Verdier-Logel, 2022 Update

In this, the final instalment in a week of tasting reports, profiles and notes featuring the wines of the Massif Central, we come to Verdier-Logel. Like Gilles Bonnefoy this domaine is based in the Côtes du Forez appellation, which sits south of the Côte Roannaise vineyards and which can almost stake a claim as the Loire Valley’s most southerly appellation. Almost. The vineyards of the Côtes d’Auvergne, scattered around the slopes of Puy-de-Dôme, extend just a few kilometres closer to the Mediterranean.

Unlike Gilles Bonnefoy, though, a vigneron who I profiled only yesterday, Verdier-Logel is a domaine I have been following for some years. The story of the domaine stretches back to the mid-20th-century, but it was really only in 1992 when it was taken on by Odile Verdier and Jacky Logel that it was transformed from polycultural smallholding (established by Odile’s father) to viticultural domaine.

It was when their nephew Maxime Gillier (pictured above) decided that he would be come the third generation to take on the domaine that I discovered it and its wines. I have been keeping tabs on the domaine ever since. A source of more delicious Gamay, at a lower price, it would be hard to find. The entry-level Les Gourmets, previously Cuvée des Gourmets, is easy-drinking Gamay personified, and you would still have enough change from a ten-bob note to buy a sandwich. Instant picnic!

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