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Discovering Loire reds Speak of France's Loire valley, and most wine lovers will instinctively think of white wine. After all, the world's greatest ageworthy Chenin Blanc-based whites are made here, backed up quite nicely by excellent Sauvignon Blancs and Muscadets. But here and there along this scenic river valley with its historic and tourist-attracting chateaux - particularly in the region called Touraine around the city of Tours - you'll find interesting reds. The appellations Chinon ("Shee-nawN") and Bourgueil ("Boor-guh-y") in particular, which face each other across the Loire just west of the city, turn Cabernet Franc, with an occasional dash of Cabernet Sauvignon, into idiosyncratic but pleasant red wines well worth discovering. These wines represent a real change of pace for palates accustomed to hearty, inky, tooth-staining reds: Often subtle and delicate, they usually show mixed-berry aromas and flavors - raspberry in particular - along with marked herbal scents that often remind me of tarragon or the familiar "pencil-sharpener" aroma of fresh oregano, all backed by a snappy acidity that makes the wines sing with food. We're focusing Chinon and Bourgueil, and Loire wines in general, as the topic this month in Wine Tasting 101, our free forum that invites you to practice tasting wines and reporting your impressions among peers in a friendly, supportive online community. As "benchmark" wines, I have selected one of each from the portfolio distributed in the U.S. by the first-rate importer Kermit Lynch: Charles Joguet 2000 "Cuvée Terroir" Chinon ($14.99), and Domaine de la Chanteleuserie 2000 "Cuvée Beauvais" Bourgueil ($12.99). To kick off the topic, I've put my tasting report on the Chanteleuserie below. Both these wines are from the 2000 vintage, a cool and rainy summer that produced lackluster whites but that yielded surprisingly attractive reds that tend to be quaffable if not for aging.
WEB LINKS:
• For more information about Loire wines in general, visit The Wines of Val de Loire,
• The Bourgueil producers' association has an informational site in French at 
Domaine de la Chanteleuserie 2000 "Cuvée Beauvais" Bourgueil ($12.99)
Dark garnet in color, this Loire Cabernet Franc breathes characteristic red-fruit and spice aromas with a pleasant whiff of freshly ground white pepper as a grace note. Fresh and tart on the palate, mouth-watering acidity supports clean, juicy sour-cherry fruit, showing an intriguing textural contrast between light body and smooth but perceptible tannins, with a delicious nuance of chocolate-covered cherries in a long finish. U.S. importer: Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, Berkeley, Calif. (Sept. 1, 2003) FOOD MATCH: Casting about for an interesting food match with Loire Cabernet Franc, I found a winner in a not-too-fiery Cajun-style chicken gumbo loaded with fresh okra. VALUE: A wine of unusual complexity and flavor interest for this low-midrange price. WHEN TO DRINK: The conventional wisdom suggests drinking up most 2000 Loire reds within a few years, and this wine offers no real reason to dispute that, although tannins, acidity and balance should hold it for a while.
WEB LINK: The producer, Thierry Boucard, has a short, simple fact sheet about the winery and its wines in English at WineWeb.com Surpasses 20,000 Winery Mark The WineWeb announces that their service now contains information on over 20,000 wineries worldwide. Their integrated search engines allow consumers to research wineries and order wine from many sources. Search for your favorite wines at www.wineweb.com. In addition to having the largest online database of wineries, The WineWeb has recently developed myWineWeb, a service for personalizing the Internet wine portal to a consumer's interests. Visitors to wineweb.com can now specify their interests including countries and grape varieties to create their own customized home page. Getting started with myWineWeb is easy. Just click the graphic or the myWineWeb Info link on The WineWeb home page.
Since its inception in 1995, The WineWeb has built a huge database of winery and wine information that allows consumers to search using criteria such as winery location and type of wine. The WineWeb has integrated links to all known winery Web sites worldwide and provides additional functions around those sites. The WineWeb also allows access to online merchants and services that stock wines from each winery and that can ship to a specific location. Administrivia To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, or for any other administrative matters, please use the individualized hotlink found at the end of your E-mail edition. If this is not practical, contact me by E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com, including the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so I can find your record. We do not use our E-mail list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail address to anyone. I welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. To contact me, please send E-mail to wine@wineloverspage.com All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry.
Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2003 |
