Wines of the Loire Valley – The Unknown Giant

Here’s my thesis: the Loire Valley is the most underappreciated great wine region in the world. 

The Loire is one of the longest rivers in France, and along its banks are a great collection of fairy-tale castles – and a host of different terroirs.  Apart from Italy, it’s hard to think of many wine-growing areas anywhere in the world where there is more native diversity in both the land and the grapes.  The Loire is a vinous garden, and the wines that are made here are marked by a distinctive grace. 

So why are they largely ignored?  Think about it: when someone mentions French wines, the regions that come immediately to mind are Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley.  Among those who love food-friendly wines, sometimes Alsace will be part of the conversation.  Trendy wine lovers will cite the Languedoc.  The Loire is, comparatively speaking, the poor step-child.  Only real wine aficionados pay attention.  And that’s why this is the latest stop for The Vinous Voyager. 

Readers following the Voyager have probably figured out by now that I’m a fan of wines with class and subtlety.  If I wanted to be hit over the head by a beverage, I’d be drinking something other than wine.  And of course it goes without saying that wine is, 90% of the time, meant to go with food.  Among the cognoscenti, Loire wines have a good reputation on both counts. 

Even so, I approached the project of tasting Loire wines with a bit of trepidation.  Would they be weedy, thin, emaciated little bottles?  Would they pale in comparison with wines of the more modern, fruit-forward style?  I needn’t have worried.  Not a bad wine in the bunch, and some extraordinary tasting experiences. 

A Loire Sampler

We referred earlier to the length of the Loire.  It runs 1012 kilometers (629 miles), and along its length are at least nine major growing areas: Muscadet, Anjou, Saumur, Chinon, Bourgueil, Vouvray, Cheverny, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fume.  Major grapes include Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, and also Cheverny – where there is typically a small dollop of Chardonnay added), Chenin Blanc (Vouvray), Cabernet Franc (Saumur, Chinon and Bourgueil), and Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet); Cabernet Sauvignon even makes an appearance in Anjou. 

I originally picked six wines from this amazing region, hoping to find food-friendly wines with real grace.  Four were outstanding, and two very good.  They were so good that I sought out a seventh bottle (the Domaine de la Chanteleuserie from Bourgueil), and it was also excellent.  Suffice is to say that the Loire Valley has moved to near the top of my list for future travel destinations.

 2011 Les Pensées de Pallus (Chinon, France):  Medium plum.  Expressive nose that evolved wonderfully in the glass.  Sour cherries were the biggest component at first, and remained throughout – but soon, there were deeply earthy elements, followed by rhubarb, coffee, violets and hints of tobacco.  So the real issue comes down to the palate, and this is where American consumers approaching Cabernet Franc will need to adjust their perspective in order to fully appreciate this wine.  This is a bottling that most American critics would describe as “thin.”  It was a great and wonderful thing that, following the so-called “Judgment of Paris” in 1976 (see below), American vintners led the world to a greater understanding of the possibilities of ripeness for wine.  It’s pretty certain, however, that everyone got carried away by this concept; lots of wines became overwhelmed by fruit that carried ripeness to such an extent that wines became monstrous in their dimensions, and no longer served as an accompaniment to food – which, in the eyes of the Voyager, is wine’s greatest purpose in life.  This is a wine with fairly soft tannins, a lighter color than we have grown accustomed to in this era of high extraction (see below), and is quite simply a more subtle animal than we normally expect.  Even I might wish that this had a bit more body -- but you could have a glass or two of this wine with lunch and still have a reasonably productive afternoon in the office, or enjoy sight-seeing on vacation without face-planting somewhere at 3:00 p.m.  Although 2011 was not a truly great vintage for Loire reds, this wine represents many of the things that this grape does well.  It’s sophisticated, and has real class.  It also represents a huge debate in the world of wine within the space of one bottle.  *** ½ - ****

2013 Les Varennes du Clos Sancerre (France):  Most New World Sauvignon Blancs are very pale; this has a much richer green/gold color.  The nose is shy at first, with Granny Smith apples and hay, with some grapefruit notes way in the back.  The grapefruit comes to the fore with air, along with some baked pear aromas.  Rounder than New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs on the palate, with none of the typical NZ tropical fruit flavors.  This is deeper, richer, and much more refined.  Some sweet fruit on the attack, giving way to a pleasant grassiness on the finish.  Much more texture and body than similar wines from New Zealand or California, yet it remains very light on its feet.  You will hear this from the Voyager so many times: balance is what separates the best wines from the also-rans, and this has balance aplenty.  So rich, and only 12.5% ABV (alcohol by volume).  Not a great match with salmon, which brought out a slight tinny note and some aggressive salinity.  Much happier with orzo pasta and mixed vegetables.  I can imagine this pairing nicely when served with chicken in a mushroom and cream sauce – or simplify your life and just pour this with a good artisanal bread.  NZ Sauvignon Blancs, with their stronger fruit attributes, certainly have a place in the world, and the Voyager has enjoyed them on many occasions.  That being said, I could definitely get used to drinking Sancerre on a regular basis if only it wasn’t typically a little steep in price (often $25 - $35).  Happily, I picked this up for $18.98, and it’s a superb value at that price.  **** - ****1/2 

 2012 Domaine Pierre de La Grange Muscadet (Sevre et Maine, Loire Valley, France):  Distinct greenish hue.  Grown near the mouth of the Loire, you can absolutely detect the scent of sea breezes on the nose, along with melon, tropical fruits and definite mineral notes.  After two hours of air, a mince/pumpkin pie aroma emerged.  Very crisp and refreshing.  A perfect summer quaffer on its own, or try it with peeled shrimp with a spritz of lemon.  ***

2012 La Vigne Des Sablons Vouvray (Loire Valley, France):  Medium yellow/gold.  Honey and wildflowers on the nose, with some freshly-mown hay and even a touch of minerality underneath.  Honey on the attack, sweet fruit stays through the mid-palate, and then gives way to the faintest trace of grapefruit on the finish, which is fairly long.  I freely admit that I’m still experimenting as far as matching Vouvray with food; on this occasion, I gambled a bit and tried it with a medium-spicy Indian dish – chicken with biryani rice.  It worked rather well; not, perhaps, the seamless match that a dry Riesling might have been, as the wine was actually a trifle more powerful than the food – but still, it worked.  There is almost always a touch of sweetness with young Vouvray; more mature bottles seem to become drier, “eating their sugar” with age.  The fact that I don’t really mind this slightly sweet aspect marks one of the ways in which my tastes have changed over the years.  This is a very nice wine.  ***1/2

2012 Domaine du Salvard Cheverny (Loire Valley, France): Pale gold; the gold is attributable, I suspect, to the 15% of this wine that is Chardonnay, which is otherwise dedicated to Sauvignon Blanc.  Definite grassiness on the nose – almost New Zealand in character.  The aromas are a bit shy for now.  Tropical fruits comes forth as the wine gets a bit of air.  Nice, crisp acidity – all Sauvignon Blanc here, with no trace of Chardonnay on the palate.  A good match for food – in this case, some mildly-spiced Tandoori chicken with western veggies.  Pleasant, and, as an English wine writer might put it, “more-ish.”  ***

2012 Domaine de la Chanteleuserie Bourgueil (Chinon, France):  Medium plum.  Often, critics refer to certain wines as “perfumed.”  Well, this surely fits in that category.  Big aromas of cherries (on the sweeter side here), and wildflowers.  Deeply earthy scents underneath.  With air, some vanilla and mulberry notes, as well as Asian spices, make themselves known.  Crisp acidity.  Dried cherry flavors on the palate, with some mineral elements as well.  Cola notes on a nice, long finish.  Another positive statement on behalf of the elegance of Cabernet Franc.  ***1/2 - ****

2012 Alexandre Monmousseau Clos de Vigneau Vouvray (Loire Valley, France):

Rich golden color.  Bring the glass to your nose and it’s like walking into a mountain meadow that’s teeming with wildflowers – especially huge honeysuckle scents.  There’s also a steely minerality in the background, and, with air, some hints of Golden Delicious apples.  Taken together, this wine has a fabulous bouquet.  Then we get to the texture, which is a mix of satin, cream and velvet.  Add in the fact that it’s a lovely match with food (I tried this with both salmon sushi and curried chicken), and you have something very special indeed.  Sweetness on the attack, but the long finish has a drier aspect.  Superb.  ****1/2; give it a decade of bottle age and you might have a five-star wine.   

The Judgment of Paris: In 1976, English wine critic and merchant Steven Spurrier hosted a competition in which he pitted several of the top-ranked French wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy against their rivals from the finest wine-growing regions in California.  The wines were judged by some of the best-known French wine critics of the day, and were served blind – i.e., the judges sampled the wines without knowing the producer, or where they were from.  Everyone expected bottles from the French vintners to blow the American wines out of the water – but the opposite turned out to be the case.  The California wines came out on top in this particular test.  The ultimate result of the tasting was not so much to prove that California wines were better than those from France – but rather that the world of wine was wider than anyone had previously thought, and that wines from the New World deserved consideration as among the elite.  Subsequently, wine critics began to pay serious attention to bottles from around the globe, and winemakers from all over the earth began to learn from one another.  Now, we take for granted the idea that good wine is grown all over the planet, but before 1976, this wasn’t so apparent.  Those of us who love the endless variety available to us on the shelves of wine merchants owe a huge debt to Steven Spurrier, who truly changed the vinous world forever.  If you’re interested in learning more from Spurrier, see his monthly column in the outstanding UK wine magazine Decanter.

Wine Word of the Day: Extraction:  During fermentation, the skins of crushed grapes spends time with the juice of the grapes in a process called maceration.  Wine gets its color and tannin from this contact with the grape skins.  Some vintners wish to extract every bit of color, tannin and flavor, and thus leave the skins in the fermentation vats for a longer period of time.  The skins naturally float to the top of the fermenting grape juice (a/k/a “must”), and form what is called the cap.  Some vintners punch down the cap, either manually, or using a wooden or metal lattice, to submerge the cap into the must.  So extracting all those qualities is a good idea, right?  Well, sometimes – but it’s also possible to get too much of a good thing, especially tannin.  Occasionally, winemakers get carried away, and by over-extracting, produce wines that are unbalanced and heavy-handed.