Loire 2015 at Three Years: Red Wines
The strength of the 2015 vintage undoubtedly lies in its red wines, and on this page I focus particularly on the wines of Chinon, with a few representative bottles from Anjou, Saumur, Bourgueil and other red-wine appellations, right up to the Côte Roannaise and Côtes du Forez appellations. Although the wines tasted here are just a tiny micro-fraction of all the wine produced in the Loire Valley, it is clear upon tasting them that the 2015 vintage is very special for the red wines of this region.
Putting aside a rosé wine from the Touraine Azay-le-Rideau appellation, which felt a little tired, the wines reported on here were of an extremely high quality. Looking first to Chinon, high-flying cuvées such as the 2015 Chinon Coteau de Noiré from Philippe Alliet, the 2015 Chinon Pierre de Tuf from Domaine de la Noblaie, the 2015 Chinon La Croix Boissée from Bernard Baudry and the 2015 Chinon Clos de la Dioterie from Charles Joguet were all clearly and convincingly on the same level as the corresponding cuvées from other highly regarded vintages, such as 2009, 2005 and 2003. And perhaps even 1989, certainly this thought came to mind while tasting at least one of these wines.
Indeed, while the wines of Philippe Alliet and Bernard Baudry served to reaffirm the position of these two domaines at the top of the Chinon hierarchy, the wines from the other two domaines mentioned above did something more. For Jérôme Billard at Domaine de la Noblaie, the superb quality of the 2015 Pierre de Tuf is a marker of just how much he has improved the wines of this domaine since taking over from his father, François Billard, fifteen-or-so years ago. As for Charles Joguet, looking back at the wines of the past two or three decades the quality here has been up and down over the years, but I have no doubt upon tasting these most recent releases that under the direction of Anne-Charlotte Genet, with Kevin Fontaine at the press, the wines here are as good as they have ever been. The 2015 Clos de la Dioterie is one of the finest wines in this report, and it feels true to the heritage of the domaine.
