JASNIERES a Shy Appellation

One of the many great pleasures we benefit from, living so close to the wines of the Loire valley are the visits we make to her vineyards either with our friends that come to stay or on our own.

These “road trips” take many forms; a quick trip to the co-operative at Villiers-sur-Loir or Limeray, to top up with good value quaffing wine;  to Chinon or Saumur to find and taste wines from producers that we happen to stumble upon that day; then there are the targeted trips to specialist producers in Montlouis, near Tours, or to Savennières near Angers to buy respectively the appellation’s divine Méthode Traditionnelle and demi-sec wines.

It does not matter much which category our visits fall into as we always find interesting wines and characters to make it a special outing.  So as you can guess quite an itinerary of vineyards and routes have evolved to please all tastes.       

I can hear you asking; “What has all this nonsense got to do with the title of this blog: Jasnières?”

I will explain;

Jasnières is not an appellation that will jump out of this page as one well known in France let alone the UK.  It is hidden away in the Val du Loir, just south of Le Mans.

We have a very good friend in Eastbourne, Paul, who comes out to see us regularly, sometimes with his wife (who is also a very good friend), on occasions on his own and sporadically with a good mutual friend, Gareth.  We have been discussing for a few weeks now, a petit séjour chez nous with Gareth at the start of this April.

You can imagine my surprise and delight when I received an email from Paul with a proposed itinerary for a day’s excursion which included degustation visits to villages whose vineyards fall within the Jasnières appellation.

Before I ramble on about the wines I will scrawl a little history of the area.  I suspect that there has been wine made here since roman times. The region was well known for its wine making capabilities in the Middle-Ages. King Henry IV was known to be a fan of it.  The oenophile authors of the day Rabelais and Ronsard both make reference to its wines in their writings. The slopes that grace the vines have changed very little since this immortalisation. Maps commissioned by Louis XIV when he sat on the throne at Versailles shows very little difference to their (the vineyards) current positions.

Jasnières was granted AOC status in 1937 very soon after the AOC system encompassed wine production in certain areas of France.  So it is clear that this unknown gem of an appellation does have a serious pedigree. Why it is not better known I don’t know, maybe it just got lost in wine drinkers minds, poor marketing or maybe it just happened.  I have been going to the region infrequently for the past five years and always find good wine. 

Four years ago I spent a couple of days in the area guiding a “caviste” ^{note 1} from Normandy who wanted to expand his range of Loire wines.  We spent half a day in Jasnières knocking on doors meeting wonderful people who were passionate about their life’s labours.  We heard their family histories, what they intended to do to make the appellation’s wines more popular, therefore pushing up the prices they receive.  This is a very common feature of our visits but always so personal, so interesting and oh! so so passionate!

The wines themselves: Under the Appellation of 1937 only one grape can be used to make wine which bears the name AOC Jasnières which is Chenin Blanc and is locally called Pineau de la Loire.

A few interesting facts; well they are to an anorak like me.  

Annuel Production : 2 300 hl (exclusivement blanc)

Yield: 52 hl/ha

Dominant growing practices: Minimum density of 5,500 vines/ha. Strictly regulated short pruning

Surface area 65ha

Types of soil: chalk, broken down into flinty clay on steep hillsides

Most producers will make dry, demi-sec and sweet wines, the ideal temperature to enjoy them is 12°C but for the sweet wine maybe a couple of degrees cooler.

What to eat with them

This is very subjective.  If you visit the producer ask him, he will certainly know what matches his wine better than anyone else.

But my thoughts are

The dry wine, as an apéritif, with shellfish, sea and river fish (without a cream sauce)

The demi-sec (medium sweet) as an apéritif, with charcuterie, foie gras, chicken, rabbit and fish in a creamy sauce, or why not try the locals’ advice and drink it with goats cheese.

The sweet wine, again, as an apéritif, with light desserts, goats cheese and creamy blue cheeses like Roquefort or with foie gras and, if you wish to be really brave, try it with monkfish in a cream sauce?

In the cellar

How long will it last? That is down to your self-discipline.  Can be drunk young but will improve with age.  The better wines have a life of 10, 15 to 20 years and I suspect in exceptional years even longer for the sweeter wines.

In great years, the sweet wines are very similar in style to their counterparts which are produced on the banks of the Loire.

In the glass

The sensory characteristics are again very subjective, unless one has a trained palette it is very difficult to describe a wine in the terms used by the professionals and knowledgeable amateurs.  I list what you should expect to find in a glass of Jasnières as described by “Vins de Loire”.  

Colour: Crystal golden yellow appearance.

On the nose: Floral and fruity aromas with a mineral touch,

On the palette: The aromas will evolve very subtly towards dried fruit and honey.

Note 1

The literal translation of caviste is cellar man but it also translates as wine merchant and a shop that sells wine is also referred to as a caviste. 
vins de loire in english
jasnieres.fr