Loire Wine Salons February 2013

The big week has nearly arrived and it's time to descend on the various Wine Salons held in the Anjou region of the Loire. Gone are the days of visiting one major salon (Salon des Vins de Loire) as 'Offs' or off-shoot salons have grown year by year. This year we have the challenge of visiting all SIX - yes six different shows within the space of 3 days (although the elapsed time is over 5 days). So here is the unofficial list of what is going on, when and where. Salons are reserved for professionals in the wine trade and usually by invitation although some allow a supplementary entrance to be paid on the door in return for a glass and an extraordinary range of tastings.

 

Starting on Saturday is the Renaissance des Appellations 2015 at Greniers Saint Jean - Angers Saturday 31st January and Sunday 1st February 9h30-19h. One of our favourite salons for the quality of wines represented and showing organic and biodynamic wines with a great selection from the Loire Valley. Including :

LOIRE

- Didier Chaffardon
– Christophe Daviau
– Yves et Anne Guégniard
– Clément Baraut
– Toby Bainbridge
– Eddy Oosterlinck
– Benoit Blet
– Didier Hauret
– Olivier Lecomte
– Patrick Baudouin
– Xavier Cailleau
– Damien et Didier Richou
– Stéphane Rocher
– Th. Ducleux, JM Brousset et J. Delrieu
– Jean-François Vaillant
– Thomas Carsin
– Jo Pithon
– Nathalie et Vincent Betis
– Thierry Michon
– Joseph Landron
– Frédéric Niger Van Herck et Guy Bossard
– Sébastien Riffault
– Philippe Gilbert
– Michel Gendrier
– Michel Quenioux
– Laura Semeria
– Bruno Allion
– Louis-Jean Sylvos
– Olivier Bellanger
– Paul Gillet
– François Plouzeau
– François Chidaine
– Vincent Carème
– Hélène Fillette
– Eric Nicolas
– Philippe Delesvaux
– Maï et Kenji Hodgson
– Stéphanie et Vincent Deboutbertin
– Joël Ménard
– Thomas Batardière
– Liv Vincendeau
– Bruno Rochard
– Richard Leroy
– Rémi Bonnet
– Bernard et Benoit Landron
– Jacques Carroget
– Tessa Laroche
– Loïc Mahé
– Virginie Joly
– Yannick Amirault
– Sébastien David
– Pascal Lambert
– Etienne de Bonnaventure
– Bernard Baudry
– Guillaume Pire
– Guillaume Reynouard
– Jean-François Regnier
– Jean-Noël Million
– Mathieu Vallée
– Anne-Claude Leflaive
– Xavier Caillard
– Aymeric Hilaire
– Philippe Gourdon
– Mark Angeli

Also on the Saturday and Sunday 31st Jan - 1st February 10h - 18h is an off-shoot from Les Salons des Amis - Les Pénitentes @ Hotel de Penitents Angers. Bonhomme, Chaussard, Mosse, Puzelat and Villemade have invited a range of producers listed below with empasis on organic and natural wines.

In it's third year now but this time a new location on Sunday 1st February at the Salon Curnonsky, rue st martin, 49700 Angers (in front of the old location of the collegiale saint Martin) from 10h00 - 19h00  is the Vins Anonymes 2015. The idea of this salon is to allow a collective of young and perhaps relatively unknown vignerons show their wines that are either alternative, close to natural and authentic. Some of the vignerons represented include our neighbour Jacky RIPOCHE of LES NOADES SAUMUR along with – LA COULEE D’Ambrosia johana et jf Chene ANJOU – LAMBERT Jérôme ANJOU – CAVE BECLAIR ANJOU – GARREAU cédric ANJOU – SAURIGNY jérôme ANJOU – BOUTIN Thomas ANJOU – LES VIGNES DE BABASS ANJOU – BOREL Pierre BOURGUEIL – DOMAINE DU MORTIER maison Boisard BOURGUEIL - – COURANT XAVIER BOURGUEIL – COURTAULT Joel TOURAINE – LA LUNOTTE Foucher TOURAINE

Let's not forget another of our favourite events of the year the Dive Bouteille this time on the 1-2  February Sunday and Monday in the sous terrain setting of the caves of Ackerman. Organised by Sylvie Augereau this salon features natural wines from all over France, but also some wines from Italy and producers from the USA. This is the 15th Dive and we are sure it is going to be a popular as ever with a diverse and electic range of natural wines.

 

Many of the Loire regulars including

 – Marion Pescheux et Manuel Landron, Complémen’terre (Muscadet)
– Jérôme Bretaudeau, Bellevue (Muscadet)
– Marc Pesnot, la Sénéchalière (Muscadet)
– J Bresteau et M Houtin, Grange aux Belles (Anjou)
– Philippe Delmée (Anjou)
– Geneviève et Nicolas Bertin-Delatte,Echalier (Anjou)
– Clément Baraut (Anjou-Savennières)
– Sylvain Martinez (Anjou)
– François Saint-Lô (Anjou)
– Stéphane Erissé (Anjou)
– Nicolas Reau (Anjou)
– Eric Dubois, Clos Cristal (S-Champigny)
– Antoine Sanzay (S-Champigny)
– Bruno Dubois (S-Champigny)
– Matthieu Bouchet, Gaillard (Saumur)
– Thierry Germain, Roches Neuves (S-Champigny)
– Sylvain Dittière, Porte Saint-Jean (S-Champigny)
– Caroline et Antoine Foucault, le Collier (Saumur)
– Arnaud Lambert, Brézé (Saumur)
– Emeline et Sébastien Bobinet (S-Champigny)
– Romain Guiberteau (Saumur)
– Patrick Corbineau (Touraine-Chinon)
– Fred Sigonneau, de l’R (Chinon)
– Jérôme Lenoir, cave des Roches (Chinon)
– François Blanchard, le Grand Cléré (Touraine)
– Gérard Marula (Touraine-Chinon)
– Lise et Bertrand Jousset (Montlouis)
– Sébastien Brunet (Vouvray)
– Mathieu Cosme, Beaumont (Vouvray)
– C. et D. Delecheneau, Grange Tiphaine (Mtlouis)
– Grégory Leclerc, Chahut et Prodiges (Touraine)
– Noella Morantin (Touraine)
– Laurent Saillard (Touraine)
– Brendan Tracey (Touraine)
– Olivier Lemasson, les Vins Contés (Touraine)

Returning again this year is another newish salon La Levée de la Loire scheduled for Monday 2/3/4th February 2015 this time at the Parc des Expositions d’Angers  from 9h - 19h. This is the Association interprofessional of the Organic Wines of the Loire (Vin Bio de Loire) organised in partnership with the Renaissance, the Dive and le Salon du Logis du Gouverneur.

 


Represented from the Loire we have -

– AMIRAULT Xavier, Thierry et Agnès
– AUPETITGENDRE Claude et GOZARD Jacques
– BILLARD Jérôme
– BOISARD Fabien et Cyril
– BOURSE Quentin
– BRETON Pierre
– CAREME Vincent
– CASLOT Claudia, Franck et Bertrand
– CASLOT Stéphanie et Emmanuel
– CHANSON Ludovic
– COURANT Xavier
– COURTEMANCHE Frédéric
– DAVID Sébastien- DANSAULT Gabrièle et Régis
– DESCHAMPS Sandrine et Christophe
– DE BONNAVENTURE Pascale et Etienne
– GALBRUN Bertrand- GASNIER Fabrice
– GAUTHIER Pierre et Rodolphe
– GENDROT Fabrice
– GERARD Philippe et DETECHEVERRY Arnaud
– GROSBOIS Nicolas
– GUION Stéphane
– HERIVAULT Arnaud
– HERLIN Laurent
– JOURDAN Francis
– KLOECKE Jean-Daniel
– LAMBERT Pascal et Béatrice
– LAMBERT Patrick
– LANDRY Thierry
– MABILEAU Frédéric
– MANCEAU Jean-Max
– MERIAS Benoît
– MUREAU Stéphane
– PELLETIER Jean-Christophe
– PICHET Thomas
– PINON François
– PLAISANTIN Yves
– PLOUZEAU Marc
– RIMBAULT Sophie et ROUXELIN Anne
– ROUSSE Wilfrid
– SIGONNEAU Frédéric
– SPELTY Johann
– SYLVOS Louis-Jean
– THIBAULT Marie
– VALLEE Gérald
– VAN DEN BERGHE Kathleen
– VALLEE Gérald

Last but never least the BIG one that starts on 2nd February and runs for 3 days to the 4th February inclusive the Salon des Vins de Loire at the Parc des Expositions in Angers from 9h - 19h each day except Wednesday to 18h as everyone will want to go home as let's face it they will be exhausted by this time! It is here that the Medal Winners (Palais de Ligers) are announced along with the winners of the blog trophy, the best student sommelier and many other master classes on terroir and chenin.

Within the Salon des Vins de Loire is also the Salons des Vins de Loire Stand Collectif Vins Bio a stand for the collective of organic producers.

So you see the wine world is going to be a buzz in this area of the Loire Valley over the next week. The logistics of getting from one show to the other are going to be fun but at the least the weather is on our side at the moment but we know how precocious February can be in the region - so fingers crossed !

Previous years we had heavy snow - this years forecast is looking ok!!  

Dive Bouteille - Nul n'est censé ignorer la Loire 

© Sylvie Augereau

Happy New Vineyard Year 2013

Did you know that during the Napoleonic wars most of Europe used the Gregorian calendar. However between 1792 and 1805 France used what was known as the Republican or Napoleonic Calendar. In this all the months were renamed and years began with the foundation of the Republic at An I or Year 1. All months had 30 days except the 12th month, which had 35 or 36 on a leap year. The Republican year ran from September to August with each month named according to the season.

I've been fascinated with this calendar ever since I saw the paintings of it in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris. So I thought it would be fun to re-produce my own 21st Century version using the colours of the vineyard year.

"VENDEMIARE"

September to October was referred to as Vendemiare meaning Vintage and the month of the wine harvest.

GOLDEN VENDEMIARE

"BRUMIARE"

October to November was renamed Brumiare meaning Fog.

GREY BRUMIARE

"FRIMAIRE"

November to December was called Frimaire meaning Frost. Brrhh...

SILVER FRIMAIRE

"NIVOSE"

December to January became known as Nivose meaning Snow. Brrhhhhh...

WHITE NIVOSE

"PLUVIOSE"

January to February was Pluviose meaning Rain. Sums up a dreary cold month...

BROWN PLUVIOSE

"VENTOSE"

February to March became Ventose meaning Wind. My least favourite month and difficult to reproduce as a colour so I have called it opaque as by the end of March the sap should be rising on the pruned vines.

OPAQUE VENTOSE

"GERMINAL"

March to April was declared Germinal meaning Budding. Surprisingly in this month the little buds start to appear on the vines. From now on the vineyards start to come out of their winter dormancy and gradually more colour will start to appear in the vineyards.

GRIS GERMINAL

"FLOREAL"

April to May was considered as Floreal meaning FLOWERING. The month the little flowers start to appear on the vines. A period call floraison.

GREEN FLORIAL

"PRAIRIAL"

May to June was considered as Prairial meaning Meadows. The fields around the vineyards are starting to fill with colour now especially the rose fields.

RAINBOW PRAIRIAL

"MESSIDOR"

June to July was described as Messidor meaning Harvest. The cereal fields are starting to be harvested. Sue even went up in a microlite to catch this shot!

BEIGE MESSIDOR

"THERMIDOR"

July to August was designated Thermidor meaning Heat. Orange like a lobster thermidor?

ORANGE THERMIDOR

"FRUCTIDOR"

August to September was named Fructidor meaning Fruit.

PURPLE FRUCTIDOR


OTHER COLOURS OF THE VINEYARDS

BRIGHT GREEN

BRIGHT YELLOW

BRIGHT RED

RUSSET
BLUE

The calendar lasted for 13 years before being returned to the Gregorian Calender in 1806 by Napoleon Bonaparte.