VINIDA - Great value gems from the Loire Valley

The Loire is the longest French river, flowing through the very heart of France. Its banks are dotted with storied cities like Orléans and Tours as well as countless castles and manor houses. They are also covered in vineyards, making it tied for the title of third largest wine region in France after Languedoc-Roussillon and Bordeaux. Still and sparkling. White, red and rosé. Light and bold. Dry, sweet and everything in between. Some 7,000 winemakers produce just about every style of non-fortified wine along the Loire.

As first Bordeaux, then Bourgogne and more recently Rhône and Jura exploded in price, the price increases in the Loire were less steep. It was principally spikes in demand from export markets that drove price increases elsewhere, but only a relatively small proportion of the Loire production is exported and it thus remained relatively affordable. The region has long been primarily supplying the domestic market, especially Paris and its many bistros and restaurants due to proximity to the capital and its many gastronomically flexible wines.

For the last 400km the Loire flows East-to-West, and that’s interesting in itself: it is one of the clearest examples of the diminishing moderating climatic effect of the ocean as continentality increases with distance from the coast. Despite it all being considered the same region and the landscape largely flat there are noticeable differences in climate conditions at the same latitude. This is reflected in the styles of wine produced: crisp Muscadet is produced in the purely oceanic climate around Nantes, Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc dominate the vineyards near Angers and Tours, with the ever more powerful Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir grown in and around the warmer Sancerre furthest inland.

In this tasting we will taste eight wines from along the Loire with a big focus on how this range of climatic conditions expresses itself. We will also look at the developments in Muscadet and the new quality structure based on geologically defined Cru Muscadet sub-regions. We will taste some juicy and ever riper reds delivering far better value than Burgundy or Bordeaux. And we will see how versatile Chenin Blanc can be, producing different styles of wine. As ever, one of the aims of these tastings is to help empower you, the consumer, to confidently reach for something new from the wine store shelves. Denmark doesn’t buy and drink nearly as much Loire wines as it probably ought to: of what is consumed, Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre and its satellites dominates sales despite representing less than a fifth of plantings.

This tasting will be presented in English by Domen Prešern DipWSET of Roots Vin (domen@rootsvin.dk).

This tasting is open for everyone, but as we sometimes will be very detailed, it does give a better experience, if you have some basic knowledge of wines. A good help is to study this “cheat-sheet” kortlink.dk/2pdep and kortlink.dk/2pdfs, to get a basic understanding of wines, their appearance, aromas, flavours and structure.

It is possible to order a quick snack meal served at 18:10. Options will be sent.

The presentation will be in English

This event is organised by Poul Tang poul.tang@m.ida.dk – 51 71 52 40.

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