Red, White, and Loire - Two Wines from an Often Overlooked Region

Hello Everyone! This is the second installment of our wine experience in Bermuda and as we mentioned before, this one is about some wines from the Loire Valley in France. Our connection between Bermuda and the Loire came back in 2007, when we attended a wine open house at wholesaler/retailer/importer called New World Wines. Owner John Sharpe was featuring wines from the Loire along with several other areas, and two in particular most intrigued us: a Chenin Blanc from the appellation of Jasnieres and a Cabernet Franc from Bourgueil.

Some Brief Notes on the Loire

We first came across wines from the Loire Valley in our very early days of drinking wine because we enjoy dry, earthy reds, particularly Cabernet Franc. Back then, it was very difficult to get a varietal bottling of the Cabernet Franc grape except from the Loire. In the Bordeaux region, you can find it blended in good quantities in wines from Pomerol, but it rarely stood on its own outside the Loire. It was also quite difficult to find, in retail stores or restaurants, perhaps because the dry and earthly style doesn’t appeal to a lot of people. We remember one particularly eventful dinner years ago at Piccolo Venezia in the North End of Boston, where we ordered a red wine from the Chinon appellation of the Loire. The waiter wanted to be sure that we understood what we were getting, and that we also had plenty of water to go with our meal since the wine was so dry. But we loved the wine and over a short period of time, we ordered as many wines from Chinon as we could find on VirtualVineyards.com, which has since become Wine.com. Today, it’s still not that easy to find Loire Valley red wines in the United States, but many California producers are beginning to offer Cab Franc as a single varietal or blended with smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.

In terms of white wines, the Loire produces wines made primarily from Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. You can also find delicious wines from Muscadet, which is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape. We have always been fans of Sauvignon Blanc from almost any part of the world, and have enjoyed the wines from Sancerre, Menetou-Salon, Reuilly, and Pouilly Fume (not to be confused with Pouilly Fuisse in Burgundy). Sancerre is across the Loire River from Pouilly Fume, and Menetou Salon is directly west of Sancerre, “the other side of the hill.” All three appellations have similar characteristics in the Sauvignon Blanc.

Open House 2007

The first wine that we tasted at New World Wines’ open house was a Chenin Blanc from Domaine Les Maisons Rouges in Jasnieres 2005. We found this to be a full-bodied white with good acidity, a hint of sweetness and some good melon flavors. This Chenin Blanc was much more of a “winter white” and we felt that it was a great substitute for meals that would pair well with a Chardonnay.

The red that really hit the spot for us was Yannick Amirault Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil les Malgagnes 2003. It was rich, earthy, spicy, with a good bit of dryness to balance the fruit and herbal notes. It has a finish that seems to last forever. We thought that this was from Chinon, but learned that it was from Bourgueil (pronounced Boar-goy; think of the Jewish phrase oy vey), or more specifically, St. Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, which is on the north bank of the Loire, directly across the river from Chinon.

Needless to say, both of these wines rated the “buy a case” and we bought a few cases over the period of our time in Bermuda and managed to keep some to bring back home.

Return to New World Wine in 2010

While planning our recent trip to Bermuda, Rachel contacted John Sharpe, the owner of New World Wines and inquired about visiting the warehouse to pick up more of these wines. With the liquids travel regulations, you can’t take wine in your carry-on, but if you have a good solid roll-aboard and bring some packing supplies, you should be able to bring some home in your checked luggage (over the years and several cases in our roll-aboards, we’ve only lost one bottle to breakage). Additionally, if you’re traveling internationally, declare all of your wine when you go through customs. You get some duty free and we found that even the case of wine that we had only carried a duty of around $6, so they did not bother with charging the duty. (Alcohol duty varies with percentage and with wine being in the 12 – 13% range, the duty is almost always very small.)

So upon our arrival in Bermuda, we rented our scooter and met John at the warehouse on Saturday morning, intending to get a case of wine split between the Jasnieres and the Bourgueil. (On the ride over, we realized there was no way we were getting a box of wine on our rental scooter, but luckily for us, John graciously agreed to deliver it to our hotel.) John recommended a sampling of Jasnieres and Bourgueil which was perfect; especially since all of the wines were from the widely hailed 2005 vintage. We also purchased an extra bottle of one of the Jasnieres that was in our sample to have while on the island, since we had not tasted it before. The bottle was a 2005 Eric Nicolas Domaine de Belliviere Vielles Vignes Eparses Coteaux du Loir Blanc. That’s a really long name so we’ll break it down for you. The producer is Eric Nicolas and the winery is Domaine de Belliviere. It is a white wine from the appellation Coteaux du Loir, which is near the city of Anjou, southwest of Bourgueil. And “Vielles Vignes Eparses” means sparse old vines, which makes this a serious white wine.

The Eparses comes form 50-year-old vines and had a very deep straw color. It felt very full in the mouth. There was a hint of sweetness, plenty of melon flavors, but also an interesting almondy flavor that came from barrel aging. The wine finished with a nice dryness. The 14% alcohol content surprised us, but then 2005 was a warm year, which allowed for additional ripening. We also found that the colder we were able to get the wine, it maintained more acids and was more pleasant to drink in the warmer weather (even in March it can be difficult to keep your white wine cold in Bermuda; if you’re in a warm area we recommend a bucket with ice and water, and if you’re in direct sun, cover it a little bit with a light towel to prevent the bottle from absorbing the sunlight). Overall, it was a nice experience and we are glad that it’s in our sampler. This is a serious wine with some heft, so we would recommend it more as a “winter white” to be served with food rather than as a sipping wine on a warm sunny day. We will look for more of these wines since they do provide a nice alternative to Chardonnay.

Both wines retailed around $20 in Bermuda, and the pricing in the US is likely to be closer to $30 since these are not your standard wines.

The Loire Valley is a great area to pick up some varietals that are produced in very limited quantities, if at all, in the US. Very little good Chenin Blanc is produced in the US and the Loire provides another version of Sauvignon Blanc so you can have fun with a tasting of Sauvignon Blanc from around the globe. Chinon and Bourgueil are home to the elusive single varietal Cabernet Franc, which we love for its earthiness and it’s a nice hearty red to warm you during the cooler months.

Drink what you like, Like what you drink!

Rachel and Bryan Gavini