The Year in Review: 2025
Well, that is Winedoctor Year 25 done. It has been a wobbly one in some ways, brilliant in others.
In terms of travelling and tasting it has been, without any qualification, the busiest year ever. I have visited the Loire Valley a total of five times this year, and this was equalled by the amount of time I have spent in Bordeaux during 2025, with five trips there as well. I have tasted in dingy cellars with gravel-on-clay floors, sparsely furnished syndicat function rooms (just me, two tables, one chair, and a helluva lot of bottles), palatial barrel cellars kitted out with candelabras and red carpets, and grand dining-cum-tasting rooms where you could eat your dinner off the highly polished parquet floor. If you were so inclined, I guess. You would probably get some funny looks.
I will leave it up to the reader to decide which tasting experiences belong to which of my two favoured regions.
So with ten trips (well, ten that I can remember) under my belt, and a huge backlog of tasting notes and scribbled commentary waiting in the Winedoctor wings (I have published what I can so far, given the fact there are only so many hours in each day, and the rest will come soon enough), the end of the year is upon us. While I return to writing up one of the many vertical tasting reports currently in the Winedoctor queue, I will leave you with my annual thoughts on the past twelve months, in my 2025 Year in Review.
I guarantee you it is a honest report on the years ups and downs. Well, mostly.
The first main tasting event of the year is of course in Angers, with the Salon des Vins de Loire; not what it used to be, but still where any vaguely Loire-interested critic, writer or buyer should be come the end of the month. First up, though, the Charles Sydney tasting in London, offering a first look at the 2024 vintage in the Loire Valley and the chance to catch up with some familiar faces. And another trip to London for the St Emilion Grand Cru Classé tasting. I am sure this used to be every other year, now it seems to be annual. Did I imagine this? Or is this ongoing catch-up after Covid?
As I am heading out to the Loire Valley after the St Emilion tasting I rent a one-room apartment in London for the night before I catch a flight to Nantes. The room is within earshot of a building site that seems to be running 24 hours a day, and above the door there is a Fire Exit sign that emits an eerie green light so intense it illuminates the whole room. I listen to grinding cement mixers all night, while bathed in a kryptonite glow; I resolve never to stay here again.
Some memorable wines….
1970 G. Ravoin-Cesbron Coteaux du Layon
1994 Château Léoville-Las-Cases
2009 Domaine Huet Vouvray Cuvée Constance
2010 François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Clos Habert
2015 Domaine de Bellivière Jasnières Calligramme
2016 Château Latour
January was also memorable for….
• Dinner at Noto in Edinburgh
• Travelling to the Loire Valley Stansted to Nantes (but perhaps anything is better than going via Paris CDG)
• Meeting sheep in Anjou (pictured above) when I call in on Nadège Herbel – what breed is this?
• Catching up with Pierre Ménard in his granny’s living room-cum-cellar
• Developing an understanding of the differences between the Azay-le-Rideau, Amboise, Mesland, Chenonceaux and Oisly designations in Touraine for the first time in my life
• Learning how to pronounce Oisly correctly for the first time in my life
• The worst night’s sleep since time began
I do the usual rounds of peripheral tastings in Angers (including at the 12th-century Ancien Hôpital Saint-Jean, pictured below), before two days at the Salon-proper. I am now in training for this year’s Trail de Sancerre, so I begin each day with an early morning 5K run around the dark streets of Angers. “Courage!” shouts one enthusiastic worker on the way to his early shift, encouragement I gratefully absorb.
On the way back to the UK I stop off in London again for the 2015 Bordeaux tasting with Bordeaux Index (yet to be published – I had better get on with that as well). On arriving back in London I remember I have booked an apartment in the same building as I stayed in on the way out. I cover the illuminated sign with as many items of clothing pulled from my bag as will hang on it, bury my head beneath the pillow, and make the best of a bad decision.
