The chenin blanc grape variety is behind many of the Loire’s best wine-coloureds, whether the government has be glowing, sweet or simply white

Bouvet Ladubay Saumur Brut, Loire, France NV( PS13. 99, or PS9. 99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk) If you’re a producer of chenin blanc in France’s Loire Valley, you get used to ceding the spotlight. You have to accept that the grape potpourrus you’re working with is currently better known various regions of the world for its contribution to the recent proliferation of superb dry white wine from South Africa. And you know very well that the white grape collection for which your residence neighborhood is most famous has for some years now been sauvignon blanc, as presented in the wine-coloureds of Sancerre, Pouilly-Fume and Touraine. But there are some compensations. Chenin blanc grown in the Loire Valley has a kind of super-power shared by very few other grape varieties( riesling is no other other one I can think of ): you can use it to make any style of wine-colored at the very highest quality rank, from gilded sugared dessert wines to crisply apple-scented, incisive champagne-alike sparkling wines such as Bouvet Ladubay’s reliably fresh and tangy fizz from Saumur.

Domaine la Rouletiere Patrimoine Vouvray Sec, Loire, France 2015( from PS17. 49, allaboutwine.co.uk; greatwinesdirect.co.uk; corkingwines.co.uk) My current favourite Loire chenin fizz is a little more expensive than the Bouvet Ladubay. But at PS21. 95( vincognito.co.uk) Domaine de la Taille aux Loups Triple Zero is pretty competitive alongside the likes of champagne and English wine. It gets its epithet from the absence of sugar, which is commonly supplemented in three places in the production of sparkling wine, but not here: what you get is a tinglingly cool wine-colored of vivid clarity and depth of ripe apple( a classic chenin courage) and more exotic fruit. It’s made by one of the stars of Loire still wines, Jacky Blot, whose Domaine de la Taille aux Loups Remus 2017, a still cool chenin from vineyards around the village of Montouis-sur-Loire( PS26. 68, justerinis.com ), has the same mix of fruit-depth and struck-bell resonance of flavour as the Triple Zero, and which you can also find in the silkily tasteful Patrimoine from Domaine la Rouletiere in Vouvray.

Continue reading …

Read more: theguardian.com