Loire 2004 at Fifteen Years
My introduction to the 2004 vintage in the Loire Valley paints a mixed picture. While some vignerons expressed despair at the miserable conditions during the growing season, and were perhaps ready to throw in the towel, others concluded that, despite everything Mère Nature had decided to fling in their direction, the quality of the fruit they eventually picked was very good. Perhaps, some said, even as good as some of the great vintages of the 1990s.
Of course, the truth lay somewhere between the two extremes, it was neither a disaster, nor an unexpectedly great vintage. It was not a vintage to give up on, even if for many vignerons the harvest would be best suited to the production of sparkling wines and sec cuvées rather than the grander demi-sec and superb moelleux cuvées on which the region’s fame rightly rests. Those that did manage to pick some cleanly botrytised fruit, an achievement that was largely limited to the best vineyards along the banks of the Layon rather than Vouvray or Montlouis-sur-Loire, found that the wines – while quite delicious – would not rival the quality seen in the same cuvées in years such as 1996 or 1997.
In the end, while some vignerons were outspoken with regard to the very high (from the glass half-full crowd) or very poor (from the glass half-empty gang) quality of the harvest, many in the region were simply grateful that despite having experienced a dismal summer they at least ended up with a crop of ripe fruit that could be picked and vinified. The fact that the story of the vintage dictated most would produce only dry or sparkling whites rather than a sweeter style was of no great concern. The rather bountiful 2003 harvest had seen many in the region fill their cellars with moelleux cuvées, one noteworthy example being Philippe Foreau who made almost exclusively moelleux in this vintage, bottling just a few barrels of sec and demi-sec (looking back at my old notes I see I have never tasted the drier wines, whereas I have encountered the Moelleux and Moelleux Réserve cuvées many times). In this situation, the large volume of sec produced was seen as a blessing.
