VINTNER’S TALES
By Richard Household
Be brave and explore!
A
s winter begins to
release her icy grasp on
the countryside, life begins
to rise up again. There is
much to do in the vineyard
to prepare for the new
growing season. As spirits
lift, I thought I would take
this opportunity to suggest
broadening your wine
drinking and recommend
some lesser known regions
and some grape varieties
that you might consider.
Wine drinking is a journey of
discovery! Take risks, try
different things – it won’t
always be successful but
when it is, there is more
pleasure to be had.
Let’s start with Chenin Blanc. It
is a wonderful grape variety
and, I think, hugely underrated.
Most of us might associate this
grape with South Africa but
Chenin’s spiritual home is the
Loire Valley. It makes some of
the finest white wines,
sparkling, dry and sweet.
Crémant de Loire is a
wonderful alternative to
Champagne, great value and
much better than Prosecco.
Move away from the Prosecco!
An excellent entry level sparkler
is Bouvet Ladubay, produced
around the famous old town of
Saumur. Go and visit them and
explore their huge underground
cellars. Look out for the
wonderful wines from Vouvray,
Anjou, Savennières, Chaumes,
Bonnezeaux and so on. These
are amazing and historic wine
producing regions that we
don’t see outside France so
much these days. They are all
made from Chenin Blanc. In
late Winter and early Spring
these wines are magnificent –
full flavoured with citrus and a
hint of stone fruit, so lemons,
oranges and some peach and
nectarine with pear and a little
honey. The wines are
beautifully textured.
Last Summer I travelled quite a
bit through the Loire and one
the places I enjoyed the most
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was staying (and tasting!) at
Château Soucherie, not far
from Angers. The views out
across the Layon Valley were
stunning. They have two
cottages where you can stay
and I would thoroughly
recommend it as long as you
like dogs. We were the only
people staying there at the
time and they have an
enormous great bear of a
Bernese Mountain dog called
Ixel, who roams the Château
and vineyards making sure
there are no unwelcome
visitors. I came away with a
pallet of wine and if my wife
could have done, she would
have stuffed Ixel in her
suitcase and brought him
home – he was the soppiest,
friendliest ‘guard’ dog you will
meet! For those wine lovers
amongst you it is well worth a
visit. The beauty of Chenin
Blanc is that is makes
everything from sparkling wine
through to some of the finest
sweet wines you will ever
taste. Château Soucerie has
small plot in the famous
vineyard of 1er Cru Chaumes.
The key here is the terroir, with
its schist. It gives the wines a
minerality and freshness to
balance the sweetness – truly
one of the great sweet wines
of the world. They also
produce my favourite
Savennières called Clos des
Perriers.
As you may have guessed from
previous Vintner’s Tales, I do
enjoy my visits to South Africa
and this is where Chenin Blanc
has become so well-known.
Not all of it is good. Much
South African Chenin is mass
produced and not much more
than alcoholic grape juice –
best avoided! In the right
hands, however, it can excel
here and can produce wines of
depth, flavour and enormous
character. There are plenty of
examples but I want to focus
on Swartland. It’s a rather
trendy region at the moment
which would normally put me
off but it’s worth explaining why
you should look out for wines
from this hot, arid and
mountainous area north of
Cape Town. Most of the vines
here are very, very old and
bush trained. Yields are
ridiculously low but the
resulting wines are rich,
concentrated and powerful with
wonderful fruit and complexity.
The roots have to dig deep in
search of moisture and many
of the vines are planted on
mountain slopes to help retain
freshness. They are really
interesting wines and no-one is
making better examples than
David & Nadia. Superb wines.
Another lesser known region is
Blaye, one of the smaller and
much less fashionable
appellations in Bordeaux.
Generally, we all buy wines
from St Emilion and Pomerol or
across the river from Margaux,
St Julien, Pauillac and St
Estèphe. It’s a bit of drive to
get to Blaye and the wines
have a reputation of being
harsh, tannic and underripe.
This reputation is out-dated
and you can find some
wonderful wines here. In
addition because the region is
not so well-known, the prices
are really good! There is some
white wine here, but mostly it is
red and very good it is too. My
favourite producer is an organic
vineyard called Château Bel-Air
La Royère. Corinne Loriaud is
the hugely talented winemaker
and she has some of the finest
vineyards in Blaye. What makes
them so special is elevation
and the terroir. Blaye is hilly,
much hillier than most other
parts of the Bordeaux region
and there is also the classic
Bordeaux terroir of limestone
and clay. Limestone gives the
wine minerality and structure
while the clay gives the wines a
more generous texture and ripe
fruit.
Richard Household.
Take risks, try
different things – it
won’t always be
successful but when
it is, there
is more
pleasure to
be had.
I’m not normally a huge fan of
Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a wine
that I might enjoy on a hot
summer’s evening and then
move on to something more
serious but Corinne has a tiny
plot of Sauvignon Blanc which
she only makes a wine from in
very good years. It is
extraordinary! She is, however,
most famous for her reds and
her Grand Vin is a blend of
Merlot (the most widely
planted grape on this side of
the river) and Malbec. Malbec
is a Bordeaux grape – it went
to Argentina from Bordeaux. It
is being planted a little more
again and Corinne loves it.
She says that it brings spicy,
earthy, rich character to blend
with the juicy, fruity, ripe
Merlot. The result is a superb
wine that offers great value
compared to the more famous
wines from St Emilion and
Pomerol. Blaye is worth a visit
when you are next in the
Bordeaux region. It is easy to
stick to the well-trodden wine
path of Bordeaux City, the
Médoc and St Emilion but
Blaye is a lovely old town with
a majestic fort and great
restaurants.
Be brave, explore and happy
tasting!
Visit: www.bromptonwine.co.uk
E-mail: [email protected] Tel: 07801 579616