Loire Sparkling Wines in 2011
Imagine this scenario; you meet someone new to wine, and strike up a conversation. Your new acquaintance has just discovered the joys of white wine, and in particular – perhaps following a chance visit to the region – they have fallen in love with Chablis. Nothing too high-brow, mind, they haven’t just married into the Dauvissat family; it’s the structured, minerally, floral elements of well made basic and premier cru Chablis that has entranced this seemingly thoughtful palate, not just expensive labels.
Being the generous, wine-loving soul that you are, and sensing that you have a developing (fellow?) wine geek in your presence, you invite him over for dinner and open a few well-chosen bottles that might be of interest. Mindful of their self-professed new love of Chablis and white wine, you line up for tasting something that should be of interest. The evening will kick off with a 1990 Le Clos from Raveneau which should set their palate a-tingling, followed up by the 2003 Emmerich Knoll Riesling Reid Loibenberg, a 2002 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet, a 1990 Joh-Jos Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese Goldkapsel and – to cap it all – a 1989 Huet Cuvée Constance. Well, why not? He is a fellow wine anorak, after all.
Your guest arrives and, with a quizzical look on his face, sips each wine in turn. With every new mouthful his expression of bemusement and displeasure seems to intensify. And with each new bottle he turns away, returning each time to the Raveneau with which he started. You ask what might be the matter with your new acquaintance. He turns to you and replies;
“Well, these other wines“, indicating that he is referring to those bottles that lie beyond the Raveneau, “they’re very nice, but they’re not Chablis, are they?”
Chablis……or Champagne?
You might think this scenario is impossibly contrived, but replace the Chablis with Champagne and the exemplary selection of white wines with other sparkling wines from across the globe and you have a scenario that plays out every day, in one form or another, somewhere in the world. For some reason Champagne has become more than merely a particular style of sparkling wine, it seems to have taken on the role of benchmark, the style by which all other sparkling wines shall be judged, even though they may be produced in other regions or countries, from different soils and in a different climate, and using completely different varieties. Why have so many of us, in this manner, become blinkered to the variety that exists within sparkling wine?
