Thursday 12th
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| The view from the hotel |
The following
morning was the last early tasting of the trip at Domaine Joseph Mellot. Originating from the same great family
history and winemaking experience as Alphonse Mellot, Joseph Mellot went his
own way in 1969 creating his own domaine. His son Alexandre continued the
strive for quality until his tragic early death. Since then his wife Catherine
has continued the work and success of this domaine.
The domaine has
expanded into other Loire appellations such as Coteaux du Giennois, Reuilly and
Menetou Salon. This diversity has allowed us to have great success with the
Joseph Mellot Réserve Prestige Sauvignon Blanc blend, a Val de Loire
appellation wine made with 500 years of Sancerre winemaking know how!
We dropped in on
the Pierre Prieur family back in Verdigny; you must to get the right Prieur as
all the Prieur families have a domaine of some sort! Domaine Pierre Prieur, a
10th generation winemaking family, makes the best and we found the
current generation Bruno and brother Thierry busy in the cellar. These guys
live for the domaine and the organised and spotless cellar is full of superb
2013 Sancerre, each vat being a different vineyard and carefully marked with
the exact terroir and all made accordingly, every single vat a vital piece of
the final blend jigsaw.
Their father
emerged for the tasting of the bottled 2012 up in the tasting room and the
wines have a beautiful purity. We also discovered a Gold-medal-winning 2010 red
Pinot Noir. These guys are so modest and don’t make a song and dance; they
really do just let the wines speak for themselves!
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| The Prieurs |
The news that SNCF
had decided to strike today threw all plans of me getting back to Bordeaux by
train and Tony and Abi to London via the Eurostar up in the air! But we had one
more visit we certainly were not going to miss under any circumstances: Tony’s
oldest friend in the Loire, Michel Thomas!
Michel was Tony’s
first contact in this region and today his son Laurent runs the winemaking. The next generation is also coming into
the wine trade with Michel’s two grandsons now working in the industry; one in
Saint-Emilion the other in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
We tasted through the vats of the excellent 2013 Domaine wines including
the complex ‘Cuvee Silex’ before being shown down into the warm vaulted cellar
where Madame Thomas had put on an early lunch of home-made savoury tarts and
quiches including plenty of local cheeses! We were joined by Tony’s old friend
and neighbours of the Thomas’, the Riffault family. A wonderful ambience of
stories and laughter was the absolute perfect way to end a fabulous wine trek
through the most beautiful valley in France.
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| In the cellar with the Thomas family |
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