In preparation of the forthcoming Loire Valley Tour 2024 by ombiasy
WineTours, Annette and I spent 2 nights in Angers in order to visit various wine fairs.
Annette Schiller: What
comes to your mind when you hear ‘Loire Valley’? Of course images of
glorious Châteaux pop up in your mind. Yes that is true and we will
visit some iconic château and dig deep into France’s history. However,
during this wine tour we also discover a magnificent, but often
overlooked French wine region and one of the most exciting best kept
secrets of excellent, high quality wines at very reasonable prices. The
Loire Valley wine region is a vast area and consists of several
distinct wine regions, each with its own characteristic grapes,
appellations, and wine style. We take you on a journey from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Auvergne mountains to explore this unique region. We learn to appreciate “Sancerre”, "Pouilly-Fumé", “Vouvray", “Chinon”, as well as many other not so familiar appellations.
Salons des Vins - with a Focus on Natural, Organic, Biodynamic and Low Intervention Wines - in Angers and Samour
There were several wine fairs in the region in early February. At least 3 are noteworthy and we went to 2 of them:
(1) The Salon des Vins Grenier Saint Jean, a wine fair with natural wine producers at the Le Grenier Saint Jean in Angers.
250 producers. I guess 25% of the producers were from the Loire, 50% from other French wine regions and 25% from other European countries, including 4 producers from Germany. The fair took place in 2 large halls.
(2) Salon Angers Loire dégusT’
The Salon Angers Loire degusT' 2024 - with about 600 producers - consisted of 3 salons des vins:
Salon des Vins Demeter (100 demeter certified producers), La Levée de la Loire (300 bio producers) and Salon des Vins de Loire (200 regular producers).
(3) La Dive Bouteille in Saumur
We did not attend La Dive Bouteille, which bills itself as the world’s largest annual natural wine fair. But Kevin Pike of Schatzi Wines in the USA did.
Room 1
Room 2
While our focus was on producers from the region for the forthcoming Loire 2024 Tour by Ombiasy, we also made room in our schedule for meeting old friends and #worldclass producers from Germany and Austria showcasing their wines there: Peter Jakob Kühn, Meinklang - Werner Michlits, Frank John, Clemens Busch. We also stopped at Domaine Flo Busch.
Weingut Clemens Busch
Weingut Frank John
Meinklang - Werner Michlitz
Weingut Peter Jakob Kühn
Oysters
Salon Angers Loire dégusT’
(February 5 and 6 in Angers)
The Salon Angers Loire degusT' 2024 - with about 600 producers - consisted of
3 salons des vins: Salon des Vins Demeter (100 demeter certified
producers), La Levée de la Loire (300 bio producers) and Salon des Vins de Loire (200 regular producers).
Germany
La Dive Bouteille
(February 4 and 5 in Saumur)
We did not attend La Dive Bouteille. Broken Palate (Jason Wilson 2020): I was thinking about dumb phases during my visit last week to the Loire Valley, where I attended La Dive Bouteille, which bills itself as the world’s largest annual natural wine fair. It’s held in the town of Saumur, with more than 200 natural winemakers from throughout Europe, pouring their wines deep in the labyrinthine, troglodyte cellar of Caves Ackerman.
The fair itself was fun. Natural wine has become its own subculture at this point and so the laziest of observations would be, “there are more tattoos and piercings and whatnot than at a usual wine fair!” Yes, duh. I found that myself and others, particularly the men, hewed to a certain natural wine uniform: beard and/or man bun, hoodie, flannel, beanie, shoes we believe to be cool. For lack of imagination, let’s call it the “aging skateboarder” look.
The atmosphere was different than a typical, staid wine fair where trade and journalists politely taste and spit and there’s usually a color-coded map with table numbers and professional signage. La Dive Bouteille is loud, dark, and you can barely read the hand-scrawled white posters with winery names taped to the walls. And people are drinking. At 6 o’clock, the entire fair takes over a wine bar in the center of Saumur called La Tonnelle.
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