Bubbling over the Loire
By Todd M. WernstromI asked longtime wine importer and nice guy Fred Ek to place the Loire in the sparkling pantheon. "Good question. Perhaps for consumers who find the California wines to be too acidic, the Loire wines are somewhat softer. They're not Champagne, but they do have the minerality that Champagne has and that California's sparkling wines usually don't," he said.
Just as important at this time of year: They're not as expensive as Champagne and California sparklers. Even with steep discounting, the dollar's weakness against the euro makes this maybe the least friendly season to buy Champagne in the last several years.
And while it may not be something that has occurred to most of us, those California wines have long since stopped being bargains. With few exceptions, it's nearly impossible to find an interesting one for less than $25, a price point that a number of Champagne's entry level NVs approach, so you're better off spending a few dollars less on toys for the tots and getting the real thing instead. (There are, of course, exceptions: My favorite is Gloria Ferrer's 1995 Royal Cuvée Brut. At about $22, it's a hard package to beat, and is loaded with Champagne-like flavors and aromas of brioche, lemon curd and baked apple.)
Defining the merits of the Loire's bubblies in the context of Champagne and California is intentional. At one end: In what is one of the few non-unequivocal wine truths, no other bubbly can match the seamless balance of heft and finesse that a glass from this improbably located center of the effervescence universe delivers. One may be able to argue the merits of cabernet-based Bordeaux versus California Cabs. Or perhaps how Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc pungency matches up with Sancerre's grassiness. But Champagne's position at the head of the bubble class is not debatable.
The California reference is less obvious but no less correct. With all due respect to the serious producers of Cava, Prosecco, Franciacorta and the like, California is the world's second best bubbly venue. Or more accurately, California's producers are thought of as such by much of the world. The range of styles - some of which are more successful than others - can't be matched by the Spaniards or Italians.
The reasons for California's dexterity with fizz are somewhat obscure - to me anyway. It's not just the presence of various microclimates suitable to this style of wine. Nor that many of Champagne's true heavies, such as Taittinger, Mumm, Moët and Roederer, long ago began imparting their expertise to their willing American hosts - a spirit of cooperation out of reach on other issues concerning the two countries. It may actually have more to do with a grape selection that mimics, almost identically, Champagne's reliance on pinots noir and meunier, and chardonnay. Perhaps it's a combination of all three. In any event, the gift of a few bottles will always be a welcome one. They'll probably think you've broken the bank because most people still don't understand that Champagne comes only from the place of the same name.
Ek has perspective on - and an interest in - the Loire's placement in the sparkling firmament. One of the well-chosen producers he represents is Baumard, a name - if known to American consumers at all - long associated with the Loire's greatest dry white appellation, tiny Savennières, and the lusciously sweet and balanced wines from the nearby Coteaux du Layon. Ek's take on the subject is enhanced by the fact that he also imports Philipponnat, a Champagne of great repute in France, but much less well known here. (See the BuyLine section.)
The Baumard sparklers are terrific, and terrifically priced between $15 and $20. The Carte Corail is the epitome of what a light rosé should be, with perfumed scents and flavors of just-picked strawberry and toast. Ek recommends it as a surprisingly adept chocolate partner. The Carte Turquoise is clean and dry with lots of pear and apple flavors. It has a soft enough demeanor to be an apéritif, but enough style to handle lightly sauced chicken. And for added nuance, the 2000 Brut packs a few more layers of flavor, yet still delivers all of it softly.
Softness may be the key to the Loire's bubbly success. Though the wines come in three levels of fizziness, consumers are most likely to see Crémant de Loire on labels in the U.S. This appellation marker indicates how much tickle we'll feel in our throats. Crémant, the term, connotes a sparkle essentially halfway between a fully sparkling wine like a Champagne (the equivalent Italian term is spumante) and a lightly sparkling wine. The French call these barely bubbly wines pétillant, a word that can also appear on labels (the Italians call them frizzante). The fully sparkling term used in the Loire is mousseux, and while it may appear on labels, you'll probably just see geographic indicators such as Saumur, Vouvray, Anjou and Touraine.
If any single Loire sparkler producer could be said to enjoy a degree of visibility in the U.S., it is Bouvet. Its Brut Signature is a pleasant package of peach, minerals and a slight herbal note indicative of the presence of a lot of chenin blanc, the main white grape in these parts. The Bouvet Rosé is similarly pleasing and inexpensive, and shows off the Loire's primary red grape for sparklers, cabernet franc. These two grapes dominate Loire sparklers - and the still wines from the area - though there is chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, cab and gamay, not to mention others less familiar.
But Loire sparklers are more than just pleasant and light. The 1995 Réserve Vouvray ($19) from Foreau certainly qualifies as the Loire's answer to a mid-level, aged Champagne with its buttery, flinty baked apple and lemon cream flavors. The Monmousseau Cuvée J.M. is a $13 beauty from the Touraine that yearns to be served with food, as does the Cuvée de la Chevalerie Saumur Brut, perhaps the world's best $10 bubbly.
Langlois-Château's Crémant de Loire Rosé has a yeasty quality not often found outside of Champagne - the house has been accused of trying to emulate the Bollinger style, and at only $15 per bottle, something even approaching that level of excellence is worth trying. And for those who care only for looks, Loire rosés have consistently lovely coloring unmatched in the bubbly world, including Champagne.
'Tis the season to drink bubbly. But reroute some of that cash in the libation budget. You need only go south of Champagne and east of California to spend it.
Todd M. Wernstrom is the executive editor.