Visit to Christophe Daviau, Domaine de Bablut

Saturday 31st January 2009

Christophe in serious mood during the harvest@end of September 2008

It is just a short drive from Domaine des Rochelles in Saint-Jean-de-Mauvrets across country to Domaine de Bablut (Vignobles Daviau) on the western edge of Brissac-Quincé – the venue for our last visit of the day with Christophe Daviau. The Daviau family have been growing vines here since 1546. They were also millers. Apparently Bablut means two windmills in old French and there still is an old mill on the property, now used a tasting room. At the end of the 19th century the family ceased to be millers and concentrated on vines and wine.

Christophe studied in Bordeaux and then worked for 18 months in Australia. I first met Christophe in September 1989, soon after he had returned to Bablut to take over the reins from his father, Jean-Pierre. Bablut has around 80 hectares, which have been farmed organically since 1996.

Our tasting on 31 January started with the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc (VDP) – still in tank and due to be bottled in March, which has attractive grassy and gooseberry flavours.

Then on to the mineral 2008 Petit Princé – one of two Anjou Blancs Christophe makes. This is the junior wine, which comes from the well-ventilated plateau at Haut-Perche. Grandpierre, Christophe’s wonderfully minerally and balanced Coteaux de l’Aubance, also comes from this area. Petit Princé is fermented and aged in stainless steel. It matures on its lees, which are frequently stirred to give the wine additional weight. The 2008 will be bottled in June/July of this year.

Ordovicien is the ‘grand vin’ blanc sec and comes from vineyards on schisteous soils. Vinified and matured in barriques, Ordovicien is bottled after 18 months. The 2008 is still fermenting but has a promisingly rich structure. The long and slightly buttery 2007 is due to be bottled at Easter.

The 2008 Rosé de Loire at 11.5% alcohol was attractively light and fruity. Now made from 100% Grolleau, this used to be a blend with 30% Cabernet. Until recently the Rosé de Loire regulations required a proportion of Cabernet. Fortunately this has now been dropped and there are no minimum or maximum requirements as far as the permitted varieties (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grolleau, Pineau d’Aunis, Gamay and Côt) are concerned. Previously a number of Rosé de Loire producers used to ignore the rules, saving their Cabernet for either their red or Cabernet d’Anjou.

The dense, black fruited 2007 Anjou-Villages-Brissac (70% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon) is still in tank as is the 2007 Petra Alba (100% Cabernet Franc, grown on limestone) , which is remarkably concentrated with soft tannins after 70 days of maceration. Bottling is due in March.

We discussed best drinking times for the recent vintages and Christophe suggested that it would be best to drink the 2007 and then wait for the 2006, which is high in acidity, and the 2005.

Because of difficult flowering conditions, Christophe didn’t make Petra Alba in 2008 with the grapes going into the Bablut Anjou –Villages-Brissac instead. However, he did make Rocca Nigra (100% Cabernet Sauvignon grown on schist and slate) as his Cabernet Sauvignon flowered in better conditions, although the yield was under 20 hl/ha. Both of these wines are looking promising, although it is still very early days, especially for Rocca Nigra which won’t be bottled until Easter 2010.

To finish we tasted 2006 and 2005 Rocca Nigra and Petra Alba. In both cases the Petra Alba showed better at this stage with greater delicacy and balance, although all four are rich, powerful wines. ideally all of them still need at least another two years in bottle and, in the case of the 2005 Rocca Nigra, a minimum of of three years in Christophe’s opinion.

Jean-Hubert Lebreton: Saturday 31st January (cont)

Domaine des Rochelles

Jean-Hubert Lebreton

Following a very enjoyable lunch – simply but well cooked (Catherine Ogereau always promises us a simple meal with no starter but cheese and dessert always follows the main course) – it was off to the Lebretons at Domaine des Rochelles in Saint-Jean-de-Mauvrets close to the Loire and north of Brissac-Quincé.

Here we were looked after by Jean-Hubert Lebreton. Jean-Hubert used to be the assistant-wine maker at Hardy’s Banrock Station in Australia, where just one tank held more than the entire production of Domaine des Rochelles. He also worked in Bordeaux at Pichon-Baron and Lynch-Bages.

As elsewhere the Lebretons had a small crop in 2008 – down overall by 15%-20% due to a combination of frost damage, poor flowering and small grapes with little juice. Normally they make 350-400 hls each of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, making a total of around 800 hls of Anjou Villages. In 2008 they made only 180hls-200hls of each. Jean-Hubert mentioned that they are now selling 240 hls of VIn de pays Sauvignon in bag-in-box.

Both the 2008 and 2007 Anjou Blanc, which is vinified in 400 litre barrels were attractive. The 2007 showing moiré honey, while the 2008 at this stage a more mineral character. The 2008 L’Ardoise Anjou Rouge (10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 90% Cabernet Franc) has a sooty nose and quite ripe, easy drinking fruit – as an Anjou Rouge should be. (Ardoise means slate – one of the rocks of Anjou.)

Tom King tuning into the French language

The 2006 Anjou-Villages (80% Cabernet Franc/ 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) initially has soft, floral black fruits with quite tarry tannins in the long finish. As you would expect the 2007 AV is less rich. It is also less tannic, so best to drink this while waiting for the 2006 to show its best. “It is difficult to get Cabernet Franc soft and supple – it needs time,” commented Jean-Hubert. “It is easier to sell La Croix de la Mission.”

The 2007 la Croix de la Mission (90% Cabernet Sauvignon/10% Cabernet Franc) has pretty impressive richness and structure for a 2007 with remaining soft.

Jean-Hubert: “2007 wasn’t easy. The Cabernet Sauvignon was picked some 10 days after the Franc – the yield was 45 hl/ha. With Cabernet Sauvignon it is possible to push the maturity further than with Cabernet Franc because Franc’s skin is not as tough and robust. The wine had three weeks maceration.

“In 2008 we picked La Croix de la Mission on 1st and 2nd November with the fruit coming in at 13.5-14% potential for 35 hl/ha.”

The 2008 La Croix is very deep coloured with sweet, richly concentrated fruit with good length. A this stage it is a bit cloying but is still has a long way to go before it will be bottled.

Onto the very rich and powerful 2005 Les Millerits, Anjou Villages, which comes in at 15% with blackcurrant and coffee notes. Still too young, this needs leaving in the cellar for at least another three or four years. Les Millerits is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from a vineyard planted on friable, yellow schist. In contrast the 10 ha La Croix de la Mission is on quartz-red schist. It is aged for 18 months in barrels – partly new, partly one wine and partly two wines.

Jean-Hubert: “We didn’t make Les Millerits in either 2006 or 2007. The 2008 is not yet in barrel. It went through malo in tank but in future we’d like it to do its malo en barrique once we have enough cellar space available. While I was at Pichon-Baron we did some experiments on this and found that malo en barrique made the wines rounder and richer. ”

The infant 2008 Les Millerits is like the 2005 – dark and brooding, with very rich, concentrated fruit and unlikely to be ready to drink before 2015.

Tasting these powerful Anjou-Villages Cabernet Sauvignons is once again a reminder that you can get good results with Cabernet Sauvignon in Anjou but that it is very site-specific. To get ripe fruit you need a warm soil, so that the vines get off to an early start. Planted in cold soils it is very rare to get ripe Cabernet Sauvignon here. The Lebretons are fortunately to have some of the best vineyards for CS in the area.

Finally onto the sweet wines with the quite rich, nicely balanced and citric 2007 Coteaux de l’Aubance the first up. This is fermented and aged in 400 litre barrels. Not super sweet but one to enjoy as an aperitif or with blue cheese. The agreeably citric 2008 is lighter and without the same length as the 2007. It illustrates that 2008 is not a sweet wine vintage in the Loire. Providing you don’t pay very much for them, there are some perfectly pleasant wines to be enjoyed young and drunk as aperitifs or with rich pork and chicken dishes.

We finished by tasting the rich and concentrated 2007 L’Ambre, the Lebreton’s top L’Aubance with its fine peach and apricot flavours. Unsurprisingly L’Ambre was not made in 2008.

We talked about the rumours of some Anjou producers turning in 2008 to osmosis machines to try to make sweet wine without taking risks. Picking at 14%-15% potential and hoping the machine would work its magic. I guess this is an unfortunate illustration that despite the big renaissance of sweet wine in Anjou over the last 15 years that there are still producers who think that osmosis machines or chaptalisation for sweet wine are acceptable. They are not and we agreed that the sooner Anjou bans chaptalisation for sweet wine the better. Apparently the L'Aubance producers are considering banning chaptalisation – bravo I hope they soon take this long overdue step.

Vincent and Catherine Ogereau: 2008 progress report

I caught up briefly on the phone this morning with Vincent and Catherine, Domaine Ogereau in Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay in the Layon Valley.

Vincent: Overall the vintage isn’t too bad. We have been very surprised by how little there is – lack of juice in the grapes and small berries. However, the quality across the board – Rosé de Loire, Cabernet d’Anjou, Anjou Blanc Sec and the reds – is good. We finished the Cabernet Franc last Saturday. As it was completely ready we picked all of it in a day with a big team of 20-25, including university friends of Emmanuel (Catherine and Vincent’s son). The Franc had 13% potential and the acidity had come down to 4.8 gms – 10 days ago the it had been up at 7.5-8 gms. But the yield is only 20 hl/ha!


“On Thursday we finished the Cabernet Sauvignon in the Côte de la Houssaye – potential 13.7%. As far as the sweet wines are concerned we have hardly started – just two small passages through the vines with the grapes around 18% potential. The Chenin is now about ready to pick but it’s damp this morning and unfortunately rain is forecast for Monday and Tuesday. The pity is that if we had fine weather there is only about a week’s picking left.”