Bonnezeaux, a Chenin-only sweet appellation on three south-facing schist hills above Thouarcé, won AOC status in 1951 after lobbying by Jean Boivin, then owner of Château de Fesles, where the vineyards are first documented in 1055. In the Bernard Germain era, vines averaged 50 years old and were picked in repeated passes for fully botrytised fruit, six in 1996. Decanter called it a revered Loire estate.
A small, 1 hecrtare parcel of Chenin Blanc makes one of the best iterations in the region. Farmed organically and fermented with native yeasts, aged on its lees. Production is tiny.
`The ripeness of the 2018 vintage gives an almost Syrah/Viognier character to the Chinon La Croix Boissée, which offers sweet black fruit and a creamy apricot note. Sumptuous yet never ever opulent, it`s almost as if the wine`s just done a yoga class. Plentiful tannins give the inside of your cheeks a chalky rub, while there`s surprising freshness considering the ripeness, leading to a lengthy finish. This is a baby that will turn out to be a great adult.` 96 Points Rebecca Gibb, Vinous
Philippe and Catherine Delesvaux make sweet Chenin in Coteaux du Layon Saint-Aubin from about seven hectares, one of them ungrafted, picked over several passes for botrytis and passerillage. Clos du Pavillon sits on coal, in an old mining village. No chaptalisation or added yeasts, aged in barrel, bottled unfined.
Muscadet Gabbro Domaine de Bellevue Jerome Bretaudeau
Much like Didier Dagueneau did in the early 1990s, Jerome Bretaudeau has taken an appellation in the Loire known mostly for making tasty albeit formulaic wines and taken it to somewhere completely different. Over the course of the last five years he has demonstrated that Muscadet can take its place amongst the great names of the wine world.
Muscadet Gaia Domaine de Bellevue Jerome Bretaudeau
Much like Didier Dagueneau did in the early 1990s, Jerome Bretaudeau has taken an appellation in the Loire known mostly for making tasty albeit formulaic wines and taken it to somewhere completely different. Over the course of the last five years he has demonstrated that Muscadet can take its place amongst the great names of the wine world.
Jean-Pierre Robinot ran the Paris wine bar L`Ange Vin for nearly fifteen years before returning to his native Chahaignes in the Sarthe, in the Jasnières and Coteaux du Loir country, and starting his own domaine in 2001. His Opéra des Vins label vinifies grapes bought from local growers, with no chemicals and no additives, and wines are aged in a limestone cellar.
Tiny production as you might expect from 1 hectare of old vines yielding 20 hectare-litre / hectare. By my reckoning, that`s just under 170 cases per year. Top top red Sancerre made like top top Burgundy.
Singular Sauvignon Blanc from the tiny and legendary Clos de la Neore estate, where a tiny plot within Monts Damnes is farmed obsessively. View from the Cellar’s John Gilman has written with respect to its ageing that, “In many regards I find that the wines of the Raveneau brothers and Monsieur Vatan are quite analogous in terms of evolutionary cycles and their potential for profundity with sufficient bottle age.”
Singular Sauvignon Blanc from the tiny and legendary Clos de la Neore estate, where a tiny plot within Monts Damnes is farmed obsessively. View from the Cellar’s John Gilman has written with respect to its ageing that, “In many regards I find that the wines of the Raveneau brothers and Monsieur Vatan are quite analogous in terms of evolutionary cycles and their potential for profundity with sufficient bottle age.”
Boulay`s wines deserve much better recogniton, as they are clearly in the same bracket as those of Francois Cotat - to whom they show a lot of similarity. Incredibly ageworthy, pure and transparent transmissions of terroir.
François Cotat and his cousin Pierre run separate Sancerre estates in Chavignol. This comes from a famously steep Chavignol vineyard, picked late and released with extra age.
`While the 2021 Sancerre Les Monts Damnés is a light bodied wine with a sense of roundness at first, there`s no mistaking this is a forceful, grippy style. In its youth, it remains relatively restrained with a touch of green jalapeño and herbs reflecting the cooler season, as well as an almost spicy and salty edge. A little more fleeting than expected.` 92 Points, Rebecca Gibb
Sébastien Riffault farms at Sury-en-Vaux in Sancerre and makes natural-leaning, long-aged Sauvignon Blanc. The Quaterons comes from old vines. Over fifteen years old.
Michel Chevré, formerly vineyard manager for Thierry Germain at Roches Neuves, founded this Courchamps estate in 2011 and went full-time with his son Thibaud in 2017. The two-hectare Clos was planted between 2009 and 2013 at 8,000 vines per hectare, with Chidaine selections, on clay-limestone with outcrops of bedrock; horse-ploughed, organic from day one. Les Pentes is a single-foudre selection from the rockiest, limestone-rich top of the Clos. The Revue du Vin de France: already among the greatest in Saumur.
Benoit Courault trained in Beaune and worked with Eric Pfifferling at L`Anglore in Tavel before founding his estate in Faye-d`Anjou in 2006: about 5.5 hectares, mostly schist, biodynamic, worked with horses. Éphémère is an ancestral-method pét-nat from Chenin Blanc, grown organically and without machinery, bottled as Vin de France.
Vin de France Le Grand Clos Thomas Batardiere (Magnum)
Young Vines for Batardiere but these are within the `Esprit Libre` Vineyard are on eroded shist soils, just to the east of the village of Rablay – Bottled in Magnum only!
The Clos des Cocus is Thomas’ 0.6ha plot (planted in 1968) a climat neighbouring Montbenault on the coteau of Faye d’Anjou is at the top of the hill therefore exposed to drying and cooling winds
The Clos des Cocus is Thomas’ 0.6ha plot (planted in 1968) a climat neighbouring Montbenault on the coteau of Faye d’Anjou is at the top of the hill therefore exposed to drying and cooling winds
Vin de France Nectar d`Empyrees Aussigouins Dufour (50cl)
A very hotly tipped name amongst the Angevin Cavistes - Dominique Dufour retired some time ago to his home in Rablay-Sur-Layon in Anjou and started making natural wine from an old vineyard just outside the village. His 0.7 hectares is at the top of the slope, the bottom he sublets to Mai and Kenji Hodgeson. This vineyard is very close to Les Noels that his friend Richard Leroy cultivates and there are similarities in the their approaches. One wine is produced a year - a dry chenin. In exceptionally warm years a late harvested version is added and bottled in 50cl bottles.
Vin de France Nectar d`Empyrees Aussigouins Dufour (50cl)
A very hotly tipped name amongst the Angevin Cavistes - Dominique Dufour retired some time ago to his home in Rablay-Sur-Layon in Anjou and started making natural wine from an old vineyard just outside the village. His 0.7 hectares is at the top of the slope, the bottom he sublets to Mai and Kenji Hodgeson. This vineyard is very close to Les Noels that his friend Richard Leroy cultivates and there are similarities in the their approaches. One wine is produced a year - a dry chenin. In exceptionally warm years a late harvested version is added and bottled in 50cl bottles.
Stéphanie Debout and Vincent Bertin, former Paris engineers, settled in Faye-d`Anjou in 2012 and farm about three hectares organically with a horse, adding no sulphur. Punch names them among the Anjou`s most promising names." Pacotille is Chenin from 0.4 hectares of 50-year-old vines at Beaulieu-sur-Layon, a south-facing slope on dark schist, with yields under 20 hl/ha."
Philippe Foreau farms the walled Clos Naudin in Vouvray, a family estate known for long-lived Chenin Blanc. Made only in years when botrytis allows, this first selection is nearly four decades old.
`According to Vincent Foreau, 2009 marked the best harvest I ve ever experienced, lasting five weeks and concluding at the end of November. The 2009 Vouvray Moelleux Reserve is indeed a magnificent wine, wafting from the glass with complex aromas of tea, black tea, white truffle, herbs, ripe orchard fruits, baked pear and spices. Full-bodied, dense and concentrated, it is layered and impeccably balanced, with bright acidity supporting a superbly structured phenolic mid-palate. The finish is long, intricate and laced with exotic fruit nuances. This is an extraordinary expression of both vintage and terroir. 170 grams of residual sugar.` 98 Points, Yohan Castaing
Philippe Foreau farms the walled Clos Naudin in Vouvray, a family estate known for long-lived Chenin Blanc. This legendary sweet cuvée is made only in suitable years.
Philippe Foreau, third generation, has run Clos Naudin since 1983; his grandfather bought it in 1923. 11.5 hectares of Chenin in north-east Vouvray, mid-slope and south-facing, vines around 45 years old, yields near 33 hl/ha. Hand-picked over several passes, fermented in 300-litre barrels, no malolactic, never chaptalised. The Wine Doctor calls the moelleux cuvées benchmarks for the entire appellation.
