The superb Montlouis

I had a delightful tasting and lunch in France last week with Lise and Bertrand Jousset, a young couple who have been farming about 26 acres in the Montlouis-sur-Loire appellation since 2004. Mountlouis has been overshadowed for most of its history by its larger and more famous neighbor, Vouvray, but Lise and Bertrand are among those demonstrating why tiny Montlouis is making its mark producing some of the most exciting chenin blancs in this part of the Loire Valley.

For one thing, they are farming and making their wines organically, though Lise says you will never see the word “organic” on their labels. While an increasing number of winemakers here and elsewhere use organic certification as a badge of honor and as a marketing tool, the Joussets beg to differ. “We don’t want to use ‘organic’ to sell our wines,” Lise says. “We want people to buy our wines because they like them, not because they’re organic.” She adds, “There are a lot of industrial wines that are organic. We don’t want to be mixed with these people.”

The Joussets’ wines, made from chenin blanc grapes from 40- to 130-year-old vines, speak for themselves, as I quickly found out  in the small cellar below their house, tasting five or six 2009 barrel samples from various vineyard parcels, some of them still fermenting. The fruit, though still a bit bitter in some cases, is ripe, concentrated and altogether delicious and another sign of the quality of the ’09 vintage that I found in a week of tastings in the Loire Valley.

The vineyard lies on soil with a good deal of flint, or silex as its known, which gives the wines a precise, focused quality. I liked all three wines from the 2008 vintage, the dry Premier Rendez-Vouz, with lush pear, honey and minerals, still a bit bitter at the end reflecting its youth; the Trait d’union, a semi-dry chenin with a good deal of tropical fruit and a touch of banana supported by firm acidity; and the racy, more austere and profound Singulier, made from some of the oldest vines on the property, which has a superb finish.

Chenin blanc, as I was reminded time and again in my tastings last week, not only benefits from but really requires aging to enjoy fully, and the point was emphasized when Bertrand served the 2005 vintage of Singulier at lunch in the couple’s kitchen. The food highlight was a simple soup that Lise had made with pureed carrots, potatoes and leeks and flavored with what Lise called some some “bones,” or veal scraps. The wine, with a few years of bottle age, had lost its edges and made for a sublime pairing.

The Joussets’ production has been and will remain small. They’ve been making 20,000 to 25,000 bottles a year and will go up to about 40,000 this year. But that will be it for now. As Bertrand explained, “We want to keep it a human winery. I like to work the vines myself. I don’t want to be a businessman.”

Bubbly for breakfast

  On our second day at the Loire Salon tasting here in France we concentrated on a few of the great names and appellations of the region as well as some lesser known areas and producers. We started off with a “breakfast of bubbles,” as our guide, the highly knowledgeable and delightful Ross Wassermann, put it. Many Americans may not know that the Loire Valley is the second-largest producer of sparkling wine in France after Champagne, and that the wines are made throughout the region from chenin blanc combined with other grapes. The appellation Crémant de Loire is the biggest for sparkling wine and also the most prestigious, though by no means a household name beyond France or even the Loire itself.   François Régis de Fougeroux thinks that’s starting to change. He’s the young general manager of one of the best-known Crémant producers, Langlois-Chateau in Saumur (the property was founded in 1885 by Edouard Langlois and his wife, the aptly named Jeanne Chateau, and has been owned since 1973 by the Bollinger Champagne house). As he poured for us today, Régis de Fougeroux said he believes the wines are becoming better known and are increasingly perceived as having “authenticity,” as he put it. “People are now asking for a ‘Crémant,’” he told us. It’s no wonder. The wines can be quite distinctive, are refreshing with their crisp acidity and cost a good deal less than Champagne.

Three from Langlois-Chateau stood out for me. The basic Crémant de Loire Brut, made from 60 percent chenin blanc, 20 percent chardonnay and 20 percent cabernet franc, is zesty and fresh with pretty, lemony fruit and a bargain at about $20. The 2003 Crémant Reserve is made from the same blend and has a somewhat longer finish and more minerality. The 2002 “Quadrille”Crémant Extra Brut, though nominally drier than the Bruts, is actually richer and more Champagne-like in practice with its long, creamy finish, achieved from extended contact with the lees, the remnants of the yeasts and solids of the grapes. The Quadrille is made with four varieties -- 50 percent chenin, 30 percent chardonnay, 15 percent cab franc and five percent cabernet sauvignon.

We also enjoyed some nice Crémants from Louis de Grenelle, also located in Saumur, and for me the standout was the organic “Louis” Brut, which was at once refreshing, creamy and citrusy, reminding me of lemon meringue. Our “breakfast” was a tasty one indeed. I’ll be posting on more great wines from the Loire Valley in coming days.

Loire Valley 2009s: an exceptional vintage

Just finished my first day of tastings here in France at the Salon des Vins de Loire in Angers, a big trade event where hundreds of Loire Valley producers are pouring their newly released or soon-to-be released wines. Headline: the 2009 vintage is excellent, with great fruit and balance in both the reds and whites. Some highlights:

Lucien Crochet’s 2009 white Sancerre reminded me why sauvignon blancs from the Loire Valley are the benchmark with which others are compared. It’s a model of elegance and balance. Sancerre’s reds are made from pinot noir, and  Crochet’s  2006 “La Croix du Roy” Pinot Noir speaks well for Sancerre’s ability, with certain producers and in certain vintages, to make distinctive pinots with both ample fruit and high acidity. It’s a style that I, for one, prefer.

From Chinon, Bernard Baudry is making some of the most delicious cabernet francs in the Loire Valley – or the world (his son Matthieu is seen holding one of them on the right). Cab franc can be dominated by the variety’s “green” notes, but in Baudry’s wines they are in the background. One focuses, instead, on the concentrated red fruit and violet notes and the minerality of the wines, which show nuanced differences depending on whether the grapes are grown in soils with gravel, clay, limestone or chalk, all of which are found in Baudry’s vineyards. Four of his   Chinons – the basic Les Granges as well as Les Grezeaux, Le Clos Guillot and La Croix Boissee – are must buys in ‘09 when they are released beginning in a few months or so.

Other highlights included a sauvignon blanc, pinot noir and rosé of pinot gris from Domaine de Reuilly in the small Reuilly appellation in the southeast Loire; several Saviennieres, both dry and sweet (the grape is chenin blanc) from Domaine des Baumard; a dry chenin blanc (Les Chanteaux) and Chinon (Les Graviere) from Couly-Dutheil; and another sauvignon blanc, the 2008 Pouilly-Fumé from Chteau de Tracy.

We’re in the Loire Valley

I arrived today in the chilly Loire Valley of France, which is still one of the more under-appreciated wine regions, and I’ll be posting from here during my week-long look at the wines of the Loire, which include such well-known appellations as Sancerre, Vouvray, Muscadet and Chinon, but also many others that deserve to be better known. The centerpiece of my visit is a three-day event here in Angers, in the central Loire, known as the Salon des Vins de Loire. It’s a giant tasting that attracts hundreds of winemakers who hope to make an impression with their latest offerings on the world’s importers, retailers, restaurants and journalists. I’m here with a small group of American wine writers invited to attend the event and sponsored by InterLoire, the region’s wine trade body. The tasting and spitting begin bright and early tomorrow.

This afternoon, we had a delightful warm-up at Domaine Richou just a few miles outside Angers. Didier Richou, seen above on the right, took us around his vineyards and poured his expressive, terroir-driven chenin blancs, both dry and sweet, as well as his red gamays and cabernet francs. I’ll have details on our tasting shortly.

Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

For more than three decades, Merry Edwards has been making a range of small-production pinot noirs from various appellations in California’s Sonoma County. The 2006 Russian River Valley “Flax Vineyard” Pinot Noir is one of the best Merry Edwards wines I have tasted. This ruby-colored wine is all elegance, made in a style that eschews the over-the-top, massive-fruit style that has come to define too many California pinot noirs in recent years. The Flax Vineyard, from which the grapes are sourced, is planted entirely with the Pommard clone of Burgundy, and the wine, focused and reserved, is refreshingly Burgundian in style.

It shows a gentle but firm tannic structure, ample acidity and notes of sweet cherry, spice and cocoa. We enjoyed it, slightly chilled, with a pan-roasted sirloin steak with which we wanted a “lighter” red. The 2007 vintage is currently for sale, at $54, from the winery.  (Received as a press sample.)

A singular sauvignon blanc

One of the more unusual California whites I’ve tasted recently comes from Sbragia Family Vineyards – the 2008 “Home Ranch” Sauvignon Blanc from the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County. This is a singular sauvignon, notable for its rich complexity combined with refreshing acidity and minerality and an attractive $20 suggested price.

That complexity includes loads of tropical fruit and notes of honey and butterscotch, orange, white flowers, ginger and even a touch of spearmint, which make it a wine to sip and savor rather than quaff. Fermented in stainless steel and aged in three-year-old oak barrels, which it give it a subtle wood underlay but none of the cream or vanilla of new oak.

The bottle is sealed, by the way, with a “Vino-Seal” glass closure, which, for me, is yet another welcome alternative to cork beyond screw caps and plastic closures that are now widely in use.  More information at Sbragia’s Web site. (Wine received as a press sample.)

Wine and chili (and football)

I have a friend who is a Minnesota Vikings fan, or, more precisely, a Bret Favre fan. My friend is from Wisconsin and rooted for the 40-year-old quarterback for many years when he played for Green Bay. That’s why this year, with Favre leading Minnesota to the doorstep of the Super Bowl, my friend is a Vikings fan. In any event, I, too, enjoy football in these exciting last weeks of the season. So when my friend invited me to watch the Vikings against the Giants, I didn’t hesitate. It didn’t hurt that the invitation came with the promise of homemade chicken chili, and that, of course, would give me the chance to bring along a terrific wine. But which wine?

It turned out my choice was just about unbeatable as we sipped Bradford Mountain’s superb 2005 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, which is made from organically grown grapes. Like many zins, this one is relatively high in alcohol, at 14.6 percent. But unlike some, it’s a model of balance with refreshing acids that keep it from being overpowered by robust foods. It was a great complement to the delicious chili with its sweet and spicy tomato base (thanks again to my friend’s wife).

As the Vikings handed the Giants a season-ending 44-7 defeat, the wine was the real winner with its concentrated blackberry and blueberry fruit, mocha, herbs and smooth but solid tannic structure. It would be nice to repeat it all with the Vikings and the Jets in the Super Bowl. I know who I’ll be rooting for. The wine has a suggested price of $28 and 1,950 cases were produced. More information at Bradford Mountain’s  Web site.  (Wine received as a press sample.)

Petit Chablis

Chablis still causes confusion, thanks to the California brands that co-opted the name for their jug whites decades ago, the same brands that created such infamous reds as “Hearty Burgundy.” In fact, the real Chablis is about as far from California generic as you can get. Chablis, of course, is the northern outpost of France’s Burgundy, and its stony soils produce some outstanding chardonnays, most of them made without exposure to oak.

I received several chablis for review the other day and was so   taken by the first one I tasted that I wanted to let you know about it. The 2008 Petit Chablis from Domaine Bernard Defaix is a full 180 degrees away the rich, often-overbearing California style that, for better or worse, has come to represent chardonnay to many wine drinkers. Petit Chablis is the appellation for some of the outlying area of Chablis, and the wines tend to be light on the palate and relatively easy on the wallet.

Defaix’s Petit Chablis, about $17,  is defined by a strong minerality with notes of green apple and lemon and lime peel. Its refreshing acidity and alcohol of just 12.5 percent make it almost thirst quenching as an aperitif. A rounded, slightly creamy finish gives it added dimension and moves it beyond a mere quaffing wine. Made for shellfish and simply broiled fish. Imported by Winebow, Inc., New York.