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Domaine de Nerleux Coteaux de Saumur Les Loups Dorés 2017

The Loire Valley is rightly renowned for its sweet wines, which largely hail from Chenin Blanc’s homeland in the Anjou, Saumur and Touraine regions. And while the big guns of these regions – the Coteaux du Layon (with its enclaves of Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux) and the Coteaux de l’Aubance in Anjou, Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire in Touraine – naturally absorb most of the limelight, there are absolute gems waiting to be discovered in some of the region’s more obscure appellations.

The Anjou and Saumur regions are home to two of these more obscure sweet wine appellations.

Well, in truth, this is an over-simplification, because both the basic Anjou and Saumur appellations offer a home to sweeter styles with the Moelleux or Doux suffixes. But when was the last time you saw a bottle of Saumur Moelleux or Anjou Doux? Probably never (other than the example I have linked to); I can tally up my encounters with them over the past three decades on the fingers of just one hand – and I don’t even need to use my thumb.

Putting that piece of obscure Loire Valley wine trivia to one side, let’s return to the two remaining minor sweet appellations, which are Anjou Coteaux de la Loire and Coteaux de Saumur. The former is a miniscule collection of slopes spread over 15 hectares in the western reaches of the Anjou region close to the course of the Loire. The Coteaux de Saumur appellation, meanwhile, is quite the opposite.

Domaine de Nerleux Coteaux de Saumur Les Loups Dorés 2017

I say this because while the wines themselves are rarely seen, the area available to the appellation is huge, with 28 eligible communes, a huge slice of the Saumur region. The truth is, of course, that only a small number of dedicated vignerons make the effort, and with only a tiny proportion of their crop. Thoughts of producing a Coteaux de Saumur will only bubble to the surface once the harvest for other more commercially successful styles, including dry white, rosé, red and sparkling wines, has been completed. And, of course, they are only going to undertake this if the season allows it.

And so, from a huge area, we have a handful of small-production wines. A typical volume in a favourable vintage might be somewhere between 300 and 400 hectolitres for the entire appellation. Among those who might contribute to this total is the father-and-daughter team of Régis and Amélie Neau at Domaine de Nerleux.

The 2017 Coteaux de Saumur Loups Dorées from Domaine de Nerleux, presented in a 500 ml bottle, was produced from the final picking of the 2017 harvest. In the glass it shimmers with a rich hue of golden bronze, suggestive of a significant role for botrytis here. The nose is intense and also speaks clearly of noble rot, with layers of dried fruits, toasted praline, caramelised apricot and orange. The ensuing palate is just divine, textural and sweet, with densely caramelised orchard fruits set against a powdery phenolic backdrop, a nice Chenin bitterness and charming acidity. This has a hugely convincing, botrytis-driven style; rather like Bonnezeaux, Coteaux de Saumur is often linear and light-footed, intent on charming with finesse and purity, while the 2017 Loups Dorés takes the appellation into a new arena, one more complex and weighty. This is surely the best Coteaux de Saumur I can recall tasting. The alcohol on the label is 12.5%. 96/100

This is a superb and surprising wine, more reminiscent of a Bonnezeaux from the late René Renou than other light-footed examples of Coteaux de Saumur I have tasted over the years.

Obscure appellations, it turns out, can reward exploration. (18/5/26)

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