2025 Loire Trade Tasting Salons: Highlights & Observations
No.52 | Out & About
For the third year in a row, I ventured to the Loire Valley for four busy days of tastings and conversations at the annual trade tasting salons, which include the Salon Saint-Jean and La Levée de la Loire in Angers, and La Dive Bouteille in Saumur. These fairs have become an opportunity for me to touch base with producers whom I know well, as well as discover new producers, wines and/or trends across the region. While it is impossible to take precise notes on the 250+ Cabernet Francs tasted over the course of the salons, it does allow me to share some observations from my tastings, as well as bookmark some key producers that I hope to visit in the future.
So, without further ado, here are some highlights:
Recent Vintages
2024: As I reported in October after returning from the Loire at the tail end of harvest, this was an extremely challenging and heterogeneous vintage. During the salons, I had a chance to taste a few tank samples of some of the early-drinking cuvées from select vignerons, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I tasted. The wines are light and bright with good fruit ripeness for the vintage. I had expected to taste a lot more pronounced herbal/vegetal undertones in the wines, but many showed lovely, snappy red berried notes with delicate herbal and floral undertones. It is a light vintage for sure - generally lighter in concentration and lighter in alcohol (many clocking in at 11.5%-12.5%) - but most pleasurable to drink, delivering juicy fruit and soft, supple tannins. It is still very early days for a true analysis of this vintage, but I think we will see many delightful wines with early-drinking appeal.
2023: Last year, I recall that many vignerons had low expectations for this vintage, as it was another cooler, more “classic” Loire vintage. This year, there was much more optimism around current and future releases from the 2023 vintage among vignerons that I spoke to. The wines are presenting with refreshing acidities, moderate alcohols, good concentration, and impressively ripe flavour profiles. In my tastings, the wines have the freshness of 2021 but with more concentration, and the ripe flavours of 2022. The early-drinking cuvées are showing terrific drinkability, texture and weight; and the cellar-worthy examples have lower pHs overall, and show superb balance, concentration and potential for long-term cellaring. I am seeing similar characteristics to the 2014 vintage in many of the current releases from 2023.
2022: Many domaines have now released (or will be releasing very soon) their vins de garde from the 2022 vintage. These are often the single lieu-dit/single vineyard expressions from the domaine’s top terroirs and parcels, and this was my first opportunity to taste many of them en masse. And there is no doubt that this is an exceptional vintage - one for the history books! - but patience is needed for some of these top wines. A lot of patience. These are very concentrated, very structured, ripe wines, which will no doubt appeal to a lot of drinkers, but the best examples will need lots of time in the cellar to soften their tannins and reveal the nuance of their terroirs. As I continue to taste these wines, I will be able to give more precise recommendations on drinking windows based on commune, vineyard, terroir and vigneron, but for now the vintage is showing a lot of similarities to 2019, or if we look back a bit further, 2010 or 2005. You can drink your 2023s and 2021s while waiting for the 2022s.
2021: This vintage has its critics, but rather unfairly in my opinion. This cool, very ligerien vintage has the misfortune of being sandwiched in between a slew of warm vintages (2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022), and I think it is misunderstood as a result. I tasted and enjoyed many 2021s during this trip, particularly from the Turonian tuffeau chalk-derived soils across all appellations that are now starting to reveal their true colours. As I have observed, wines from the clay-limestone terroirs in cooler years can be a bit shy and austere when young, but can reveal finely woven tannins, elegant structure and a lot of nuance with time. If given the choice on a wine list, I am ordering the 2021s for their freshness, approachability and how seamlessly they pair with a wide range of dishes.
2020 and 2019: The structured, age-worthy cuvées from these warm vintages are starting to come around, and I think the 2020s are more ready than the 2019s at the moment. Both are showing riper profiles as typical of the vintage, but the 2019s still have a certain firmness to the structure that will benefit from a bit more time. I think both vintages are very good across all terroirs, though I think 2020 might have been a touch better for expressions from the alluvial terroirs in Chinon, Bourgueil and St-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil.
Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame: Ripe for Discovery
One of my objectives for this year is to delve a bit deeper into the appellation of Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame. During the salons, I tasted with Domaine de la Paleine, Domaine Austral, Domaine Emmanuel Haget, Domaine Regnier David, and Domaine de la Renière. This is a complex appellation that stretches across a large, fragmented part of the Saumur region, and it boasts vineyards with both the influence of the Turonian tuffeau chalky soils as well as Jurassic limestone and flint, which only adds to the diversity of expressions across the region. I hope to spend a bit more time in the region later this year with some of these producers with the hopes of being able to provide a guide on the expressions of Cabernet Franc from across some of the appellation’s key communes and lieux-dits.
Bourgueil: The Loire’s Most Underrated (and/or Undervalued?) Cabernet Franc Appellation?
Thanks to the Maison des Vins de Bourgueil, I had the pleasure of meeting and tasting with a number of producers from across the appellation that were new (or newer) on my radar. Some of these producers/wines include Domaine du Petit Bondieu, Domaine Bertrand Galbrun, Domaine des Ouches, Stéphane Delettre, Domaine de la Lande, Bertrand & Vincent Marchesseau, Domaine Ansodelles, Simon Remy and Sylvain Boton. There is a lot more to this appellation than meets the eye. It may not boast a bevy of grand, historic vineyards like Chinon, nor have the superstars of Saumur-Champigny, but there is a lot of character, heart and nuance across this appellation. It is my intention to profile some of these domaines with greater detail in the future so that they may gain a wider audience and renewed appreciation for their wines.
If you are on Instagram, I’ve saved a highlight to my profile titled “Loire Salons” so you can view pics of some of the other wines tasted during the trip.
Cabernet Franc In the News
Lots has been happening in the world of Cabernet Franc in recent weeks, so here are few stories and articles from around the web that I have enjoyed reading:
Congratulations to the wine producers of the Livermore Valley, California, who have officially adopted Cabernet Franc as the region’s signature red variety and have simultaneously launched the Cab Franc Guild in support of the region’s pursuit of crafting world-class Cabernet Franc.
Speaking of regions getting behind Cabernet Franc, New York State’s Cab Franc Forward initiative hosted their Grand Tasting in Manhattan earlier this month. Sadly I was not able to attend, but I look forward to collaborating with the organization on some activities later this year. In the meantime, Dave McIntyre wrote a nice recap of the event with some of his tasting highlights.
The Drinks Business announced the medals for their second annual Global Cabernet Franc Masters competition. While the awards themselves are not the be all end all, I always enjoy discovering producers who may not be on my radar and reading the judges overall impressions.
Finally, The New Wine Review had a nice article highlighting some Loire Valley Cabernet Francs from top producers beyond Clos Rougeard, and on Jancis Robinson’s website, Tara Thomas wrote a lovely story on her recent experience with Bernard Baudry’s 2023 Les Granges.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading and for your continued support. This newsletter has got off to a bit of a slow start this year, but I am getting back into some semblance of a routine after a rather busy first six weeks of the year. As always, there are lots of exciting stories and content to look forward to in the coming weeks and months, and I deeply appreciate having you here and following along.