Loire 2016 at Three Years: White Wines
My first encounters with the white wines of the 2016 vintage in the Loire Valley inevitably prompted comparisons with 2015 and especially the 2014 vintage. It seemed at first glance to have more in common with the latter of these two, both vintages broadly favourable for white, the wines showing good acidity levels and freshness, with a fine presence of fruit. The comparisons with 2015 seemed less harmonious, 2015 being a vintage which seemed to generate richer, more broad-shouldered styles (although, as I noted in my report on the Loire Valley 2015 vintage at three years, I was subsequently surprised by the tension and energy some of the white wines displayed). While it seemed to me that I might prefer drinking the wines of 2016 over 2015, it did not seem to me that 2016 would challenge the predominant position of 2014. Returning to the wines now, at a little over three years of age, I still feel that is the case, although it is a more closely run contest than I had imagined. It is really a question of style, rather than absolute quality.
The 2014 vintage impressed with purity of substance and fruit, with an electric nervosity, the wines carrying delicious acidities which countered perfectly the finely honed core of fruit many of the wines possessed. In 2016, however, I see more and more wines with the richness, grain and textural substance of a super-ripe vintage, perhaps more like 2015, but with a deliciously solid and poised acidity which counters it just as well. While the components in 2014 and 2016 are different, perhaps starkly so, both vintages achieve an admirable balance. If you prefer nervosity and focus, perhaps 2014 is the vintage for you. If you value texture and granularity more, but desire an equally accomplished sense of balance, then 2016 may well be the vintage for you.
Of course these are all wild generalisations, exactly the sort of statements I suggested, in my introduction to this tasting of the 2016 vintage at three-and-a-bit years of age, could not be applied to the Loire Valley. With that in mind I should move on to the wines; I point you in the direction of some of the most notable below.
