November Wine Focus: Loire Reds: Cabernet Franc, etc.

[Robin Garr]

Six months ago we focused on Loire Part 1: Chenin Blanc (and other whites). This month we turn to the more obscure but equally delicious category of Loire reds. That's primarily Cabernet Franc, but the doors are wide open to other Loire-made reds including Gamay, Pinot Noir and the rare but delicious Pineau d'Aunis.

If you can't find these Loire wines in your neck of the woods, feel free to bring in Cabernet Franc from all over the world to compare and contrast!

Great..all us Loire-heads will be mighty pleased! Guess Tim will be at the head of the queue!!
Baudry, Joguet, Noblaie et al..I cannot wait to get started. Should also mention my little stash of Fox Run, NY.

Here I come, Bob. My cellar is full of Loire CabFranc with vintages stretching from 1989 to 2015. I love it in both its two broad types as well as in bottles falling between the two. There are light and fruity wines for drinking young typically from sandy and gravelly low lying sites near the Loire or Cher and there are fuller more structured and age-worthy wines from clay and chalk sites on the slopes and plateau. The wine below is in the latter category.

IIRC I have only one bottle of 100% CabFranc from outside the Loire valley; it is from the beautiful Vignamaggio estate in Tuscany and a real treasure. Of course CabFranc is an important component in right bank Bordeaux, especially at the leading châteaux Ausone, Cheval Blanc and Figeac. I have two bottles of Figeac 2000 but won't be opening them for some time yet.


2003 Charles Joguet Chinon Clos de la Dioterie - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Chinon (11/1/2016)
Not a typical Chinon due to the heat of the summer but very good; fuller bodied than usual, richer, sweeter, darker in fruit and complexion, more alcoholic (14%) and ripely structure with less acidity, minerals and noble greenness. It could be mistaken for a wine from 400km further South with Syrah in its make-up but for a special tang hinting of blood and leather and touches of pencil and charcoal which are typical of the Loire. There remained enough acidity for balance and ample grip. Very good but a long way from the ethereally fragrant and elegant top Joguets from '85, '89, '90 and '96.

Posted from CellarTracker

[David M. Bueker]

Will pop a Baudry later this month. Right now on the road again so away from the cellar.

[Jenise]

Great timing. My B'ham group is doing All Things Loire next week (on election night--hope we don't need the additional comfort.)

Here I come, Bob. My cellar is full of Loire CabFranc with vintages stretching from 1989 to 2015. Yup, thought you would be pleased! David might have some nice wines in his cellar too.
My selection here Chez Bob is all over the place..well France, Finger Lakes ie Fox Run. Then of course there is Niagara out east of me!!

[Robin Garr]

Here's a link to a tasty Coteaux de la Loir Pineau d'Aunis from Kermit Lynch ... I posted the TN separately.

WTN: Pascal Janvier 2015 Cuvée du Rosier Coteaux du Loir

Here is a note on a Cab Franc I tasted last summer at the winebar downtown. No TN till today! Not sure any CF from the Loire will resemble this one .

2012 Bodega Catena Zapata Cabernet Franc San Carlos.

Went nicely with braised meatballs in a not too spicy demi glaze. Tad modern for me, blackberry on the nose, no green pepper. Hint of oak still, long finish, good acidity, bottle open 12 hours I am told. Ripe fruit on par with most CFs from this S American area, grin wink.

***** Tonite back to reality, the 2005 Baudry Les Grezeaux.

Here is a note on a Cab Franc I tasted last summer at the winebar downtown. No TN till today! Not sure any CF from the Loire will resemble this one .

2012 Bodega Catena Zapata Cabernet Franc San Carlos.

Went nicely with braised meatballs in a not too spicy demi glaze. Tad modern for me, blackberry on the nose, no green pepper. Hint of oak still, long finish, good acidity, bottle open 12 hours I am told. Ripe fruit on par with most CFs from this S American area, grin wink.

***** Tonite back to reality, the 2005 Baudry Les Grezeaux.

That doesn't sound like my thing, Bob. Does it taste a lot different from their Malbec? Baudry '05 is another matter .

Catena Malbec Tim? New world order .

2015 Bourgueil, Cuvee Domaine, Domaine Guion: Grabbed this reasonably priced bottle from this organic producer with a decent reputation on a whim. Starts off with a deep, almost glass staining color, with youthful magenta rim. Not much going on aromatically when removed from the wine cooler; vigorous swirling and warming reveals a light earthy nose. Again, comes off pretty simple and thin at 56F, starts to reveal more near room temperature. Pleasant enough, well balanced with some dusty raspberry and just the tiniest touch of CF green pepper. Trying it the next day after storing at 56F doesn't change things much: don't drink this too cool - it is still somewhat basic when warmed. Not bad, but I just spent a few days in the Finger Lakes and this would probably rank in the lower 1/3 of the CF I tried. Maybe will blossom with age, but not sure it has the fruit for that. 12% ABV.

Joe, I am keen to find out which Cab Francs you sampled in Finger Lakes.

2008 Ridgeline Cabernet Franc: from Alexander Valley but producers are in Napa Co. Does Alexander Valley extent into Napa Co.? In any event this wine was dark black with ruby at edge and dusty/herbal plum on nose. Palate was just plum but well integrated with tannins declining. Nice quaff with very nice nose. abv of %14.8

2005 Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux

Nice savoury fragrance that opens up nicely after an hour. I did decant as sediment was noted. The aromas were quite enticing...cassis, raspberry, herbal tones and undergrowth that I read about. All will be pleased to hear..No Brett!
Red berry flavors, tobacco, earthy, no green pepper. Dry finish, soft tannins, "not at all ripe" from across the table. No vegetal notes did find some blackcurrant on day 2. Very pleasing experience. My last bottle of 3.

2005 Baudry Chinon Les Grezeaux

All will be pleased to hear..No Brett!

Not so for me, Bob. A little bit of brett can add a welcome element to complexity IMO as long as it is far from dominant. That said, I would hesitate to buy a young wine for laying down when I find brett because it is likely to amplify with ageing. In mature wines brett seems to vary from bottle to bottle. My last two bottles of Ch.de Villeneuve Le Grand Clos '96 both showed some brett; the first was nearly undrinkable but the second was still IMO very enjoyable (TNs of both somewhere in the archive).

Most of the "modern" Loire producers now seem to try to avoid brett, not always successfully, e.g. Y. Amirault's La Mine '05. It used to be a risk on Joguet but the Genet family, owners for the last 10 years, seeks to eliminate it.

Joe, I am keen to find out which Cab Francs you sampled in Finger Lakes.

Hi Bob, been a bit preoccupied with following political events the last few days so, not checking in here much.

I wasn't in the area for very long, and mostly tasted at places that I can't get here in NJ or that I haven't visited for awhile. The two CFs I picked up were the '12 from Ryan William and the '14 Reserve Unoaked from Shaw. The former is a small producer with very limited distribution, and they are making a really decent line of wines - one of the few FL producers that makes an oaked Chard that I like. Shaw is another small producer that is a bit more eccentric than Ryan William; I didn't taste there but bought their CF based on the recommendation of someone I trust, who said it might be the CF of the vintage. In rough order of preference, the rest that I had were Damiani, Hector Wine Company, Sheldrake Point, Leidenfrost and Treleaven; they were all decent enough. Sorry, no notes on these.

Asking around, the '16 vintage should be a good one for reds especially. There was very draught-like conditions for much of the summer, but most vines did not shut down. Some rain in the autumn and warm enough weather to get good ripening, low yields and little disease pressure. One producer compared it to '12, which was a great red vintage. As and aside, '13 is a spotty year, and '14 is actually quite good.

This Saumur-Champigny comes from René-Noël Legrand, whose wines I have been buying at the estate on occasional visits for over 20 years. They tend to be quite structured and somewhat forbidding when young but they age beautifully, even the entry level cuvées. Aged for between 10 and 15 years the '96s were excellent; the 97s were richer and more forward and my last bottle of '89 was deliciously elegant earlier this year. The picture is enhanced by very friendly prices.

He is now in semi-retirement and his daughter is taking over. I have bought the '13, '14 & '15 versions of this entry level cuvée for about €7 at successive Carrefour Foires aux Vins and good+ they all are. The Legrand (or their terroir's) trademark of robust raspberry tinged fruit, earthy minerals and firm structure are still there but they have all proved attractive as young as their 1st anniversary. Do I see feminine influence there?

2015 René Noël Legrand Saumur-Champigny Les Terrages - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur-Champigny (11/11/2016)
No score because when I drank this my palate was still suffering from after shock of a highly spiced mussel based starter. However, it is my impression that this 2015 is at least as good as 2014 being slightly fuller, fruitier and more earthy in a manner reminiscent of Legrand's wines from the mid-90. To be confirmed when my palate is not partly anaesthetised and hopefully to be followed by a repeat purchase.

Posted from CellarTracker

[Jenise]

Adding my notes from the tasting earlier this week, which included several other reds that I couldn't decipher my notes about (not drunk, just didn't take down the right/enough information) and couldn't back into using key words on Cellar Tracker. One, however, was an Oregon cab franc from a new producer named Leah Jorgensen who is apparently enamored of Loire wines. I will add that on Friday I tasted a new '15 Cab Franc from Washington producer Savage Grace who also aims at the Loire style. Have to say that neither would ever pass for Loire. Certainly at Tuesday night's tasting, for all her ambitions the Leah Jorgensen was very obviously a new world ringer.

2013 Mathieu Coste Coteaux du Giennois Les têtes de chats Pinot Noir
A gamay-pinot noir combo. Good little quaffer. Cute cat label.

2012 Château de Fosse-Seche Saumur Eolithe
My notes just say "Wonderful." I must have been very distracted.

2015 Tissot (Bénédicte et Stéphane / André et Mireille) Arbois Amphore Trousseau
My bottle, a deliberate ringer from the Jura hand-carried home by me from our trip earlier this year--the amphora version is not exported. Muted notes of cherry pie with clay, celery and oregano. Interesting, and not immediately recognized as an outlier.

2014 Domaine Guiberteau Saumur Les Motelles
Big, very rich and nicely dry, firm tannins; could be cabernet sauvignon. We were told at the time this was Malbec (Cot), and it was brought by it's distributor who would tend to know. But it comes up on Cellar Tracker as CF, as Tim as provided evidence that it must be. The explanation must be terroir.

If you need a red wine that going to require 3 days to show its stuff, then this one is for you!

TN: 2009 Catherine et Pierre Breton Bourgueil Trinch, Loire Valley.

Diam-style cork, 100% Cab Franc, guess around $29 Cdn, cellared 4 yrs, 12.5% alc, grown biodynamically. Some sediment noted, decanted for an hour but sure needed more time.

I have to think some bottle variation as some well known enthusiasts wrote notes hardly similar to mine!
Quite a stemmy nose which carried through to the palate. Tannic, very dry finish and overall not much shown till last glass on day 3 when I found some hints of ripe fruit. Unappealing wine which was a pity as I was looking forward to opening, having read so much about the Breton family.

If you need a red wine that going to require 3 days to show its stuff, then this one is for you!

TN: 2009 Catherine et Pierre Breton Bourgueil Trinch, Loire Valley.

Diam-style cork, 100% Cab Franc, guess around $29 Cdn, cellared 4 yrs, 12.5% alc, grown biodynamically. Some sediment noted, decanted for an hour but sure needed more time.

I don't know. This is usually considered the lighter younger-drinking cuvee. I haven't had the 09 (and stopped following them a while ago) but am not really sure that extended aging is the answer here.

Thanks for the comment Rahsaan.

I hope to visit the Salon des Vignerons Indépendants at la Porte de Versailles next week and Breton is one of the exhibitors. At a huge show like this, I have to be very selective and limit my tastes to no more than 30-40 wines (less if blockbusting reds), beyond which my palate is blunted and differences become blurred. I had marked down Breton as one to sample but Bob's experience here makes me wonder. Joguet is also on show and is perhaps more reliable for this wine type.

I had marked down Breton as one to sample but Bob's experience here makes me wonder. Joguet is also on show and is perhaps more reliable for this wine type.

I wouldn't make too much of this one data point on a 5-year old bottle that is usually best in the first year or two after release.

Of course Breton may not be your thing and you may have other priorities. But in general they have a lot to offer and are certainly worth exploring if you have the time!

Last year I posted here on the `09 Joguet Domaine entry level and thought I should have drunk earlier. The Baudry Domaine from same vintage seems to have more going for it as I am on my 3rd bottle .