Loire to Lay Down
Although known principally in the UK for its crisp Sauvignons and Muscadets, there is more to the Loire Valley than early drinking wines for apéritifs and seafood.
The region is home to a broad spectrum of styles. From the Pays Nantais region near to the Atlantic coast to the twin areas of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé in the east, the Loire is home to glorious age-worthy wines produced both from Sauvignon Blanc and the incredibly versatile Chenin Blanc. Recent tastings have, yet again, proved to us how underrated top-of-therange Chenin can be. There is a magical complexity about great Chenin, either in its driest or sweetest form, and both styles have amazing ageing potential.
2005 will go into the history books as one of the greatest all-round vintages of all time. The successes of Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône have been well documented, but the Loire also benefited from the near-perfect summer and early autumn. Our recently published Loire offer includes stunning examples of Chenin Blanc in its several guises – dry and sweet Vouvray, dry Savennières (which, in its finest form, is one of the wine world’s best kept secrets) and, from Anjou, the remarkable, nectar-like Coteaux du Layons and Chaumes. A few years ago I visited an estate where I tasted a range of mature Anjou. The youngest wine shown was in excess of 30 years of age and the tasting culminated in an example from the 1870s. Every wine was fresh and in impeccable condition. Although the wines had never moved from the perfect cellar conditions in which they were made, the tasting proved the point that great ‘moelleux’ Chenin is virtually indestructible. Although ten years’ bottle age will see the emergence of added nuances, there is great pleasure to be found in young sweet Chenin – perhaps more so in Coteaux du Layon and Chaume than in Vouvray.
The range of food partnerships for these wines is as broad as the wine styles themselves. Drink drier versions as one would Chardonnay – with seafood, salads, pasta, poultry, pork and cheeses. Perhaps surprisingly, sweet Loire wines can be enjoyed with an equally broad range of cuisine. Locally in the region, sweet wines are served as apéritifs, with fish in rich sauces such as ‘hollandaise’, with game, blue cheeses, as a partner to desserts and
as digestifs. The opportunities to appreciate these remarkable wines are many and varied.
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John Thorogood
Head of Buying