Loire 2007 Moelleux
The Loire is a multifaceted wine region, and many of these facets are unique. There is nothing else in the little world of wine quite like troisième niveau Muscadet, aged sur lie for three years or even longer. There is nothing else quite like Savennières Roche-aux-Moines, demi-sec Vouvray from a dedicated grower, or Chinon from a limestone terroir. But if there is one of these facets that really stands out as unique and capable of producing truly world-beating wines it must surely be one of the classic sweet wine appellations. Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux are perhaps the obvious choices, but do not ignore the newly christened, re-christened and then reborn Chaume, the other villages of the Coteaux du Layon or indeed the Coteaux de l’Aubance.
Although I have enjoyed these wines for many years, they are nevertheless somewhat rare gems that only come along once in a while. Occasional encounters, such as last year’s tasting of ten vintages of Bonnezeaux from Château de Fesles back to the 1924 vintage, are the exception rather than the rule. So when InterLoire recently offered to host a tasting for myself and Jim Budd, the subject to be of our choosing, it wasn’t long before we had settled on sweet wines from the 2007 vintage. To be more specific, a chance to compare and contrast Chaume and Quarts de Chaume, at that time seemingly established as France’s newest grand cru and premier cru appellations, following years of legal wrangling. Little did we realise that when the time came to pull the corks the concept of the newly defined premier cru Chaume versus the grand cru Quarts de Chaume would be so topical. Having been all but signed off, the status of these new designations looked decidedly fragile again when the Baumards (of Domaine des Baumard, naturally) launched a legal challenge at the level of the Conseil d’État. Once again the stuttering development of an independent Chaume appellation – be it premier cru or otherwise – seems to be under threat.
There seems little point in expanding any further on these developments here; regular readers and those with a strong interest in the wines of the Loire Valley will most likely already be very familiar with them. If you would like more information, there is plenty available online, including my write up of the 1997 Quarts de Chaume from Domaine des Baumard which summarises the repeatedly stymied attempts to promote the Chaume appellation above its Coteaux du Layon status. Instead, let’s focus on the wines tasted which went beyond the original remit of Chaume and Quarts de Chaume to include wines from the Coteaux de l’Aubance appellation, as well as a lone representative of Bonnezeaux.
