No room in the AC

 

Château du Petit Thouars

I have to admit a sliver of disappointment that our most prominent follower and distinguished former medical man was unable to diagnose the malady that the Touraine reformists have contracted. I can only assume that the disease is complicated and multi-faceted – doubtless very difficult to find a cure.

Last Friday we visited the exquisite Château du Petit Thouars in Saint Germain-sur-Vienne, which is at the western extremity of Indre-et-Loire and AC Touraine. This is Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc country – entirely logical and proper since the estate lies between appellations of Chinon and Saumur/Saumur-Champigny.

New plantation of Chenin Blanc

The estate now has 15 hectares of vines including 70 ares of Chenin Blanc planted this year. The rest is Cabernet Franc with the oldest vines planted in 1975. They make two cuvées – Selection from younger vines and Reserve from the oldest vines. Selection is designed for early drinking, while the Reserve has a longer élèvage and will often need further time in bottle to be at its best. The wines are good and very reasonably priced: Selection at 5€ and the Reserve at 6€.

The best wine I tasted during the visit was the 2005 Reserve, which I’m sure one would be hard pressed to pick out if it was included in a blind tasting of Chinons. It has good concentration of black fruits, structure, quite firm tannins at the moment and a freshness in the finish. To drink now this is best decanted as it still needs two or three years more years to hit its peak. 

2005 Reserve

Unfortunately despite these wines typicité and quality they will be excluded from AC Touraine if the reforms pass because they are pure Cabernet Franc and don’t have the required minimum of 50% Côt, since the latter is rarely grown in this part of Touraine.

Words, I’m afraid, for the moment fail me…

  Jim

Comments

[Sébastien du Petit Thouars]

Jim, thanks again for your visit as well as your kind and honest words !

[Luc Charlier]

Les conseilleurs ne sont pas les payeurs !

Ne te désole pas, Hervé. Il faut admettre que les syndicats vignerons gèrent souvent une grave crise des ventes pour l’instant. Cela entraîne des faillites, des arrachages en masse, des
non-reprises de domaines par la génération suivante. Et ils réfléchissent ... comme ils peuvent.

Ce qui me surprend, c’est que la solution évidente : améliorer, encore et toujours, la qualité pour se donner un avantage concurrentiel et ne pas devoir utiliser la guerre des prix comme seul
levier n’y trouve que rarement son compte.

En plus, mon éternelle obsession, les lobbyistes de l’empire du mal font tout ce qu’ils peuvent pour banaliser les vins de caractère : plus c’est simple et convenu, plus c’est facile à produire en
masse. Puisqu’en Californie le géant s’appelle Gallo, je propose la création en France d’une boîte du nom de ... Americano. Logique, non ?

Enfin, qui est-ce qui a dit que la fonction première d’un journaliste vinicole était d’influencer le cours des décisions professionnelles ou corporatistes ? Je sais que cela part d’une intention
louable, mais était-ce réaliste ?

« Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi spem longam reseces ! »

[Hervé]

I am as disappointed as you are, Jim, and all the more so as no one of the powers that be at Touraine AOC has seen fit to open a dialog with us, although we contacted them after writing our prose.
I don't expect them to change their mind - I'm not that proud - but at least they can argue with us.

[Luc Charlier]

I know there is no single definition to the term « orphan disease », nor one that would be generally accepted. In my eyes, two conditions need to be fulfilled: (i) the condition must be rare – one
speaks of a prevalence below 1: 2.000 – AND (ii) the treatment is so elusive or so difficult to design, that the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in developping it, because their return
would be too minute.
Maybe the malady present in Touraine is an orphan disease, Jim ?
It would be very uncommon indeed for any association of grape-growers to commit mass-suicide or self-sabotage to such an extent. Well, lemmings do, I’ve been told. Condition one, as I see it.
And: no-one – but a bunch of idealistic, utopia-conscious journalists (and your faithful comrade) – gives sweet f..k about bringing back some sense into their mind. Condition two, for sure.
Maybe we could coin a new meaning for the abbreviation: Originally Reasonable Province Having Adopted Nonsense (o.r.p.h.a.n) ?