more effort.

But these efforts - which began with a letter or email, but ended with a telephone call - bore fruit. Well, in three cases out of the four, there was fruit. In one case, my efforts led nowhere - there was no response to my written communication, and nothing more than an answering machine at the end of the line. Either they were on a long holiday, or the Foucault brothers of Clos Rougeard enjoy their isolation too much to answer my request. Their premises in Chacé just to the south of Saumur, which I had occasion to drive past in 2007, might suggest this to be the case. Not only do Jean-Louis and Bernard (I shall avoid the more familiar monikers Charly and Nady until the day that I finally make their acquaintance) refuse to advertise their position on the rue d'Eglise, there is even no number on their house. The entrance to the property, an anonymous grey metal gate, tall and solid, is the only landmark for the domaine. After reading this, perhaps they will order it painted a different colour.

Nevertheless, despite failing to visit the domaine (a trip to see Chambord, above, was my compensation) I remain a huge proponent of the Foucault brothers' wines, and I have recently been tasting and drinking my way through a selection from the 2002 and 2003 vintages. These I have written up in a short profile of the domaine, in anticipation of one day being able to broaden my experience and perhaps pay them a visit there. My other core list appointments, which were to meet Philippe Foreau of Vouvray's Clos Naudin, Bougueil's Pierre-Jacques Druet and Chinon's Philippe Alliet all came good in the end, even if the latter of the three did go absent without leave on the day of our appointment, leaving his wife to talk me through the wines.

Last year I wrote of hailstorms and torrential downpours, but there were no such problems during my short stay in the region this year. Nevertheless, humidity was high, and many viticulteurs were facing rampant attacks of oidium and mildew as a result. Some were busy spraying; Philippe Alliet was in fact, on the day of my visit, busy attending to his ailing vines. Others, committed to the reduction of such treatments as part of an organic or biodynamic regime, such as François Pinon, seemed to be more occupied in tearing their hair out - metaphorically, at least.

Among my other Loire experiences this year are some updates to old pages, as well as some brand new profiles. Tasting two wines - both fabulous - from Max & Lydie Cognard-Taluau was sufficient stimulation to write up this fine domaine in St Nicolas de Bourgueil, and the same can be said of Catherine & Pierre Breton, dedicated vignerons based in Ingrandes near Bourgueil. A visit to Bernard Baudry when passing through Cravant-les-Coteaux found his son Matheiu at home, and as Huet is just down the road from Philippe Foreau at Clos Naudin it would have been churlish not to pop into their tasting room to take another look at the 2007 vintage.

Otherwise a number of bottles from staunch Saumur domaines such as Domaine de Nerleux and Château du Hureau demand that I update these profiles, and alongside them I will be writing up my experiences of Château de Villeneuve. It has been a long time coming for this domaine: I first discovered Villeneuve by chance in a Saumur tasting room in 1993. The Saumur-Champigny in question - the vintage now long forgotten - was like the essence of pure raspberries, bright and flavoursome, and every bottle I consumed on my return to the UK was true to form. Despite this early encounter I have had little experience of the wines since, and I am looking forward to getting this profile online soon.

To round off my notes, a small extravaganza, perhaps similar to that written up in 2005, as a repository for the notes on all those odd bottles that have crossed my lips in the last week or two. Wines from Domaine de l'Ecu, Henri Marionnet, Henri Bourgeois, Jo Pithon, Alphonse Mellot and more will feature; it will I suspect read a little like a Who's Who of Loire viticulture. (31/7/08)