Wine tasting in the central Loire

The Loire changes as you head upstream. Down near the sea it’s awash with Muscadet, head upstream and it becomes a broad flow of Chenin Blanc, but keep going and eventually you’ll be swimming in pure Sauvignon Blanc. This is the grape of Sancerre, Poilly-Fume and Reuilly. And Menetou-Salon but I’ll come back to that. And this is the central Loire. Further upstream as far as I can tell the Loire is just water. So pretty much pointless.

I don’t like most Sauv Blanc. I don’t like the sharp, citric blast of zesty greenery. Actually, show me any wine described as “zesty” and I’ll run a mile. That’s just a preference of mine. Luckily the folk of the central Loire feel the same, and try to turn SB into something more elegant and occasionally surprising. They also throw in some light Pinot Noir for the reds.

We based ourselves this year in Bourges, an absolute gem of a little city with a wonderful huge cathedral and a warren of streets full of medieval half-timber buildings. It really oughta be on the tourist trail, it’s a seriously splendid place to spend a day. Look for the Comptoir de Paris for a great bistro meal in the old town.

We successfully deployed all of our well-honed wine tasting tactics on our three days of touring. (1) Find a couple of recommendations from the Oz Clarke book and visit them – check. (2) Ask someone friendly at a winery where you just found some good wine to recommend other good wineries in the area and then visit those – check. (3) Enjoy a great local wine with a meal and then seek out the winery it came from the next day – check. (4) Try at least one completely random place – check.

In the renowned AOCs of Pouilly-Fume and Sancerre it seems hard to find cheap bargains; the wineries we visited all started their bottles at £8-9 for the basic 2017. On the other hand, pretty much everything was excellent, all the winemakers we met were friendly, and there were plenty of places open any day of the week. The wines I love are typically the ones that have been given some more attention – kept for 3 years or so, perhaps on the lees (sur lie) and perhaps some time in oak. This all adds complexity and balance to the Sauv Blanc and rounds out the green acidic flavours beautifully. Sometimes you even get the smokiness that gives Pouilly-Fume it’s name.

Menetou-Salon is the small AOC nearby that you’ve never heard of, but which is pretty much the same geology and climate. It sounds like it might have been a bit cheap and cheerful in the past, but there are some producers now making wines (to my tastebuds) pretty much as good as most of the ones we tried in Sancerre. So that’s my tip for this wine trip!

To be honest, there are more knock-out tourist destinations, and a wider variety of wine available, if you base yourself further down the Loire near Saumur or Tours. But the central Loire is a great alternative and – for me – the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world.