Anjou tasting and dinner tonight

Autumn view across the Layon towards Beaulieu

Here is a list of the wines to be tasted tonight:

Aperitif
2008 Anjou Blanc Sec Vincent Ogereau

Whites:
2007 Château de la Roulerie Chenin Sec Philippe Germain

2004 Savennières Clos le Grand Beaupréau Vincent Ogereau

1991 Anjou Blanc Sec Chavigné Didier Richou

Served with Roast skate wing, cod brandade, crab bisque


Reds:
2007 Gamay, Anjou Gamay, Château Pierre-Bise
Replaces the 1997 Gamay, Anjou Gamay Château Pierre-Bise, which was unfortunately corked.

2007 La Croix de Mission, Domaine des Rochelles, Jean-Yves and Anita Lebreton

2006 Anjou Villages Vincent Ogereau

2005 Les Jeunes Vignes des Gelinettes, La Ferme de la Sansonnière, Marc Angeli

Served with: Roast saddle of English lamb, French beans, Chantenay carrots, fricassée of wild mushrooms, new potatoes


Sweet:
2008 Coteaux du Layon Rochefort Château Pierre-Bise, Claude Papin
Served with: pear and almond tart with saffron ice cream

Developing noble rot@Domaine de Bablut

Botrytis developing: some rains dorée and pourri plein (purple grapes). Skins are very thin and fragile at this stage

Christophe Daviau looking at his Chenin in the Grandpierre vineyard

Spent a fascinating morning with Christophe Daviau (Domaine de Bablut) looking at his Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc that is yet to be picked.

We started with in Chenin in his vineyard called Grandpierre that produces a very characterful and mineral sweet wine – a favourite of mine. Christophe has already done a tri here. Not enough of the bunches are ready for a second tri, although they might be ready for Monday if rain is still threatened for Tuesday. Once the botrytis gets established, it can develop very quickly given the right conditions.

Christophe explaining Chenin Blanc and the stages of botrytis developing

Bit further along plus some sundried berries

Well spread out bunches allowing the air to circulate around them (above and below)


Still needs a little more time to the botrytis to develop and the sugars to concentrate

A bunch of Chenin Blanc tends to have big variations of maturity – here some golden grapes others becoming shrivelled and raisin like.

Harvest reports: Château de Villeneuve, Domaine Ogereau and Domaine de Bablut

9th October 2009

The church at Souzay-Champigny and Château de Villeneuve

Florence Chevallier, Château de Villeneuve, Saumur-Champigny

"We are well advanced now and I expect that we will finish on Tuesday. We started on Wednesday 30th September with the white – the Chenin was magnificent – and the Cabernet Franc on Friday 1st October. The Ban des Vendanges was for Monday 5th October but as our degrees were already high we were able to start early. Both the Cabernet and Chenin are between 13%-13.5%.

As the weather forecast was uncertain at the beginning of this week we decided there was no point in waiting, so we harvested quickly with a big group of 35 pickers. Normally we do two tris (selective pickings) with the Chenin but the grapes were so good that we picked everything in one go. Had we done a tri then the degrees in the second picking would have gone too high."

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Vincent Ogereau, Domaine Ogereau, Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay

Vincent and Catherine Ogereau

I was delighted to learn that Vincent has now made a full recovery from his operation in May.

Vincent: "Our Chenin is really good – golden yellow. Last week we did a tri for the Layon and the grapes came in a 20% potential. The juice has very pure fruit flavours. This week I have been worried by the tropical conditions we have had – warm and humid – bringing the danger of rot developing in the Cabernet Franc. We picked for the Anjou Rouge yesterday – 12.8% potential and 4.4g acidity. it should be quite soft. Then we'll start the Cabernet Franc for the Anjou Villages on Monday. I'm out every midday in the vines tasting the grapes and the ripeness is now starting to change very quickly with the acidity dropping. We need to get on picking now – it is too risky to wait.

We've picked some Cabernet Sauvignon to make rosé, which should be superb, but I'm not sure whether the Cabernet Sauvignon will get ripe enough, so that we can make red with it. At the moment the tannins are not ripe. The very dry weather we have had since the beginning of June has slowed down the ripeness. We have a small yield for the Cabernet this year."

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Christophe Daviau

Christophe Daviau, Domaine de Bablut, Brissac-Quincé
"I think my Cabernet Sauvignon may well be riper than my Cabernet Franc. We've picked for the Anjou Rouge, which will have short time macerating on the skins so that it is soft and easy to drink. The Cabernet Franc on the limestone (AV Petra Alba) could potentially be very good, so I'm going to leave that for a while. For the Chenin we've finished the sec for Petit Prince and Ordovicien. The juice is 'super-beau' and very aromatic. We've also done a tri for the Coteaux de l'Aubance, which was at 19%-20% potential.

I'm a little bit disappointed by the yield but that's due to the dry weather, although the small amount of rain we've had in September and October has plumped the grapes up a bit. "

New menus: fixed and à la carte

Maggie is excited by the new menus!

Both the fixed price and à la carte menus have changed. Click here for details of the fixed and here for à la carte. Notice that the RSJ continues to be optmistic about summer continuing well into October. The à carte menu is also available at lunchtime.