A dive into the French, Loire Valley with 4 wines from 3 different wineries and areas that are lesser known but total gems!
00:00 – Start
00:05 – Intro
01:22 – Wine 1: 2022 “Le Clos La Carizière” – Jo Landron – Muscadet
04:13 – Wine 2: 2022 “Le Blanchais”- Domaine Pelle – Mentou-Salon
06:27 – Wine 3: 2022 “Morogues Rouge” – Domaine Pelle – Mentou-Salon
08:19 – Wine 4: 2021 “Cuvée du Rosier”- Pascal Janvier -Jasnieres
12:11 Outro
Share any comments or suggestions to: mariana@baccoswineandcheese.com
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[Music]
Hello everybody welcome to another month
of Vine path my name is Mariana I am the
wine buyer at bakos wine and cheese Vine
path is a wine club that we put on in
which every month we explore the world
of wine through a theme I pick between
three and five wines and we explore that
topic this month I was feeling really
inspired by the lir valley this is a
must region for any person that really
gets into wine ask a lot of wine lovers
where their favorite wines are from and
many will say the L Valley it’s a really
unique place it’s a really long area in
northern France that ranges from the
coast really Inland almost reaching
Paris and burgundy and you get all kinds
of soils and micro climates but overall
it’s a cool climate overall these wies
are going to have bright acidity they do
whites they do Reds they do sparkling
they do sweet they do roses we’re going
to focus on three regions we’re going to
start at the coast in the muscade region
we’re going to do a wi and a red of the
same Winery in the menu salon so more
Inland and then we’re going to finish
with the northernmost region of the L
Valley in the central L Valley in the JZ
with a poni all of these wines are
classic in style but in my opinion
they’re Timeless so let’s dig in so up
first is one of my favorite wine makers
of the L Valley jol andron so we’re in
the mus region this is the
CL this is the mus s main 2022 so we’re
in an area very close to the Atlantic
Ocean it is very maritime climate joon’s
Winery is located in the upper slopes of
the Sev River not too far from n he took
over his family Winery in 1990 they had
about 26 hectares he’s almost doubled it
right now they have about 50 hectares 43
of which are all for Mond de borgon the
star grape of this region % of the the
hectors though are for other grapes such
as full blond chardonay pinor and montil
which I had heard of that grape but
those grapes are used for atmospheres
which is their sparkling wine because
Joel and is quite a fan of of champagne
they make an iteration of it we actually
had him at the shop a few weeks ago it
was awesome to meet him I heard good
things but meeting him in person him and
Carol who also works with him they just
made the wines come to life they’re so
sweet and hilarious and we had a good
time with them at at the shop it was a
rainy day which was very appropriate for
trying these wines because it is
something that they deal with a lot
luckily in The Vineyards they get a lot
of air flow and a very cool Cool Breeze
coming through the vineyard and that
helps with any fungus or issues with
humidity zon has been certified
biodynamics since 2011 he really started
getting into organic viticulture in
biodynamics since the late ’90s all his
Vineyards are handh harvested the Mone L
Bon and this wine are about 50 to 70
years old so really old this area is
famous for their orthon soil the grape
meona bone is definitely more of a
neutral grape that really takes on
whatever wine making practices you give
it so a big thing is to age wines on
their on their leaves in this area
meaning the dead yeasts that are left in
the barrel during fermentation those are
stirred in and it gives it this like
Brio that’s really delicious so on the
nose this mine smells
like a little bit like the low tide very
slightly that like salty funky smell wet
dough little like green
apple and on the palette you get more
definitely the Zippy acidity you get
under rpe pineapple more of those green
apple notes very fresh we had Island
Creek Oyster in at our tasting and a lot
of the Tin Fish that they did it went
excellent
but I would love this wine with a meaty
crab dish so maybe I’m thinking like
chunks of crab meat and maybe a taco
with some aoli and fresh Sal salsa on it
that would be really fun part of the fun
of even having this wine club is
definitely to highlight value regions
and Wineries and I definitely am showing
that this month with domain Pelle so
we’re doing two wines from the same
Winery and the winery is in the menu
Salon region right in the heart of morog
menus Salon probably one of the most
famous regions of the L Valley these
days is s for their saan Blanc and P
Noir well menu Salon is right to the
west of sans and I think their wines are
world class especially when you find a
talented producer domain pette actually
does make wine from s Vineyards but they
started in menus Salon it’s a Family
Winery of many generations that really
established itself in the 1950s Paul
Henry is the current wife maker he took
over unfortunately his dad passed away
Eric in 1995 when he was 22 years old in
2007 he took over the wine making with a
huge help of his mom an who does more of
like the administrative and office work
and I hear she cooks amazingly when you
go visit but again domain Pelle is all
about showing you the terroir and
tasting the soils of menus Salon the
main soil in these wines that we’re
going to taste are is Kim maridian so
this is a type of limestone uh it’s
similar to the soils of shi and
champagne the OB region in champagne and
so it’s really good it does a really
good job showcasing the purity of the
fruit at first we’re doing the Savon
Blanc from domain Pelle from the Le
blanch Vineyard this is the 2022 the
savan blancs from from this region tend
to be a little more floral and soft than
sere can be Paul Henry uses large wooden
Vats for for their aging so it’s all
neutral Oak this wine smells like white
floral blossoms Meer lemon wet Rock the
texture is wonderful it’s very smooth
the acidity lifts and you get more like
nectarines and more lime almost like
limeade there’s a like little spice at
the end that’s almost like ginger
perfect spring wine I would definitely
have this with some risoto maybe like an
asparagus rotto something creamy but
still very green up next we’re doing the
domain P they’re morog Rouge from
2022 what a juicy bright red color Karen
mcneel actually call this Winery out she
calls out their s in the book The Wine
Bible this region is actually not too
far from burgundy who is famous for
their P Noir so it’s no wonder Pino Noir
would do well when I first opened this
wine it was like a fruit punch it was
really aromatic with notes of berries
notes of blackberries raspberries very
useful as more the more it opened up the
more uh spice and and almost like an
earthiness came out this has now been
open for a few hours and now I’m getting
more like dried leaves wet soil but
still those bright juicy kind of between
red and purple fruits the palette has
just a little touch of tan in but it’s
just high acidity the the L Valley is
perfect for people that like high
acidity because of the year round cool
temperatures on the palette you get a
little more more like Tangerine notes
and then the Finish kind of reminds me
of like Coca-Cola like that it must be
the dried herbal component you can
definitely have even with the light
chill the P noirs from the L Valley are
very popular in Paris remember L Valley
is really not that far from Paris so I
could definitely if you ever want to
feel like you’re in a cool Paris beastro
open up one of these bottles I would
actually have this wine been recently
into a lot of Korean noodles either the
glass noodles or sweet potato noodles
kind of spicy sauteed with beef a lot of
veggies onion spicy you want something
with a lot of fruit to like calm down
the spice but still with a spunky
personality to keep up with all the
flavors going on so I think this wine
would be really great with that now poni
not a very common grape worldwide but it
is native to the L Valley the 2021 KU
Rosier from Pascal janier the cot
this is actually from jzer region
coolest northernmost part of the L
Valley this is 100% a grape called
poni if you’ve never had it this wine is
an absolute treat this grape is not that
popular worldwide in fact it’s not
really planted outside of the L Valley
it used to be really fashionable to
drink I’m talking between 1,00 to 1,400
a lot of Royals drank it it was said
that during the 100 years Years War
Charles iith of France gave plantings to
Philip the good who was the Duke of
burgundy as a peace offering this is
debated but nonetheless the fact that it
was even written about shows how
important it was it really didn’t do
well after felox though after that pest
that devastated so many Vineyards poni
is very hard and finicky grape to grow I
read a blogger described it as a diva it
gets its name from the word pin or a
pine cone because the the bunches are
really tight that come out of U the vine
and it’s really easily susceptible to
rot because of the bunches being so
tight IT produces really irregular
yields and it’s really sensitive to the
soil it’s grown in so if there’s too
much limestone in the soil it ripens too
quickly which doesn’t allow for enough
development to happen if it’s too much
clay in the soil it goes too slow which
slows down to development too too much
so it’s no wonder that some Vine Growers
don’t even want to deal with it but some
over the years have really honed in on
how to do it and how to best work with
it it’s such a unique rpe and it would
be a shame if it ever went extinct so
wine makers such as Pascal janier who
Now is working very closely with his
wife Dominique they’re all about
preserving grapes like poni they work a
lot with the grape Shan and Blanc they
really want that Revival of the jasmier
region they rent 66 Parcels about 9
hectares they Farm themselves they’re
very Hands-On poni is sometimes referred
to as shenin Noir and sometimes shanon
Blanc is referred to as Pino deir so
even with that confusion they are not
actually related even though in many
regions they are grown side by side
because they do well in similar climates
off the bat I’m smelling a lot of like
gummy red
fruit like Swedish Fish
there’s almost like a clay minerality to
it and on the palette you get all the
things that this grape is famous for
it’s very green it’s very stemy but
green sometimes is a bad thing when you
describe a wine because sometimes it
meets and it’s under ripe this wine is
very ripe it’s very fresh but I still
get like this vegetal note that is
really delicious and
refreshing definitely the power of
suggestion but I read a lot that you get
a lot of white pepper in this
grape and I definitely get some some
spice something that really opens up the
nose
[Applause]
Teragon very light on its toes it’s very
thirst quenching you get slight amount
of tannin but this is a lighter red you
can even chill this wine for a light
wine there’s actually it has a lot of
Personality this is another wine that I
imagine drinking in a beastro in Paris
you could do so much with this wine you
could have it with so many things
I would keep it simple because of that
those peppery notes I would just want
this with Tate just a beautiful baguette
some Pate this maybe some cornishon call
it a day so thank you so much for
joining me this month with the wines of
the lir we definitely be revisiting this
region cuz there’s a lot of regions and
grapes that we did not even cover as I
was saying this is a classic wine region
for a reason level of quality that comes
out of these wineries is really High I
think we’re living in a glorious wine
age because for example 100 years ago
and before people were making their
Wines in their regions maybe they were
traveling to other regions to learn but
there was not as much communication
there was not not as much research and
Science and Publications to like figure
out what was going on in fermentation or
growing vines now with so many
institutions so much travel happening
wine makers and Vine Growers and wine
journalists are just communicating more
more knowledge is being exchanged people
know more what to do if there’s a bad
vintage or what’s going on or what are
the grapes that should be planted in
certain regions and even combating some
climate change that that is going on
this is a golden age of wine I would say
even a bad vintage is not really a bad
vintage as it used to be so I always
like revisiting classic regions and
these ones have really exceeded my
expectation I hope you really enjoyed
them too please subscribe to this
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until next month cheers
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