Winter is wine fair season. Winter is when winemakers have the time to participate in wine shows and that is when many wine shows take place, for example the Salon des Vins de Loire, the Loire Valley wine show. For anyone who is working with Loire wines or who has a special interest in Loire Valley wine this is an outstanding occasion to taste many of the wines and to meet the winemakers. It is not a huge show, there are 400 exhibitors, but it is certainly enough to fill up the three days the fair goes on.
I am not sure that every single one of the 85 AOP/AOC and designations of origin are represented on the show, but my guess is that they are. The Loire Valley is actually one of the French wine regions with the largest number of appellations and sub-regions so it takes a while to discover them all. Some are far too little know compared to the quality of the wine that they produce.
The Loire Valley is far from being limited to the most famous wines, Sancerre, Vouvray, Anjou, Muscadet etc. There is far more than that to discover. Here you can for example find some of France’s most outstanding (but unfortunately least know) white wines, steely, intense, elegant, dry white wines from the chenin blanc grape. But also much, much more.
So if you are interested in Loire wines, then you should put the Salon des Vins de Loire in your agenda: 2-4 February 2015 in Angers in France. (The show is a professional and trade event.) More info: salondesvinsdeloire.com.
