Vouvray

[Freckles]

Hello, all:

I posted this on the France focum and hope you dont mind me also asking here...

I am driving to Paris from Azay-le-Rideau tomorrow and would like to pick up some cases of Vouvray. I have my Guide Hachette with me, but wondered if there are any producers you particularly recommend that I visit. Thanks. Freckles

[ludja]

Hello, all:

I posted this on the France focum and hope you dont mind me also asking here...

I am driving to Paris from Azay-le-Rideau tomorrow and would like to pick up some cases of Vouvray.  I have my Guide Hachette with me, but wondered if there are any producers you particularly recommend that I visit.  Thanks.    Freckles

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This isn't any help, but just a question. If you get to taste some wines during the course of your 'shopping' it would be great to hear your impressions. I've been told the 2002 vintage was very good, although maybe that is getting too old???

I had a great slightly off-dry 2002 Vouvray from Champalou last summer. It is available in the US but I don't know if you are keeping your eyes out for bottles not available here (if this is your home)... Interested to hear from others more knowledgable.

edited to add: Here's the link to this same topic in the French forum so that it's easy for us to check between the two.

Edited April 24, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Freckles]

Thanks. The US is not my home. I currently live in France but will be returning to Canada at the end of the year. Ontario, where I was born and raised, has a socialist-monopoly-hell that makes wine buying both expensive and limited by bureaucrats. So, I'm interested in buying things not available there, or available there only at much higher prices.

[Freckles]

Okay. I visited Champalou and Domaine Huet yesterday. Both great.

Disclaimer for all that follows: I am not a very sophisticated wine drinker -- more of a neophyte, really -- and just know what I like and dislike, rather than what makes a great wine.

Champalou is a bit of a construction site at the moment; they are expanding their cave. I first tried their "Brut" which received 2* in the Guide Hachette.

and I hated hated hate it. Could be a great wine, but not to my taste at all. The smell was too minerally for me and my French boyfriend said, "It tastes like ze wee wee." (No joke) We then tried their sec, delicious! Their demi sec and their moelleux. I bought 1 bottle of the moelleux 2003 (16 Euros) because it was so crazily sweet and delicious because of the heat wave that year: really unusual. But I much prefered the 2002, which was more subltle and "typique" of a good, normal sweet vouvray (14 Euros/bottle)

At Huet I again preferred the 2002s -- bought 2 bottles of the 2002 le Mont demi-sec (13 Euros each) and 2 bottles of the 2002 clos du bourg moelleux (18 Euros each). Better quality than the Champalou but of course more costly, too. Just for interest's sake, I also bought 1 bottle of the le Mont 2001 demi-sec (15Euros) and 1 bottle of the 2003 Clos du Bourg moelleux (21 Euros) which was almost like drinking syrup!

So, as you can see by my buying patterns, I loved the 2002 and didn't think it was too old yet. The sugar in the Moelleux keeps them for a long time and they become less sweet grape juice and more interesting with time. Can't wait to down them with some stilton in a few years!

Hope this helps. -- Freckles

[primowino]

Champalou and Huet, in particular, are very good producers. Just a quick note on aging, the 2002 and any other recent vintage won't be old for a long time yet. Any decent examples of sec and demi-sec vouvrays will keep and generally improve for a decade or more and the moelleux can almost keep forever. I have had Huet Clos du Bourg Moelleux from 1962 and 1959 in recent years and they were far from tired.

Hope you enjoy(ed) your visits.

[Freckles]

I did enjoy them both. Thanks for the heads-up on the aging; as I said, I'm really new to this wine stuff and can use -- and appreciate! -- all the help I can get.

[ludja]

Thanks for your report Freckles, and happy that you got to visit Champalou and Huet as well and find some nice Vouvray to bring back...

Did you have to set up an appointment to visit the wineries? I've heard that most of the vineyards in France do not necessarily have tasting rooms per se that are open for specific hours (say, as in Sonoma or Napa). Also, what determines which wines you get to taste?

Edited April 26, 2005 by ludja (log)

[Freckles]

Ludja: in certain regions like Bordeaux you should make an appointment. Big name vinyards in Burgundy, too. For the places in the Loire, you seem pretty safe if you go during the hours they're open -- many shut from 12-2 or 1-3 from that sacred and un-disturbable french ritual: lunch. So, we tend to call the day of, ask if they are open, ask if they have any of a certain cuvee left (if we're looking for one thing in particular).

Once we're there, they let us taste almost any wines they have open. Of course, if you ask to sample the $200 bottle first, they will probably flinch; you are expected to start with some of the cheaper labels before diving into the big stuff. In fact, since I don't usually intend to buy the really expensive things, I don't think it's right to ask to try. Luckily, if you've struck up a nice report with the producteur at this point, he/she will probably insist that you sample some of his priciest wares. So, it's quite convivial and pleasant.

[ludja]

Thanks for the info Freckels... storing it all up for a wine trip to France sometime...