Loire 2010 First Taste: The Nantais & Anjou
Very recently I heard a UK brand manager remark that they sensed a resurgence in Muscadet sales. Note how I have worded that first sentence; they did not say they anticipated or hoped for increased sales, or that they felt Muscadet deserved increased sales, or that the region’s time had come (whatever that means), but rather that there were increased sales. Admittedly it was only a few weeks ago that I heard them make this statement, but nevertheless during the time since elapsed I haven’t been able to convince myself that any evidence in support of this claim exists. To my mind, Muscadet remains a region in crisis. In a time when the grand estates of Bordeaux are raking in and reinvesting profits more handsome than they have ever dreamed of, just a little to the north in Muscadet-land the talk is more of bankruptcy than profit and investment.
It has been a difficult time for these vignerons, more so than usual. Struggling to recover following the paltry yields of the frost-bitten 2008 vintage, and stymied by weaker foreign currencies effectively making their product – already sold at low price points with thin profit margins – more expensive, late 2010 saw many Muscadet domaines go to the wall. In a report from the region distributed in October 2010, Loire courtier Charles Sydney alluded to sixty Muscadet vignerons who had declared bankruptcy. It is a strange world in which this sad development can go almost unnoticed, (and what limited press coverage it did receive would never have been were it not for Charles’ press release), and yet in Bordeaux when the director of a grand cru classé estate sneezes it is suddenly global news, written up in every wine periodical and likely to be discussed ad infinitum on a dozen or more wine boards.
Charles Sydney’s suggested solution, with particular reference to the UK, was more fairly distributed taxation – which currently penalises cheaper bottles more than expensive bottles – in the export market. Meanwhile, closer to home the Muscadet vignerons have the gun held firmly to their foot by local policies and regulations. There are any number of improvements that could be made in the arena of labelling and marketing which would also help to revitalise the region. For instance, wines that are left sur lie past the end of November, one year after the harvest, could be allowed to declare sur lie on the label (unbelievably, currently regulations forbid this). Alternatively, these troisième niveau wines – appellation leaders in my opinion – deserve their own, more specific designation to indicate extended lees aging. Sur lie supérieur, perhaps? This would be a rare instance of the word supérieur on a French wine label actually meaning something worthwhile!
