Loire Wines
How well do you know the wines of the Loire?
Travelers hail this French region as a magical place filled with stately castles. UNESCO has named Val de Loire a Cultural Heritage Landscape.
Yet, to wine lovers, the best thing it has to offer is its delicious white, red, and rosé wines.
The Loire Valley is one of the most diverse wine regions in France, extending from the Atlantic coast at Nantes to the heart of France near Sancerre, over 600 miles along the Loire River.
Recently, I attended a fantastic tasting and dinner of Loire Valley wines. The theme of the evening was Bloom Big, and the event centered around showcasing how well wines from the region paired with popular food of the region.
The event was held at the prestigious Layfayette restaurant, a swanky locale in a trendy area of Manhattan. Journalists entered the private room to see tables filled with Loire wines, grouped together by color and region.
Before the tasting began, Marquita Levy, distinguished sommelier, gave a rousing talk about the fabulous wines of the Loire.
I joined the others as they circled around the tables, asking questions of the sommeliers hired for this very purpose. Since Marquita Levy spoke about the intense minerality of the wines in her opening talk, guests soon began to ask for wines by soil type instead of producer.
Guests also had amusing, impromptu descriptors for the wine. One woman tasted a Touraine wine and said, “That hit me like passion fruit to my face.”
When it came time to sit for dinner, the first course of oysters was served with the traditional Muscadet as well as contrasting wines.
The second course of foie gras mousse on country bread was served with a Vouvray (white) and other Loire white wines—it was fun to compare how the different wine regions paired with this dish.
The third dish of Atlantic halibut paired very well with a refreshing Touraine, while the short ribs Bourguignon was served with a red Saumur-Champigny and two other contrasting reds.
Dessert of New York cheesecake paired very well with the traditional sparkling Crémant de Loire.
It was a fun evening of mixing and matching wines with the local Loire cuisine and tasting the wines at the tables to see the differences between them.
The tasting highlighted once again that Loire wines offer the best value for the affordable price.
