Every few months a small group of my friends get together for a gastro feast. Each meal is inspired by a particular region or country and everyone brings a course to complement the respective wines.

We call it ‘Slurp and Sip’ and I absolutely love to do it.

Our latest gathering was a celebration of some of the less well-known wines of the Loire Valley.

There was no Musacdet, no Sancerre, no Pouilly Fumé and no Chinon either.

We did, however, begin with a 1959 Vouvray Les Clos de Bourg Moulleux 1ère Trie from Huet; one of the Loire’s most famous producers.

A bottle of wine like this does not come cheap and we had paid just shy of £120 for it; not the sort of sum that most of us feel comfortable splashing out on wine, no matter what it is.

The advantage of our gatherings is that we fund them by making modest payments into an account every month.

It means we barely notice the money going out and it rather spreads the risk. The perfect scenario when it comes to trying pricier wines.

The Vouvray was fantastic to taste. The colour was a rich, deep gold and the nose was equally concentrated with honeyed, citrus fruits.

The palate too had real depth of flavour and had the tell-tale backbone of acidity that comes from the Chenin Blanc grape.

It was, in short, good and interesting though perhaps getting a touch tired and a little lacking in vigour.

For the starter, I’d opted for another — much younger — Chenin Blanc from the producer, Mark Angeli.

A chemistry graduate and one-time stonemason, he came to the Loire in the 1990s to make sweet wine but has, over the years, become increasingly interested in making drier wines.

Innovative and experimental, his wines are now deemed so atypical by the powers at be that they are no longer AOC wines and can only be labelled as much more humble vin de table.

Such a classification tells you absolutely nothing about the quality of the wine and the Les Fouchards 2007 we drank was a triumph.

I loved its upright elegance and the zippy, mineral edge that supported a surprisingly fruit-rich palate. I sensed it had much more to give and was secretly pleased that I had bought a second bottle to cellar to see what it has to give in three to five years’ time.

I was in charge of the food for that one and had chosen to make a rich, smoked trout pâté. Somehow I managed to fluff that completely and it was more like smoked trout soup. Never mind, the flavours still seemed to work.

With wild boar as the main dish, we had headed to Bourgueil for the accompanying reds and to another of the Loire’s leading lights; Yannick Amirault.

There were two wines to choose from; the first was La Petite Cave 2006 and the second a St Nicolas de Bourgueil Les Magagnes 2005.

The two wines were an interesting comparison. The first was smoother, more succulent with a delicious fragrance. Les Magagnes meanwhile was more robust with a much greater concentration of fruit. This reflected both the heat of the 2005 vintage and the fact that Les Magagnes is made from fruit sourced from very old Cabernet Franc vines.

Last up was a fabulous sweet Coteaux du Layon from Pierre-Bise. This has to be one of the finest — and best value — sweet white wines that France has to offer.

At just under £14 for a 50cl bottle, it is an absolute steal. When we were drinking it, someone mentioned the stillness of the wine. I think what the wine did was force us all to pause and reflect, so arresting were its charms. Perfectly balanced with wonderful freshness and vibrancy, it was just a delight to drink.

What a fabulous afternoon we had; great company, lovely wines and some deliciously tasty food. The sort of day that makes me even more grateful than normal for the friends I have and the work I do.

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