Lovely wines – but all too mysterious for both taster and cook.
Towards the end of last year, I had several opportunities to taste a lot of sweet Loire. A pallet (quite literally) arrived, organised by the French agricultural export arm Sopexa, along with a couple of boxes from Montlouis-sur-Loire. This was supplemented by the odd wine here and there from UK wine merchants and a Vouvray tasting at the end of 2021. These tastings raised some fundamental questions.
The Loire makes some of the most beautiful sweet wines in the world, and I've had a bit of a bee...