Vincent Roussely's Touraine wines now@RSJ

Vincent Roussely

We are delighted that our first order from young and exciting Touraine producer, Vincent Roussely, arrived today. Following a visit by Jim to Vincent just before Christmas 2008 (see Jim's Loire here), I tasted Vincent's wines during the 2009 Salon des Vins de Loire at Angers in early February and was impressed both by the wines and by Vincent.

We included his 2008 Touraine Sauvignon in the Sauvignon Blanc tasting on 11th May and it was well liked as was his 2008 Gamay that we bought out for the main course to see how it would match with the salmon. This confirmed once again that a lightish, slightly chilled Loire red is a good match for meaty fish like salmon. Following this tasting we placed an order with Vincent.

He has vines in the Cher Valley at Saint-Georges-sur-Cher and Angé. His 2008 Sauvignon Blanc is on the restaurant list at £18.50 a bottle and 2008 Gamay at £18.95.

These two wines will normally retail at £8.25 a bottle but as a special introductory offer we are currently selling them at £7.50 a bottle.

Glorious harvest weather in Cher Valley

The Cher at Thesée

The weather over the past two days has been sensational. Cool overnight, sun and blue skies during the day with just the odd fluffy cloudy from time to time. The forecast is less promising for later this week. It is so dry at the moment that a little rain would be good.

Happy pickers: Catherine Roussel waving

Clos Roche Blanche
Busy picking Gamay at La Tesnière by hand with a group of experienced pickers, who include some over 70 years old as well as Laurent, a former restaurateur from Brooklyn, New York. “The Gamay is coming in a 12˚ potential,” said Didier Barouillet, co-owner and winemaker. “Overall the level of acidity is a degree higher than last year. The Cabernet is at 13.2% potential alcohol but the acidity is still too high at 7.5. There is a lot of tartaric acid this year because temperatures during the growing period have been lower than the average for the last 30 years. The Côt is at 12.3% with a similar level of acidity. We’ll pick those next week – possibly the Cabernet before the Côt, which is most unusual – normally we always pick the Côt first.”

Small bunch of ripe Gamay

Hope to see Jean-François Merieau, Domaine des Bois Vaudons later this week.

Picking machine in the vineyards of Pouillé.