Wine-ding down the Loire

When I am asked what my favourite wine region is, I pull a fast one and often say the Loire. Because of course the Loire is not really a single region at all, but a succession of them, stretching all the way from the maritime Pays Nantais that produces Muscadet, through the Chenin Blanc based wines of Anjou, the sparkling wines of Saumur, the delicious whites of Vouvray and elegant reds of Chinon and Bourgueil and the crisp Sauvignon Blancs and juicy reds of Touraine and on to the classic Sauvignon Blancs of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé.

From one end to the other, the Loire’s wine regions produce almost every conceivable style of wine, from elegant bone dry whites, to fresh and lively sparkling wines, via sappy red wines, dry and off-dry rosés and deliciously, lusciously sweet dessert wines. You can see why I bagsy this as my favourite can’t you? It’s a region that appeals to the naturally inquisitive – and to the naturally greedy.

Autumn seems to me the perfect time of year to enjoy the Loire’s wines. There’s an affinity between the fruits of the season – ripe apples and pears, truffles and mushrooms – and the flavours of the wines. Here are some of my perennial Loire favourites and some new discoveries:

Vouvray Brut “La Dilettante” Pierre Breton NV – Excel Wines £17 (min 6 bottles), D&D wines £20.50, Caves de Pyrène £18.60

Fizz lovers, pin back thy lugs as this concerns you: sparkling Vouvray is something that you really should get acquainted with. Made from Chenin Blanc and usually on a small, artisan scale, they combine lively, fresh acidity with riper, appley fruit than you find in Champagne and a certain gentleness. Also look out for Champalou Vouvray Brut NV (£13.95 from slurp.co.uk, £16.45 at Caves de Pyrène).

Château de Fesles Chenin Sec 2011 - £13.99 (down to £10.99 from 14 October) at Waitrose

Château de Fesles is famous for its delicious sweet wines, but this dry version is pretty special too. Rich but dry, with flavours of quince and a whiff of honey. Try this with pork and apple.

Saumur Champigny, Domaine des Roches Neuves “Terres Chaudes” 2013 - £19.95 (min 6 bottles) from Excel Wines and £21.70 from Caves de Pyrène

Saumur Champigny is the name of an appellation making red wines from Cabernet Franc. Thierry Germain of Domaine des Roches Neuves is a really talented winemaker who manages to combine seriousness with enjoyment in his wines. Here you’ll find cherry and black cherry fruit with an edge of smokiness – what could be more Autumnal?

Côteaux du Layon Philippe Delesvaux “Les Clos” £18.75 for a 50cl bottle from H2Vin

If you are planning on making an apple tarte tatin any time soon, then a sweet Côteaux du Layon wine, from the versatile Chenin grape, is the perfect match. Rich baked apple fruit, with honeycomb and beeswax, but always a clean as a whistle finish thanks to crisp acidity, it’s a match made in heaven.

Loire wine lovers will want to get involved with Stars of the Loire, a month long festival celebrating some of the best wines from the region at a range of D&D restaurants such as Le Pont de la Tour, the Orrery and The Almeida in London. Wine lists at the restaurants will feature hidden gems from the Loire as well tastings and wine dinners running from now until 25 October. All the details are here: http://www.danddwine.com/campaigns-and-partnerships/loirestars/. 

Reader offer - I have a pair of tickets worth £45 each for Arts and Culture of the Loire talk and dinner hosted by Channel 4's Wendy Meakin at The Almeida on 21 October. Details of this event can be found here: http://www.danddwine.com/whats-on/events/arts-culture-of-the-loire-wine-dinner/  To be in with a chance of winning, please email me your name and postal address to heather@redwhiteandrose.co.uk. Entrants will be added to my mailing list.

Winners will be chosen at random and the usual terms and conditions apply: the offer is open to UK resident over 18s and relates to the dinner only - you will be responsible for getting to and from the venue. There is no cash equivalent and my decision is final. Closing date for entering is Friday 16th October 2015.

Things that go pop in the night

Even those of us who eschew sparkling wines at any other time of year suddenly feel the need to pop the cork on a bottle of fizz come Christmas time. The sound is emblematic of celebration and instantly puts people in a party mood.

As well as marking Christmas and New Year celebrations, fizz comes in handy for lightening the mood in many ways. Don’t grimace when yet another Christmas card from a distant acquaintance containing a nauseating and boastful round robin update on their triumphant achievements in 2013 drops onto the hall carpet – crack open a bottle of fizz and settle down to read it with a smile on your face.

This year a group of some of my oldest friends has agreed that we will write our own round robins – but they must contain no achievements and focus instead on minor disappointments (goodness knows plenty of those stack up by the end of the year). So no mentions of Lulu’s Grade 5 flute success or once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable holidays in far flung places. Instead it will feature things like broadband speeds remaining stubbornly sluggish, failed vegetable growing attempts and the new stair carpet still giving off a huge amount of fluff despite being down for months now. I can see I’m going to take to this round robin of misery like a duck to water. And I’m going to enjoy composing mine all the more with a glass of something sparkling by my side.

Here are some sparkling wines on which I would be happy to pop the cork this festive season:

Prosecco

 From almost complete obscurity in this country 20 years ago, Prosecco has now almost become the default sparkling wine for any occasion.  The Prosecco grape’s naturally high acidity is traditionally mitigated with some sweetness in the wine, so the most common style we see here is labelled “Extra Dry” which, counter-intuitively, actually means off-dry.  Properly dry versions will have “Brut” on the label.  Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Prosecco Conegliano Brut is usually £9.99, but has been reduced to £7.49, and if you act quickly to take advantage of their 25% off 6 bottles promotion running until 10 December, you can snap it up for just £5.62. Or you can give it large with a magnum for just £10.49. It has plenty of fresh, ripe pear aromas and fine bubbles and is perfectly nice for a pre-lunch glass or evening aperitif, if not particularly refined.  Caves de Pyrène’s Prosecco Bellenda Brut 2012 has more elegance, but then it will set you back £14.76.

Pink fizz

Rosé wines have been the only growth category in UK wine consumption in recent years. This, along with our unquenchable thirst for fizz, has made the pink sparkling wine category a success story. The upside is that there is more choice than ever before – the predictable downside, that quality is not always what it should be.

I’ve yet to find a rosé Cava that I could recommend and pink Prosecco seems disappointing - more material for my round robin there. For a good value party pink fizz I’d plump for The Society’s Saumur Rosé Brut NV (£9.95 from The Wine Society). Made by the venerable house of Gratien & Meyer from Cabernet Franc with a little of the un-prepossessingly named Grolleau, it has a delightful fruity freshness. Light enough to drink on its own, it would also be happy to keep company with that Christmas staple, smoked salmon.

Other sparkling wines

As you are no doubt heartily fed up of hearing, any sparkling wine made anywhere than the designated Champagne region in northern France cannot legally use that name. However, France is awash with other sparkling wines, many made in the same way, though perhaps not with the special magic of Champagne itself.

I have particularly enjoyed Champalou Vouvray Brut NV (£15.97 from Caves de Pyrène or £14.50 from Great Western Wine) recently. The Champalous make their sparkling wine from Vouvray’s Chenin Blanc grape and, unusually, let the second fermentation in bottle use nothing but the residual sugar in the base wine to create the fizz – usually sugar is added along with the yeast.  The result is a wine that has a delicious light, floral character as well as Chenin’s appley fruit, and a gentler mousse. It is refined yet quaffable – which can be a dangerous combination.

Champagne

There are so many Champagnes out there and many of you will have houses that you favour. If you are open to some suggestions, though, I can heartily recommend Sainsbury’s own label Blanc de Noirs Brut NV. I snapped up a few bottles of this food-friendly, savoury Champers made from the black-skinned varieties Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, earlier this year when it was on offer. In the meantime, it has managed to bag itself a Gold medal at this year’s International Wine Challenge. There’s nothing like having your own good opinion of something confirmed by others for making you feel even more well-disposed towards it. Even better, this bottle is currently available at Sainsbury’s for a frankly ridiculous £12.75 a bottle, as part of their buy 6 bottles and save 25% promotion until 10 December. If you’re not squeamish about putting a supermarket label fizz on the table (and I’m not) then get thyselves to Sainsbury’s pronto.

Waitrose’s Champagne Brut Special Reserve Vintage 2004 (reduced to £25.99 from £30.99 from now until January) is a Pinot Noir dominated blend (60%), with the rest Chardonnay. It has lovely maturing flavours of bread, toast and spice along with baked apple.  The long ageing (3 years on the lees, then further in bottle before release) has given it a fine mousse that makes it particularly suitable for food.

These supermarket labels are far better value than the “never heard of them before” Champagnes that supermarkets offer at “half price” at this time of year. I’d always rather see a tried and trusted supermarket name on the label. Here endeth the lesson.