By Joe Beveridge, Key Account Manager and Tim Beck, Business development Manager
Day One, Chateau du Cleray (By Joe Beveridge, Key Account Manager)
The first stop was the beautiful Chateau du Cleray, 20 minutes to the east of Nantes, in the heart of the Muscadet region's Sevre et Maine zone, where the vineyards are between the River Sevre, and the River Maine. Our charismatic and generous host was Pierre-Jean Sauvion (or "Jean-Pierre with a twist") and to say this gentleman loves Muscadet is an understatement. The chateau has been in the family since 1935 and one of Pierre-Jean's earliest memories is falling into a fermenting vat and being pulled out by his father. He refers to his vineyard as his "garden", his job title as "pleasure maker" - and claims to be 52 years old (he looks 32), putting his youthful complexion purely down to the fact that he drinks Muscadet everyday.
Whilst doubts remain regarding his real age, there is no doubt Sauvion make excellent Muscadet. The wines we tasted both in the house's atmospheric vaulted cellars and during the sublime traditional 4 course lunch were all fresh, clean and crisp, and carried an extra richness and complexity due to the time spent ageing on their lees before botting. As Pierre-Jean puts it, leaving the wine for 6 months on it's lees (dead yeast particles) has the effect of "feeding the wine" and keeping at bay the pantomime villain oxidation, the bain of all Muscadet growers. The wines also had a slight fizz to them, and were certainly a great match for the parma ham and melon course we enjoyed round the family kitchen table.
It was a pleasure to spend a morning and lunchtime with such an enthusiastic, engaging winemaker (sorry, pleasure maker). Even if he didn't quite understand the game of cricket after my flawless explanation....
Day Two, Château De Fesles (By Tim Beck, Business Development manager)
Day two began with a scenic drive from Nantes, east towards Anjou to find the tiny appellation of Bonnezeaux. It was there we drove into the grounds of Château De Fesles (pronounced ‘Fell’) where we were greeted firstly by an enormous German Shepherd & then by the head winemaker Pierre Sauvion.
We were taken straight out into the vineyard, with some of us dressed slightly more appropriately for the distinct lack of summer weather than others. After surveying the border of the appellation, which stretched only to the windmill in one direction and the bottom of the field in the other, & learning about the specific sandy shale soils that characterise the appellation, we headed into the Château to sample some of the produce.
Château De Fesles produce wine from the majority of the key Loire varietals, however, it is the Bonnezeaux that it is most famed for. I must admit, we had been in the vineyard at least 20 minutes discussing the required climatic conditions for quality Bonnezeaux to be produced before it was explained to us exactly what Bonnezeaux was! That is not because we are not clued up on our wines, but because the appellation is only 220 acres & whilst Château De Fesles own the lions share, production is very small and the majority is drunk in Paris, it is certainly not a wine that is common place in the north of England! Made from 100% Chenin Blanc and produced only in the best of years, the grapes are hand picked using multiple passes over a period of weeks, Bonnezeaux ranks amongst the most respected sweet wines in France & after tasting various vintages we were not left wondering why.
We were also fortunate enough to be taken down into the cellars of Château De Fesles where we were shown the vast amounts of wines maturing, and maturing! Some of which dated as far back as 1924 and there didn’t seem to be a single vintage missing.
It is not only sweet wine that Château De Fesles is known for producing and the Château has attracted guests from far further afield than London & Manchester. Pierre told us that a couple of years ago, old Majestic favourite ‘Ken Forester’ of South African Chenin producing fame had visited to learn a thing or two about what can be done with Chenin Blanc. I am yet to see though a Bonnezeaux-esque sweet wine by Ken Forester in our South African portfolio. It was when we were talking about such visits that we got onto the topic of barrel ageing, and discovered that in this particular Château, it is not only French oak that is used to impart flavour but also new American oak as well as Acacia which raised a few eyebrows amongst us, however, when used in conjunction with the French oak the Chenin Blanc it produces is rich and complex.