Loire Wine Tasting at Charteris Wine Society

Another fine wine tasting at the Charteris Wine Society excellently chosen by Charles and co-presented by Jeremy. In fact, I would say, their best yet. A good wine tasting has a theme and structure, this had several:

• Firstly of course the river. A tour upstream and then back down showing the river's wide range of grapes and styles.
• Secondly the "dinner party" sequence: dry 'aperitif' white, full 'food' white, light red, full bodied red, sweet white (but no room for the sweet red).
• Thirdly several wines were in pairs to allow a compare-and-contrast learning.
• Fourthly all bar one readily available from the same merchant (The Wine Society) thus showing the Society to advantage.

The wines - grape variety:

• Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, Le Clos du Château L'Oiselinière, 2002 (Chéreau-Carré) - muscadet
• Savennières, L'Enclos, 2004 (Eric Morgat) - chenin blanc
• Coteaux du Giennois, Domaine de Villargeau, 2006 (Marc Thibault) - sauvignon blanc
• Pouilly-Fumé, Château de Tracy, 2004 - sauvignon blanc
• Sancerre Rosé, Domaine Serge Laloue, 2006 - pinot noir
• Côte Roannaise, Vieilles Vignes, 2006 (Sérol) - gamay
• St Nicolas de Bourgueil, Les Rouillères, 2005 (Frédéric Mabileau) - cabernet franc
• Chinon, Domain du Raifault, "Le Villy", Cuvee Prestige, 1995 - cabernet franc
• Coteaux de la Loire, Moelleux, Vieille Sève, 2004 (Alain Boré) - chenin blanc
• Vouvray, Clos du Bourg, Moelleux, 1989 (Huet) - chenin blanc

And what did I learn?

• The Loire produces an extraordinary range of wines.
• The Gamay grape used to be one of my favorites. Moulin a Vent was one of the wines that moved me into red. But now it has dropped off my radar as a wine of choice.
• Rose wine I have always said goes well with Salad Nicoise and Seafood paella. Now I will add Sushi to the list (after I have given it a try). And this rose is a particularly girlie pink colour.
• My tastes are predictable. Mary wrote on her list "Mark will like this" against the St Nicolas de Bourgueil. How right she was - jammy and full of fruit.
• In the sweetie shoot-out the less obvious but better wine did win. The Coteaux de la Loire was sweet and enjoyable but the Vouvray, Clos du Bourg, Moelleux was a far subtler and more complex wine. Quality will out, in the end.

Previously:

• Austrian Wine Tasting at Charteris Wine Society
• Southern France: a new World of Wine
• New World versus Old
• Wines from the Veneto