Chinon nestling below the walls of Chinon Castle. This where Joan of Arc met the dauphin of France. “Château Chinon” by Touriste – Own work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
A bit of a rant
Sometimes I despair about how wine is sold in the UK – by many of the supermarkets anyway. At the cheaper end of the price spectrum it is getting harder and harder to find a wine that is not some sort of own label product. Therefore it is getting harder to buy wines that are made by the producer without input from the UK stockist. Most cheaper wines are tweaked to some degree to make the style more palatable to the UK drinker. I suppose there is nothing terrible about making wine more palatable to certain tastes, but it does sort of fly in the face of what wine has traditionally been about.
Call me an old romantic, but somewhere in the back of my mind I still cling to the thought that wine should at its heart be all about where and how the vines are grown. Where the style of a wine comes about from the balance between the climate and traditions of an area together with the skills of the winemaker, rather than customer research saying what people want.
After all there are so many possibilities in wines and so many options that no one can possibly know every style, grape, blend or flavour that is possible. So if supermarkets only offer people what they think they want, which will by definition be based on their, possibly, limited experience, then the range of wines people are offered the chance to experience will become narrower and narrower. And that is most definitely happening already.
What then happens to all the grapes people have never heard of? Or the styles of wine people have never tried? They will slowly wither and stop being produced, which will be an absolute tragedy as there are still so many wonderful wines out there just waiting to be tasted by the adventurous.
I think that supermarkets and wine merchants should try to lead the market. To some degree they should offer their customers some idea of the diversity of wines that is possible and not just stick to a narrow range of wines that they know sells and that focus groups tell them their customers want. Remember what Henry Ford is supposed to have said about his early days, ‘If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.’
It’s just as relavent when applied to wine, if consumers are led to believe that there are only about 6 different grapes, they will say they want more Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio or Shiraz.
I am also tired of those fake discounts which make out a wine is half price when it is merely discounted to the price it should have been in the first place. So I am delighted to tell you that lurking on Sainsbury’s shelves there is still a wine that fits my criteria for a traditional and honest wine, what’s more it sits there year after year, never being promoted, so it is at a sensible price to start with – it’s something of a bargain actually.
My Wine of the Week
It is a red wine from France’s Loire Valley made from Cabernet Franc grapes in Chinon. Back in my youth Loire Valley reds were pretty problematic and usually underripe with green tannins. Not anymore, I have become more and more keen on the reds from this part of the world in recent years and think they can offer delicious drinking.
Domaine du Colombier – by kind permission Domaine du Colombier.
The cellar at Domaine du Colombier – by kind permission Domaine du Colombier.
2011 Chinon Domaine du Colombier
Christine & Olivier Jouvault
A.C. Chinon, Loire, France
Domaine du Colombier has belonged to the Jouvault family for five generations. It comprises 24 hectares of vines in Beaumont-en-Véron, some 6 km northwest of Chinon itself. Cabernet Franc, for reds and rosés and Chenin Blanc, for whites are the only two grapes permitted in the Chinon appellation. Like so many of the producers around here they have wonderful cellars dug into the tufa rock below their winery and this is where they age their wines. Growing the Cabernet Franc on trellis systems, to maximise exposure to the sun, de-stemming, long fermentations on the skins and daily pump overs, to get the skins and juice in contact with each other, has improved wines like this beyond recognition. There is nothing green or harsh about this wine at all.
The colour is an attractive medium-deep cherry tinged ruby.
The nose is richly fruity, but it’s dry fruit, red fruit, plums and cherry with notes of fresh earth and brambles and some ripe green pepper too.
The palate is medium bodied with enough juiciness of cherry, plum and black cherry fruit to make it supple and the freshness – acidity – gives it a feeling of elegance. The tannins are very light, just a little chalky on the finish and there is a leafiness quite characteristic of French Cabernet Franc, in fact it is a textbook example of what a red Chinon should be.
The fresh acidity means it is very nice lightly chilled too, but be warned, it is very drinkable. A lovely honest wine, the sort of thing I would enjoy served by the pichet in a bistro with steak frîtes or confit du canard with dauphinoise potatoes.
Rather stupidly, I almost never drink Chinon except when I am in a French restaurant, preferably of the laid back brasserie / bistrot type, but then I am always drawn to it because it just goes with the food so well. Having taken to this wine so much I have discovered that Chinon Rouge goes with pretty much anything else too, it is a very versatile food wine indeed.
This is one of those rarities from a major supermarket, a wine made by a proper vigneron exactly as they want and sold at the proper price without any fake promotions or anyone over branding it and it has become my house red of the moment – 88/100 points
Available in the UK from Sainsbury’s at £7.00 per bottle, which is pretty amazing considering it’s €6 from the winery – so you see, contrary to popular belief, wine is not stupidly expensive in the UK!
If you are unfamiliar with Loire Valley reds, then this wine would be a good place to start. If you already know them and love them, then this is a bargain that you should snap up.
Chinon is also a wonderful place to visit by the way. It’s steeped in history, has one of the most amazing castles in France, the local food is superb and the wine is a joy. It is very much the France of one’s imagination, so well worth a visit.
Quentin Sadler's Wine Page 