FRANCE'S LOIRE VALLEY

You'll find an interesting range of wines here in the Loire Valley and you'll need to know what grapes grows in which appellation.  The wines, like those of Alsace in France, tend to be varietal wines.  Unlike Alsace, however, Loire Valley wines take their geographical names or appellations.  So, while in Alsace a wine is labeled Riesling, for example, here the wines made of Sauvignon Blanc, with only a rare exception or two, rarely are noted on the label as being made of Sauvignon Blanc. 

In an effort to clarify the issue for you, here's a "cheat sheet":

Some of our Loire Valley Selections:

DIDIER DAGUENAU ("Mister Pouilly-Fumé)

I've seen articles written about Monsieur Daguenau, calling  him the "bad boy" of the Loire.  The "Enfant Terrible."  I'm not sure he warrants that designation, but he is an outspoken fellow and one who says what he thinks rather than what some people want to hear.



Located off the main drag in Saint-Andelain, Daguenau maintains a low profile on one hand and a high profile on the other.  No signs are posted to give visitors a clue as to the location of this domaine, for example.  On the other hand, this fellow is a vociferous critic of lackluster viticulture and winemaking.  And he's driven to make outstanding wines and do so according to bio-dynamic farming methods.  

He started winemaking in the early 1980s.  His father had (and still has) a winery.  Daguenau's uncle also makes wine.  But Didier's "training" had been as a competitive motocross rider.  Today he's famous in dog sledding circles.  Apparently he didn't learn much winemaking from the family.  He didn't want to learn that type of winemaking!  Daguenau, ever competitive, wanted to make THE BEST and dad and Uncle Serge just don't cut it.  



He farms about eleven hectares, or so.  Organic farming practices.  Low yields.  Daguenau is deeply involved in all phases of the process.  He doesn't harvest the fruit when sugar levels reach a certain point, for example.  He'll taste the grapes and decide when to pick as he tastes "ripe" flavors.  Try an average bottle of Pouilly-Fumé and you'll often encounter vegetal, unripe flavors and thin, meager wines.  That's not what Daguenau is about.  



The winery was built in 1989.  It's pristinely clean.  Daguenau insisted we taste before having a look at the vineyards, since he didn't want us tracking "terroir" into the clean cellar.  Stainless steel.  Oak barrels.  The usual winery equipment.  Curiously the barrels, from a variety of coopers, have the letters "DSLS" painted on most of them.  "DIEU SEUL LE SAIT." Daguenau explains.  "God only knows what the type of oak is." Daguenau tells us.  "The barrel builders sell various types of wood, Allier, Tronais, Limousin, Nevers...but God only knows for sure what sort of wood a particular barrel really is!"

If you have the idea Didier is an iconoclast, I'd say you're correct.  He's recently purchased a piece of land in the Sancerre village of Chavignol, a town famous for the little "Crottin de Chavignol" goat cheese.  However, it's been quite a while since anyone in Chavignol has had goats, let alone made cheese there!  One day there will be Daguenau's Crottin de Chavignol and it will be from Chavignol!  



In his vast circle of winemaker friends, Daguenau hangs out with a tough audience.  He's, apparently, been chided for "only" making white wines.  Colleagues contend that "it's easy to make white wines."  So, Daguenau planted some Pinot Noir, hardly the easiest red wine to produce.  We were offered a sample, poured "blind."  I told Daguenau it was someone's red Burgundy and a really good one.  Didier challenges everyone and so to lead me astray he claimed it was made by a certain California vintner.  "Get out of town!" I screamed.  (This certainly was a challenge to Monsieur Daguenau's skills with the English language!)
Finally he revealed that the wine in question was his own Pinot Noir.  Now he can offer his colleagues a glass of amazingly fine "Burgundy" that comes from well outside the appellation (of the Côte d'Or).  I can say with certainty they will not belittle the making of white wines in the future!


The Pouilly-Fumé wines are the work of a perfectionist.  
PF = Pouilly-Fumé, Perfectly Farmed and Pretty Fantastic.  

"En Chailloux" is the basic bottling is the main production of Pouilly-Fumé.  Part of the final blend is fermented in oak, part in stainless steel.  Wood is not a major component of the wine, however.
"Pur Sang" is a wonderful wine which is fermented in wood.  There is a bit of toastiness to the wine, but the oak only adds complexity;  it does not dominate!

"Buisson Renard" is also fermented in barrel, but I found the oak to be less intense than in the Pur Sang.  Buisson Renard use to be called "Buisson Menard" until a prominent French wine writer misspelled the name in a well read publication.  To nail the critic, Daguenau changed the name of the wine to the misspelling!

"Silex" is regarded as the top bottling, coming from old vines in various parcels.  




"Asteroide" is the collector's item of the bunch, costing hundreds of dollars for a half-liter bottle.  If your lotto ticket is a winner, treat yourself to a bottle of this.  Otherwise, try the Pur Sang.  (As we drove around the vineyards, Daguenau showed us a parcel of vineyard that he had just acquired in an exchange with another vigneron.  He said it would take a few years of organic farming to get the vineyard into the proper condition.  I told Daguenau that if he acquired a vineyard that was nearly impossible to 'fix," a real pain in the ass, he could offer a companion, single vineyard bottling to Asteroide:  "Hemorrhoid."



Currently in stock: 
2004 "Pur Sang" $69.99 (a few bottles remain)
2002 "Pur Sang" $59.99 (a few bottles remain)
2005 "Pur Sang"  $69.99  (just arrived)

 

SYLVAIN BAILLY (Domaine Croix Saint Ursin)

 

This domaine is run by Jacques Bailly and his wife Marie-Helene.  They're located in the town of Bu, though vineyard holdings are scattered around the appellation.

Bailly has about 11 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc in Sancerre, some 3.5 hectares of Pinot Noir and about 5 hectares of Sauvignon in Quincy.  

The Sancerre comes from differing soils.  Jacques explained that about 70% of their vineyards are in limestone, the balance in a soil that's a combination of clay and limestone.  

Bailly's is our most popular Sancerre, his wine having a nice combination of minerality and citrus.  Oak is not part of the program here.  Various sites are picked at differing levels of sugar, so Bailly's fermentation tanks of Sancerre vary in character until he blends them.  A "prestige" bottling is produced in riper vintages and a part of that wine is wood aged.  Even so, it's hard to beat the "Les Terroirs" bottling.

Red Sancerre is made, of course, of Pinot Noir.  A French woman picked up a bottle of Bailly's red wine, not knowing this and commented, "There must be something wrong with your Sancerre...it's awfully dark in color."
"It's a red wine." we told her.
"Oh!"

    


   


       

Currently available:  2006 Sancerre "Terroirs" (list $24) SALE  $19.99 (750ml)

LOUIS MÉTAIREAU (and his band of merry vignerons)

For many people in Europe, the name "Louis Métaireau" is synonymous with Muscadet.

Now, Muscadet has nothing to so with "Muscat." Aside from it coming in a green bottle with a cork stopper.

Louis Métaireau was a show man who brought the little white wine of the Pays Nantais to a point of stature.  His "campaign" kicked off in the 1960s when not many people more than 50 miles from Nantes knew the Muscadet wine from the western part of the Loire.  Today every Parisian bistro and oyster bar has Muscadet on the wine list.  Apparently, it's mandated by French law.

Mtaireau had but a couple of hectares of vines and he felt their was strength in numbers, so he got some friends and neighbors together to start a winemaking and wine marketing enterprise.  The group eventually purchased the "Domaine du Grand Mouton" estate back in 1972.  The property is called "Mouton," but this designation is not a reference to sheep or lamb.    A French word, "mothon," which signifies "mound" or mountain, has been corrupted to "mouton."  The vineyard is at a high elevation for the region.

Today Mtaireau's daughter Marie-Luce and her husband Jean-Francois Guilbaud run the domaine.  

We tasted a number of their wines and all are of a high quality level.  We have their "Carte Noire" (black label) in stock.  The 2005 is a lovely dry white...crisp, mildly minerally and with tangy, Granny Smith apple-like acidity. 
Of course, Muscadet not a blockbuster wine.  It's a far cry from 15% alcohol, hugely oaked, full-throttle buttery California Chardonnay, for example.  It's virtue is its simplicity and its "lightness of being," unbearable as that is to many wine drinkers.  It is never a 90-point wine, nor does it aspire to be in a blind-tasting.  It's a "food wine," intended to be on the table with fresh seafood.

Currently in stock:  2005 LOUIS MÉTAIREAU "Carte Noire" MUSCADET $13.99

 

 

 

DOMAINE DES BAUMARD

A family-run producer specializing in Chenin Blanc wines from Savennières and Quarts-de-Chaume.  They work to retain the fresh fruit aromas of Chenin Blanc, picking the grapes into small bins and vinifying at low temps in stainless steel.   Their Quarts-de-Chaume can mature over several decades (think of what California Chenin Blanc is still good after two or three years)!   We've found their Anjou Rouge, made of Cabernet Franc, to be a very charming and price-worthy wine.
A 1999 Coteaux du Layon "Carte d'Or" is a magnificent sweet Chenin Blanc, while their special, single-vineyard wine of "Clos de Sainte Catherine" is even more honeyed and rich.  This is from the 1998 vintage.

Currently available:  
1990 Quarts de Chaume 74.99 
1999 Coteaux du Layon "Carte d'Or" $17.99
1998 Coteaux du Layon "Clos de Sainte Catherine" $32.99

DOMAINE PATRICK COULBOIS

Gerald Coulbois had been a grower in the Pouilly-Fumé village of Saint Andelain and now his son Patrick runs this small domaine.  Patrick's wife also comes from a wine growing family, so together they have about 8.7 hectares of vines, all bit a half a hectare being Sauvignon.  The other variety Coulbois cultivates is Chasselas which "dad" used to make into sparkling wine.

The domaine started back in 1974 and today Coulbois produces about 30,000 bottles from vines cultivated in three soil types: Silex (flint), chalk and Clay.  

The flinty soil gives a real minerally character to the wine and that's why we like this fellow's Pouilly-Fumé. The wine is labeled "Les Cocques" as it comes from Silex soil.   It's got a wonderful fragrance of stones and grapefruit, with a touch of a floral note.  Bone dry and crisp, this is a great match with seafood!  I almost sense a 'salty' quality to the wine, too.

 

Currently in stock:  2006 Pouilly-Fumé "Les Cocques"  $16.99
2004 Pouilly-Fumé "Les Cocques"  half bottles $9.99

Patrick Coulbois opening a bottle
of his Pouilly-Fumé.

DOMAINE DAULNY

Etienne Daulny owns a small domaine in a sub-region of Sancerre called "Chaudenay."  You'll be near the village of Verdigny if you're looking for it on a map.

Daulny is an old-timer who's been growing grapes and making good Sancerre for several decades.  The estate comprises about 15 hectares and he makes a basic Sancerre, an "old vines" bottling from his prized "Clos de Chaudenay" vineyard and a nice little Sancerre Rouge.

Our friend who imports the Daulny wines allowed me to accompany him on an excursion a number of years ago.  We had not purchased any of the first vintages he imported from this domaine.  We tasted through the cellar one cold winter afternoon and I found the basic Sancerre to be "correct," but still lacking excitement.

We'd tasted a sample of the Clos de Chaudenay and I suggested that, perhaps, a bit of this tank blended into the basic bottling might make for a more interesting wine.  I was pleasantly surprised when Daulny put together a few blends incorporating various percentages of the Clos de Chaudenay wine.  Voilà, as they say.  We ended up choosing one of them and this batch was then shipped to the Bay Area.

 



I've returned to visit on several other trips and now we routinely work to find the blend which works best.  And, I'm delighted to report, the recent vintages we have had in the shop have been very popular with our customers.  

The 2007 has just hit the west coast.  It's a deliciously dry, crisp, lip-smacking, tart, dry Sauvignon Blanc.  We like the citrusy notes and the minerality of this wine.  It's fresh and bone dry.  No oak.   

Daulny also makes a bit of Rosé and Sancerre Rouge.  We don't buy either, presently, but I will say the red wine has been pretty good.  On our 2008 visit, I teased Etienne about his "Domaine de la Romanee-Daulny."  He appreciated the good natured ribbing.

Currently in stock:  DAULNY 2007 SANCERRE BLANC $18.99

 

MORE LOIRE VALLEY WINES

Wine Tasting Today

TO INQUIRE ABOUT A WINE:  gerald@weimax.com

Copyright © 1999 WEIMAX WINES & SPIRITS
Last modified: August 15, 2008