Sapsford Wine | News

Just back from the Loire Valley where we visited vignerons in Vouvray, Bourgueil, Chinon, Saumur Champigny, Savenniéres, Anjou and Muscadet. We were able to taste older vintages of most of these.

In Vouvray we tasted, with Christophe Boutet, numerous of his wines, in various styles going  as far back as 1989. The latter are still superb and reasonably priced.

Calling upon Christophe and Sandrine Deschamps in Bourgueil, we were invited to visit the enormous underground  cavern where we tasted older vintages, going back through the 1990's, the 1980's, and finally arriving at 1976 - YES, 1976! This is Cabernet Franc at its best. Superb, supple, yet  full flavoured wines. The bad new is - he will not sell 1976 - it is the last wine made by his grandfather and is reserved for the family and privileged visitors. 

We continued our journey along the Loire, in Cabernet Franc country, and visited Serge and Bruno Sourdais at Chinon. They have a great reputation among their fellow vignerons; so much so that when Prince Charles visited Chinon, several years ago, he was presented with a magnum of Serge and Bruno's wine. They produce several wines at their Domaine, Clos de la Bouchardiere, and we tasted several vintages of each. They continue to excel at winemaking!

Continuing on to Saumur, we visited the Domaine St Jean, where Jean-Claude Anger also took us back through numerous vintages. The Saumur Blanc Sec 2004 (Chenin Blanc) proved yet again how perfectly mached are Chenin Blanc and the terroir of the Loire Valley,  producing a wonderfully fresh and aromatic wine. We then embarked on a journey through time, back to 1995. These wines exhibited all the wonderful characteristics of Saumur Champigny - the delicate aroma of violets, so different in style to the Chinon and Bourgueil wines we had tasted earlier. 

The road led us to Savenniéres, with its uniquie micro-climate which, combined with the soil and the Chenin Blanc grape to produces wines of great character and longevity.

For many years we have boasted a list of interesting older Burgundies from such growers as Jerome Billard of Rochpot and O Bart from Marsannay. These have been eagerly acquired by those of our customers with a nose for such, and demand has recently increased to the extent that our supplies are rapidly dwindling. We are now actively searching for replacement stocks of these older and fascinating wines.

Others of our “finds” which have slowly gathered a following have been the wines of Mme De Jessey of Savennieres (an acquired taste but quite unique),  stocks of these wines are now  low.

Recent acquisitions to our lists include a range of Alsace wines from R and C Freudenreich of Pfaffenheim. These include a 2002 Riesling, a 2003 Tokay Pinot Gris, a 2002 and a 2003 Gewurztraminer and a 2003 Muscat. These represent good value for money, especially considering how well the wines are made. They have already begun to make friends amongst our customers.

New vintages have recently been received from C. and D. Vaupre whose Macon Solutré (chardonnay) remains one of our best selling white wines, and F. Verpoix, whose Fleurie remains one of our most popular red wines. We are happy to report that both new vintages are fully up to the expected standard from these excellent wine makers.