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Eric Morgat Update, January 2011

As I have already written elsewhere (somewhere, I'm not quite sure where) one of my aims at this year's Salon des Vins de Loire in January was to really get to grips with Savennières, principally by tasting as many different examples as I could manage. I wanted, through a process of revisiting familiar names and perhaps more importantly also getting acquainted with some new ones, to be more certain in my own mind how I perceive and differentiate between the varying styles of Savennières. I have already published a number of profile updates and new tasting notes as a result, looking first largely at those domaines where Savennières forms but one part of their portfolio; these include Pierre-Bise, Domaine Ogereau, Domaine de la Bergerie, Pithon-Paillé and of course the recently revisited Domaine des Baumard. But there are of course a number of domaines that specialise purely in Savennières, and these include a fascinating melange of names long-associated with the appellation including Domaine aux Moines, Nicolas Joly and Château d'Epiré, as well as newcomers to the party, such as Damien Laureau. This update concerns one such new kid on the block, Eric Morgat.

Ultimately, once I have all these profiles and notes online, my aim is to update and expand my Anjou wine guide into somewhat finer divisions that those it possesses at present. That means not only new details on Savennières but also on the sweeter appellations of the Coteaux du Layon and of course the myriad styles that can be found labelled as Anjou. And this seems fairly appropriate, because it is from Anjou that Eric Morgat's most notable new development hails.

Eric, L'Enclos & Litus

As I have already documented in my profile, Eric is the son of a family of Anjou vignerons, but rather than follow directly in his father's footsteps at Château de Breuil Eric decided to strike out on his own, crossing the Loire to settle at the foot of the Roches aux Moines in Savennières. After his landlord there pulled the rug from beneath him he ended up at the Clos de Ferrand, a clos of some repute, sparsely populated by ancient vines. In truth I think it is deserving of replanting and thereby generating its own cuvée - this is the development I would really like to see here - but for the moment Eric takes the fruit of these aged vines and blends it into his better known L'Enclos cuvée, thereby adding some complexity he says.

So although it will perhaps be some time before we might see Clos de Ferrand printed on one of Eric's labels, there is recent new addition to Eric's portfolio of wines this year, this being the new Anjou Blanc Litus. The fruit for this wine originates from a 1-hectare plot in the commune of Beaulieu-sur-Layon, an indication that Eric has not completely forgotten his roots to the south of the Loire I think. Indeed, I must confess that, having not made an inspection of the label (which, as shown left, clearly declares the wine to be sec) before tasting, when I heard Eric say the vines were planted near Beaulieu-sur-Layon I was half-expecting a sweet Coteaux du Layon, but the first taste quickly dissuaded me of this expectation. This is a dry wine made very much in the house style, being firmly marked by oak, as Eric's Savennières also tend to be at this stage.

Eric told me a little about his new Beaulieu terroir and its soils of roughly broken spilite (also declared on the label, as it happens). The vines sit on a south-facing slope which enjoys full exposure to the sun, and thanks to the orientation of the valley in which it sits the vines see only a rather gentle annual rainfall. This, says Eric, gives the lieu-dit a rather warm-climate feel, the dry vegetation allegedly more reminiscent of a vineyard in the Languedoc than the southern slopes of the Loire. He acquired the land in 2003, subsequently planting his vines amongst the stones, forcing them in alongside and in-between the rough spilite rubble as necessary - it sounds incredibly hard work.

The first vintage is the 2008, and as I have indicated above it closely follows the house style Eric has established with his L'Enclos cuvée, a wine which is dominated by new oak when young but which with time takes on a more honeyed elegance. This being the first vintage I have no way of knowing if Eric's new wine will follow the same trajectory as the L'Enclos cuvée, and so I will reserve certain judgement, nevertheless I am concerned that the Anjou fruit might not be able to carry off this much oak as convincingly as his wines from Savennières manage to do. All the same, Litus makes for an fascinating addition to the Morgat portfolio, a new terroir for Eric and a new expression of Chenin, and I look forward to futures tastings, of both this and subsequent vintages. (25/5/11)

Eric Morgat, January 2011 - Tasting Notes

The wines below were tasted in Angers at the Salon des Vins de Loire in January 2011. All my notes on Eric Morgat's wines, including those below, are collated under my Eric Morgat profile. Click to locate stockists.