Jérémie Mourat, 2017 Update
One of the facts I have learnt about the Loire Valley after all these years of visiting and tasting is never to conflate the reputation or renown of an appellation with the quality of the wines emanating from it. Everybody, even those with little more than a momentary passing interest in the wines of this region, has heard of Sancerre, Vouvray and Chinon, and most open-minded drinkers recognise the quality of those wines. Fair enough. By some perverse logic, one conclusion that might be derived from this snippet of knowledge is that the wines of less familiar appellations, such as Cheverny, Jasnières or Fiefs Vendéens, must inherently be of lesser interest. Yet there are, I soon realised, too many winemaking superstars – such as François Cazin and Eric Nicolas – in these other appellations for this ‘theory’ to hold any water.
A couple of domaines in Fiefs Vendéens really stand out, one of which is run by the dynamic whirlwind Jérémie Mourat (pictured above). I recently encountered Jérémie and his wines in London, and again a few weeks later in Angers, and thus I have recently tasted my way through his current portfolio of wines, mostly new or forthcoming releases from the 2016 vintage. Compiling my scribblings from these two meetings produced a smorgasbord of tasting notes which I present here in this short report.
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