We tend to forget sweet whites from the Loire. We tend to forget sweet wines altogether which is a great shame as I have written already in How to drink sweet wine. But the Loire’s best sweet wines based on Chenin Blanc have a special quality. With their purity of flavour and refreshing level of acidity they are quintessentially summery and can be much more revitalising than most sweet wines, certainly more so than Sauternes or most non-European sweet wines (even if German wines of course are close rivals in another idiom). They are also – and this is no small consideration – relatively keenly priced.
For many years sweet white Loire wines were made rather carelessly and suffered excessive doses of sulphur to cover up their shortcomings but there has been a revolution among the Loire’s better producers so that only truly luscious, often botrytised fruit goes into them, leaving the rest to be devoted to the increasingly sophisticated dry Chenins now made in the region (see fine wine news).
The 2003 heatwave vintage was notable throughout Europe for its relatively low acidities and this particular wine is much more open than one would normally expect for a Coteaux du Layon at just three years old. Tant mieux. This wine is never going to make old bones but offers gloriously luscious mouthfuls of ripely honeyed Chenin fruit already. Drink it now with fruit-based desserts such as summer pudding, gooseberry fool, strawberries and cream, or a ripe pear and shards of Parmesan.
We came across it at the Kirketon Grill, as explained by Nick in his ode to loitering, and I can find no trace of it via winesearcher.com but you could always contact Pascal or Véronique Caillou at Domaine du Sauveroy, 49750 Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay, France tel +33 02.41.78.30.59 fax +33 02.41.78.46.43 domainesauveroy@isasite.net – especially if you happen to be holidaying in the Loire.
Otherwise, look out for other 2003 Coteaux du Layons, Quarts de Chaumes, Bonnezeaux and also Vouvray and Montlouis Moelleux from reliable producers such as Baumard, Fesles, des Forges, Huet, Pierre Bise, Jo Pithon and Taille aux Loups. There is no doubt that 2003 was an exceptional year which favoured cooler wine districts and now is the time to profit from it.