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After incredible amounts of rain in June, the hot weather finally settled in the Loire and has continued for most of the month.

If you remember 2011 was a hot, sunny vintage that saw rich ripe reds and luscious whites. We opened Mathieu Vallée’s Saumur Blanc last night.

Memories of 2011 as we sat out in the garden enjoying dinner this week. The difference between this year and 2011 is that as we sat in the garden that year, the rain clouds passed over us.

Our friends Sebastien and D’Arcy du Petit Thouars host a diner en blanc at their beautiful chateau every year and this year we were able to join in the fun. 

Every year we have a group that comes over from the UK to the Le Mans 24 hours race. They’re all interested in cars but they love good food and wine too and a day with us makes a change of scene. Le Mans is only an hour from Le Tasting Room so it’s an ideal day out.

Well, what a month we’ve had since I last reported from the Loire valley vineyards. Huge amounts of rain during the first 2 weeks of June caused chaos around the region. On the 11th June Amboise had 80mm of rain in just 2 hours.

The sun has finally made an entrance after 6 weeks of stormy wet weather and huge amounts of rain.

The weather has been dire over the past week with huge quantities of rain making vineyards practically inaccessible. This is worrying as the damp, humid conditions lead to mildew (downy and powdery) which requires treating on a regular basis, especially if you are working organically.

Both the Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc are flowering here at Le Tasting Room. Here in Anjou we are always a little behind the vineyards further east where many vines have finished flowering and the fruit has set.

As it’s been warm enough to eat outside this week we enjoyed a simple dinner of home made burgers, roasted garlicky plum tomatoes and a fresh green salad. L’Envolée from Gérald Vallée was our wine of choice.

At this time of year growers make a second pass through the vineyard to remove excess buds or shoots from the vines. This process is called ébourgeonnage in French and consists of removing excess shoots from the growing vines.

We have a really soft spot for the appellation of Savennières. Home to fine white Chenin Blanc wines, full of character and minerality from impossibly shallow top soils sitting above the schist and slate of the Massif Amoricain.