The WA Loire Vintage Chart.

quote:

Originally posted by Vino Me:
Any other opinions out there?

Not an opinion, but an observation... don't listen to WA's vintage charts.

I'm no expert (most especially with the Loire) but....it seems the Loire is such a big region (the Atlantic to the Auvergne), and a wide variety of types of wine, and, from what I understand, oceans of wine that is indifferently made that classic type scores are almost impossible to justify for a big region.

For example, just like Beaujolais will never score a 100, neither will a Muscadet, no matter how perfect it is in its own context or how great a match it is with scallops.

Then, even if there are great producers like some of the Quarts de Chaume winemakers, you've got the Chateau Musar syndrome - and you'll never see the Lebanon region get high 90's either. The great wines just underline how difficult they are to find amongst the zillions of mediocre wines, and in essence, reinforce the underperformance of the region with the gulf betweeen the great and the rest.

Anyways, those vintage ratings are just overall and a very rough guide. It will keep the prices down on the wines you like too. I've noticed that I am quite fond of lots of 2001 red Burgs (a variably rated vintage), and they have remained relatively cheap especially in the context of 1999, 2002, and 2003.

The most recent WA vintage chart now has a rating of 96 for the 2002 Loire vintgae which seems correct. They also give the most recent vintage, 2005 a score of 94 which is impressive.

VM