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The Loire Valley is a huge wine region stretching right across the lower north western part of France. We all know its dry Sauvignon from Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Touraine, and acidic Muscadet from the Nantais region on the Atlantic coast. However, the Loire also produces succulent, and yet fresh, sweet wines and appealing sparkling wines, both made from Chenin Blanc. And, if that isn’t enough, there are also some beautiful red wines made predominantly from Cabernet Franc, a relative of Cabernet Sauvignon.
These wines aren’t for the beginner, because they’re about as far from fruity, rich, easy New World wines as you can get. They’re dry, with a lot of structure and a more savoury flavour. When really ripe, there’s often some blackcurrant in the mouth, but it’s raw, fresh blackcurrants, rather then cassis or Ribena. There’s also usually a stalky or woody taste, which remind some of pencil shavings or wooden drawers.
Sainsbury’s Domaine du Colombier, Chinon has been a good wine for as long as I can remember. It’s a very reasonable £5.49 and is absolutely typical. There’s just not point in spending more money, because this one ticks all the boxes. The smell was like dried cherries, with some farmyard and our descriptions of the taste could have been lifted straight out of the Cabernet Franc textbook. We tasted unripe blackcurrants or even stalks, but there was plenty of fruit and perhaps even some chocolate on the finish. It shone.
Chateau la Variere, Anjou Villages Brissac 2005 is £8.99 from Waitrose and was a much darker, more purple colour. It had a great smell – like very ripe plums with dark spices. Over the evening this changed to curry. The taste was dark and almost fruity, but more like spicy bitter chocolate.
Domaine Lavigne, Saumur Champigny 2005, at £8.99 from Oddbins, smelt richly and darkly of plum with some pencil shavings as well. The taste was of dark, plain chocolate with a jalapeno finish.
Les Nivières, Saumur 2005, from Waitrose smelt of cocoa and we found the taste just too mean. There was liquorice bitterness on the finish. It was typical, but had no beauty. Domaine de la Croix de Chaintres, Saumur Champigny 2005, at £8.79 from Waitrose, had a spicy, hot smell and a bitter plain chocolate and chilli taste. The alcohol at 13.5% seemed hot although technically similar to the others.
As I said, Cabernet Franc from the Loire is an acquired taste. You have to be in the mood for its dryness and Frenchness. Also, if you’re going to serve it for dinner, open it shortly after lunch and decant into a jug and then back into the bottle. Do it slowly, so that you don’t get any sediment, and then wash the empty bottle out, to get rid of any deposit, before returning the wine to the bottle. The injection of oxygen will open up the flavours. Served in a wide wine glass, at room temperature or even with 20 minutes in the fridge, this will be beautiful with griddled steak, especially if you can manage some black stripes.