Loire 2018 First Taste: The Nantais
The one most wonderful fact I can report about the Nantais in the 2018 vintage – apart from the admirable quality of the wines of course, which I shall come to in a moment – is the complete absence of frost damage this year. The Nantais is a region which has been shaped by frost over many centuries; it was, after all, during the replanting that followed the great frost of 1709, which wiped out almost the entire vineyard, that Melon de Bourgogne came to dominate. More contemporaneously the concern has been less about vine-killing winter frosts, and more about crop-destroying spring frosts. The frost of April 1991 helped to send the region into a seemingly interminable decline. The frost that came in April 2008 reduced the area of actively tended vineyard by several thousand hectares, leaving only the most hardy, determined and quality-minded vignerons working the land. These folk were further challenged by the devastating frosts of 2016 and 2017, a good number of them losing a volume equivalent to one year’s crop across the two vintages. Happily, 2018 did not provide a re-run of these recent disasters. If anything, it is the exact opposite, a great vintage which has given both quality and quantity. It has not, however, been a vintage without difficulty.
Muscadet Sèvre et Maine
Vignerons in this appellation reported a successful and relatively early flowering, although it was not entirely without worry. While May was relatively dry, as can be seen in the chart below provided by Vincent Lieubeau of Famille Lieubeau (dark blue is 2018 rainfall, lighter blue is the average rainfall), June was horrendously wet, with well over 120 mm of rain recorded at the family’s weather station at Fruitière, which sits south of both the Sèvre and the Maine, and west of Château-Thébaud. While the rainfall was sporadic throughout the month, there was a particularly heavy downpour on June 11th, when 80 mm fell.
The conditions were so humid that at one point Vincent found botrytis on the flowers, something he has never seen before. A rigorous approach to spraying was required, using Bordeaux mixture, the domaine increasingly organic. The family’s swift and committed response meant that they came through these difficult times with their crop intact. Thereafter the weather was good through summer; with below average rainfall in July and August, and very dry weather through September and October, perfect for the harvest which began on September 5th. The potential alcohol levels were generally above 12% here, reaching 13% on some vineyards. The wines are good across the board, ripe with rich fruit flavours.
