François Chidaine, 2016 Update
What a joy it was to taste with François Chidaine earlier this year. It hasn’t all been plain sailing for him in recent times, nor indeed for many of his peers in Montlouis-sur-Loire and Vouvray. The weather hasn’t always been kind to them all, with a weedy washout vintage in 2012 followed by a devastating hailstorm in 2013. Even when quality has been good, yields have often been much lower than hoped for, making it hard to make ends meet. And with a new winery just built, François really needed to be able to balance the books. And then came the insult, in the 2014 vintage, of being refused the agrément (along with Jacky Blot of Domaine de la Taille aux Loups) for the Vouvray appellation. Talk about kicking a guy when he is down.
So why the joy? The first reason is that 2014 has been much kinder to the vignerons of Montlouis-sur-Loire (and Vouvray too), the wines showing a greater sense of refinement and minerality than in other recent vintages, with great purity of fruit combined with tangy acidity. Some other years might have a slightly weightier texture, but there is a really gourmand, serious, mineral- and acid-driven structure to these wines. I expected they would sell well, and they have; nevertheless, I won’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed to find, on visiting François Chidaine’s shop La Cave Insolite in Montlouis-sur-Loire a few after this tasting, that they had sold out of almost every cuvée. Fortunately many of the wines were still available in the international market, and so I subsequently plundered the lists of UK stockists instead, assuaging any fears I might have had of finishing up 2016 without any Chidaine in the cellar.
The second reason for my joy is that not only is quality up, so are the yields. Organic domaines always suffer most when the weather gods haven’t read the script, but despite a drizzly July in 2014 an Indian summer kept the ripening fruit healthy. So this will hopefully help François with his bookkeeping. Thirdly (yes, there’s more), the 2015 vintage promises more of the same. Apart from a couple of entry-level cuvées I have not yet tasted this vintage chez Chidaine (so come back next year for that), so this comment is based on a broader knowledge of how Montlouis-sur-Loire and Vouvray performed in 2015. It is an equally interesting vintage, with riper fruit and softer acidities, wines in a different style to that found in 2014. It will be fascinating to see what François Chidaine (pictured) does with it. Fourthly, at the time of our tasting (a while ago now) François had not heard from the authorities regarding his use of the Vouvray appellation. His 2014s have all been classified as Vin de France, but will the 2015s have the appellation? Maybe…..watch this space.
