Francois Chidaine

You have to look to the historical collections of regional leaders Foreau and Huet to find comparable consistently high quality, making it clear that Chidaine is one of the world's finest craftsmen in the medium of white wine, not to mention a continuing source of amazing value. DAVID SCHILDKNECHT

As they were bottling at the property, I tasted a large range of wines with François Chidaine this summer in his little wine shop in town. As the majority of his business is with professional clients, and most of that in export, he did not want to lose contact with private clients and so set up La Cave Insolite in the middle of Montlouis, population 10,452. On the shelves are herbs, spices, honey and, beyond his own wines, a thoughtful selection from many of his biodynamic friends. Although the estate was only founded in 1989, Chidaine has been one of Rudolf Steiner’s pioneers on the Loire, having turned “green” in 1997. A very quiet, subtle gentleman, he became better known to a wider public in 2002 when he took over the erstwhile estate of Prince Poniatowski in Vouvray. That was part and parcel of a gradual expansion from humble beginnings that has seen the estate grow to its current 30 hectares, about two-thirds of which are still now in Montlouis. As his yields are generally quite low, he seldom produces more than 150,000 bottles a year, often relatively evenly split between bubbles, dry, off-dry and noble late-harvest chenin blancs. He likes to drink most of his wines either very young, when they are still on their primary fruit, or after seven or eight years of age. If you admire purity in chenin blanc, this is an address to remember. JOEL B. PAYNE