Loire 2014 at Two Years: Anjou & Saumur
This brief return to the 2014 vintage for Anjou takes in a few of the more serious cuvées from the region, as well as neighbouring Saumur. We can leave behind the vin de soif IGP cuvées and various styles of rosé here, wines that tend to be quite prominent in my first taste of any vintage in this region. We have instead a selection of wines from the Anjou Blanc, Anjou Rouge, Savennières and Saumur appellations, as well as representation from all of the major sweet wine styles for which this region is justly famed. Having finished their fermentations and élevage, using oak in the majority of cases, and now in bottle, these wines should soon be entering distribution.
Tasting the wines of Anjou 2014 back in early 2015 it was clear there was good potential in the vintage. The style of wines on show at that time were delightfully fresh, with a lightly desiccated concentration in many of the fruit profiles, and vivacious acidity. This early promise seems to have been realised in these later releases, which mirror this style in terms of their structure and impact.
The Wines
Among the cuvées of Anjou Blanc and Savennières there is a lot of rich fruit substance. My own preference is for wines of definition and purity, perhaps helped along by a touch of reductive and flinty-smoky matchstick, so it this vein I preferred the 2014 Les Pierres Girard from Domaine de la Bergerie and the 2014 Cheninsolite from Alexandre Cady (pictured) of Domaine Cady, but all the wines tasted here had something going for them. The lone wine from Savennières also suggested potential, but where I was really impressed was with the array of sweet wines.
