Loire 2003 at Fifteen Years
My rather weak French vocabulary continues to expand at a glacial pace, and I accrue new words in a very organic, need-to know manner. It was only when I needed a tap installing that I learnt the word robinet, for example, and it was when I needed to buy a roll of hosepipe for my garden that the word tuyau entered my consciousness. Both are words I expect most French schoolchildren have mastered by the end of their first week at school, immediately after other essential words and phrases such as liberté, egalité, fraternité and une petite madeleine s’il vous plait.
It was nearly fifteen years ago that I learnt the meaning of canicule, prompted by hearing the word tumble from the lips of so many winemakers I visited at that time. I soon came to understand that it meant heatwave, and it applied to the 2003 vintage like no other year in living memory. In August 2003 all across France records for the highest temperatures tumbled, the mercury climbing well above 40ºC in many parts, even here in the Loire Valley. It had an unhealthy impact on the vines, many of which struggled in the heat, and it prompted an uncharacteristically early harvest, with many pickers sent out into the vines in the middle of August.
It was inevitable that such tumultuous climatic conditions would have an impact on the style of wines made here this year, especially the dry white wines. These were always rather difficult wines, broad and fat, with very low levels of acidity. This is true not just of the dry white wines in the Loire Valley, but across the rest of France’s most famous wine regions. It is therefore a vintage in which I have tended to avoid buying dry whites; there are none from this region in my cellar (or, at least if there are, they have long been buried under a mountain of superior vintages, and thus forgotten about).
For the red wines, and the sweet wines, however, the story was subtly different. The traditional view is that the Loire Valley has always been on the edge for the ripening of black grapes, led in the region by Cabernet Franc of course. I write ‘traditionally’ because, looking back at the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 vintages, these were all very good years for red wines in this region. With eight good vintages out of a possible ten, this ‘traditional’ view is beginning to look decidedly antiquated. The Loire Valley is now a region that no self-respecting drinker of top quality red wines should overlook. In the past, though, the situation was different. Looking back through the 20th century, generally cooler weather meant that excellent red vintages were then a much less frequent occurrence, and only certain years – such as 1947, 1976 or 1990 – spring immediately to mind (although I am sure there were others).
