Richmond and Teddington Wine Societies enjoyed a top class lineup of wines from the Loire Valley this month. Following my tours to the Loire Valley in June (read all about them here!) I was very excited to present wines that celebrated the diversity and quality of this amazing region. At 1,000km the Loire River flows from the Masif Central to the Bay of Biscay, with dramatic differences between sub regions such as Sancerre, Vouvray, Saumur and Muscadet. Maybe because it has such a wide range of styles the Loire does not seem to have engaged wine lovers in the way that smaller, more tightly defined regions such as Alsace, Bordeaux or Burgundy have. I hope everyone left the tasting inspired to drink Loire wines more often and to explore its riches further.
We kicked off with a fizz – a sparkling Vouvray made in the traditional method with 15 months of second fermentation on the lees. I think Chenin Blanc is a wonderful grape for sparkling wine, its natural apple-y flavours and high acidity are perfect combined with the yeastiness of the lees, and it was a great introduction.
We then went on a bit of time travel – not many hands were raised when I asked who had drunk Muscadet recently. The two we tried demonstrated firstly what flavoursome, high quality wine is being made at the mouth of the River Loire near Nantes – lees ageing again adding complexity to the Melon Blanc grape variety that is very much enjoying the warming climate. We compared two wines from the Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine appellation, a 2022 ‘basic’ ‘Sur Lie’, with a 2015 Cru wine from the Monnières Saint Fiacre village, the former having super herbal, saline savoury flavours with hints of dried fruit, the latter showing wonderful complexity and texture with some real biscuity character – both fabulous gastronomic wines.
A trio of Sauvignon Blancs completed our dry white wines – one from the relatively new Touraine Chenonceaux appellation, the others from Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, 100km further east. Wonderful contrasts – the Chenonceaux was full of fresh green fruits with hints of asparagus, the Sancerre more lemonny, flinty and delicate, the Pouilly Fumé much deeper in colour and intense in flavour, with an almost almondy finish. All great wines that were definitely a very different expression of the Sauvignon Blanc grape variety than the somewhat formulaic new world versions that now innundate supermarket shelves.
Our only red of the evening was made form Cabernet Franc, one of the varieties permitted in Bordeaux, but very much at home in the Loire, with a cluster of AOCs on the banks of the Loire and Vienne rivers around the towns of Saumur, Bourgueil and Chinon. A warming climate has very much improved the consistency of ripening of the variety, and the 2021 Saumur Champigny that we tasted showed lovely ripeness, with nice grippy tannins and some classic capsicum and cedary/graphite notes.
We completed the tastings with a sweetie – sadly we couldn’t fit a dry Chenin Blanc in, but it would have been a crime to have missed out on how noble rot combines with the variety to produce some of the most sublime sweet wines of the world. At Teddington we enjoyed a Vouvray Moelleux, while at Richmond we had a Bonnezeaux. Both benefitted from bottle age (2015 vintage) and showed fabulous complexity but superb acidity.
At Teddington we were able to enjoy the Moelleux with blue cheese (following our cottage pie main), while at Richmond we enjoyed some very summery fare from the Britannia (gazpacho followed by a goat cheese tart). As a very special treat we managed to complete the entire tasting sitting on the Britannia’s roof terrace – the breezes providing very welcome relief from the summer heat that has finally arrived.
For details of the wines, please visit the Wines we have tasted page.
