Tag Archive | "Loire Valley"
My Top Five Wines of the Year: the Loire
They say that life’s too short to drink bad wine, still less write about it too! With the exception of lesser vintages in vertical reports, I rate highly every wine which makes its way onto my website, so it’s no easy task to select my top wines of the year. Here’s my top five for [...]
Continue reading...Loire Valley 2011 – Charles and Philippa Sydney’s preliminary vintage report
Posted Monday 3rd October 2011
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Following on from InterLoire’s preliminary vintage report (see here), here’s another first look at the early Loire 2011 vintage from Charles and Philippa Sydney, Loire courtiers and themselves producers of the La Grille Classic Loire label. The Sydneys’ report is dated 20 September, though the comment about the Layon (see Chenin) in square brackets - ”a [...]
Continue reading...Domaine Le Rocher des Violettes: a great new Loire find!
Posted Monday 14th February 2011
Last week, I reported on one of my finds of this year’s Loire Salon, Domaine Roux’s wines from Châteaumeillant, which region now has AOC status (see here). This week, I’m focusing on another new discovery, the wines of Domaine Le Rocher des Violettes, which is located in Montlouis-sur-Loire. Xavier Weisskopf (pictured) is precisely the kind of [...]
Continue reading...Le Haut Chesneau, a thoroughly modern Loire Sauv Blanc
Posted Sunday 30th May 2010
From (screwcap) top to toe, Jean-Marc Villemaine’s Le Chesneau Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2009 is a thoroughly modern wine. The front label loudly proclaims the variety, as does its expressive nose and palate of fresh cut grass, blackcurrant bud and ripe apple with attractively ripe, juicy acidity. It comes from Thesée, which is famous for its [...]
Continue reading...Decanter World Wine Awards – spot the Savennières Silver medallist
Posted Wednesday 19th May 2010
The results of the Decanter World Wine Awards were unveiled to the trade yesterday at London International Wine & Spirit Fair. Call me an egotist, but I was keen to see if a hunch about one of my stand out Loire wines proved correct. Answer, yes – the wonderfully limpid, subtly oak buffed silver medal-winning [...]
Continue reading...Decanter World Wine Awards and May Day brings relief for my liver!
Posted Friday 30th April 2010
Just finished judging the Decanter World Wine Awards today – 2 days of Portugal, followed by 2 days of the Loire and, today, trophy judging for Portuguese table and fortified wines. The results will be announced at London International Wine Fair and in Decanter’s September edition. For Portugal, we were off to a good start [...]
Continue reading...Domaine des Rochelles Anjou-Villages Brissac – Plus La Croix de la Mission vertical and new releases
Posted Friday 9th April 2010
Recent tastings of Anjou-Villages and Anjou-Villages Brissac at the Cabernet Franc Ambassador Tasting and Chateau Brissac (see my reports here and here) have impressed with ripe fruit and markedly ripe but present tannins. And if yet further proof of the pudding was required, a tasting in London with Jean-Hubert Lebreton, the 5th generation of his [...]
Continue reading...Loire Cabernet Franc Ambassadors 2010 announced; Anjou triumphs!
Posted Tuesday 6th April 2010
Just following up on last week’s blog (here) with news of the Loire Cabernet Franc Ambassadors for 2010. Below you’ll find a list of the 35 wines selected by me, Jamie Goode, broadcaster Joe Wadsack and buyers Christine Parkinson from Hakkasan and Nick Room from Waitrose from a total of 103 submitted. Our brief, which [...]
Continue reading...Chinon, Chi-yes, and other Loire goodies!
Posted Monday 15th March 2010
The Loire Salon is a well-timed opportunity to taste the latest vintage for the purposes of updating Oz Clarke Pocket Wine among other things, but it’s good to taste wines that are actually available in the UK and had a bit of time in bottle, for you and for my tooth enamel! I’ve posted some [...]
Continue reading...Fine sweeties from the other Coteaux, de l’Aubance not Layon
Posted Friday 12th March 2010
Hot on the heels of my 2004 Chenin Blanc study project, I wrote a feature for Wine International magazine (now defunct) about matching sweeter styles of Loire Chenin and food. I visited a well known temple of gastronomy whose proprietor French, but not from the Loire, admitted that Loire Chenins are perhaps the finest match [...]
Continue reading...Sauvignon Blanc de Loire Project – 2009 vintage “ambassadors” announced
Posted Friday 26th February 2010
For the second year running, I was asked to participate on the Sauvignon Blanc de Loire Project Ambassadors judging panel and the results have just been announced (see the Sopexa press release below). You can read more about the project here in a piece I wrote for Jancis Robinson’s website last year, but you’ll see [...]
Continue reading...Two skinny Loire stars: French Connection Classics Saumur Champigny 2008 & Huet Vouvray Le Mont Demi-sec 2002
Posted Monday 4th January 2010
The New Year ushers in a fiscal tightening of the belt and resolutions of the type aimed at tightening actual belts, so how about a cut price, trophy-winning red which weighs in at a feather-weight 12.5%? French Connection Classics Saumur Champigny 2008 is made by Eric Laurent, the gifted winemaker at the Cave de Saumur, [...]
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Posted Thursday 29th December 2011
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