Loire
Loire
Within France, the Loire Valley region produces the greatest diversity of wine styles. The array of wines made reflects the different sub-regions that share little in common due to the region's sweeping expanse. It's an exciting mesh of sparkling, dry, sweet, rose and reds styles.
Known as the 'Garden of France' the Loire Valley is a prolific food bowl producing delectable treats across cheese, cherries, apples, butter and vegetables. Covering 1000km from east to west, this picturesque region is a feast for both your eyes and tastebuds.
Grapes
White: Chenin Blanc, Melon de Bourgogne (Muscadet), Sauvignon Blanc
Red: Cabernet Franc, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Grolleau
Styles
The Muscadets of the Nantais are influenced by the maritime climate. These wines are subtly textured, freshly fruited and best drunk young with some oysters. Anjou is where Chenin Blanc shines in various styles - sparkling, dry and sweet. Touraine is home to the tuffeau soils which Chenin blanc loves in Vouvray, and we see some red wines here too. Lastly, in the Central Vineyards where the soils are similar to Chablis, Sauvignon Blanc is the cross-bearer producing some exhilarating wines in Sancerre and Pouilly Fume.
Favourite Producers
Pepiere, Baumard, Pierre Bise, Roches Neuves, Huet, Francois Chidaine, Didier Dageneau, Vacheron, Gerard Boulay,
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Monmousseau Brut Etoile NVThe Monmousseau Brut Etoile is also from Vouvray and made from Chenin Blanc. From the Loire Valley with love! This sparkling is just the thing to keep on hand for one of those unexpected celebrations. The Brut Etoile is produced much like Champagne, and spends a year of its life aging in the winery's 15 km of underground tunnels which are the remains of an ancient stone quarry. It is a clean and fruity sparkling wine that shows notes of honey and peach on the nose and is complemented by minerality on the palate and a dry, persistent finish. PWSNVSparkling WineFrance422Special Price $25.00 Regular Price $30.00 -
Monmousseau Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2020More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2020sauvignon BlancFrance422$38.00 As low as $34.20 -
Pichot Vouvray Sec Coteau de La Biche 2023More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2023Chenin BlancFrance422$40.00 As low as $36.00 -
Y.amirault Amirault Bourgueil Cote 50 2022The old La Coudraye, which changed to La Côte back in the 2018 vintage to reflect the variety of origins for the fruit. This is a sample drawn before bottling. A vibrant hue in the glass, and a beautifully pure and eager nose of black cherry, blackcurrant and damson fruits. The palate remains true to the nose, with that same sense of purity and an underbelly of soft chalk, before a sappy cherry-skin character at the end. Modestly extracted tannins, firm but not over done, with nice acidity for this warmer vintage, this should evolve nicely for some years, but should be ready to go within a year or two. The alcohol is said to be 13%. CHRIS KISSACK, Thewinedoctor.com2022Cabernet BlendsFrance422$47.00 As low as $42.30 -
Domaine Landron-Chartier Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire 'Melon B' 2022More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2022MuscadetFrance422$52.00 As low as $46.80 -
Pierre Bise Savennieres Clos de Coulaine 2018More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2018Chenin BlancFrance422$59.00 As low as $53.10 -
Balivet Bugey Cerdon 2021More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2021Sparkling WineFrance422$59.00 As low as $53.10 -
Domaine de la Chevalerie Breteche Bourgueil 2017
More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2017Cabernet BlendsFrance422$80.00 As low as $72.00 -
Huet Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Sec 2022The 2023 Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu is a pure, refined, seamless style with pear, pineapple and nectarine flavors. It boasts excellent clarity and refinement, with lovely freshness hailing from calibrated acidity that bursts through this blossoming wine. Considering this was only bottled three weeks before tasting, I'm very encouraged by the results. REBECCA GIBB MW, Vinous
This stunning dry Vouvray has such an exciting energy on the simultaneously focused and creamy medium-bodied palate. I love the juicy core, then the way the wet stone character builds to an impressive intensity in the long, precise finish. Still really youthful and with great aging potential.
STUART PIGOTT, JamesSuckling.com2022Chenin BlancFrance422Special Price $83.00 Regular Price $98.00 -
Domaine Vacheron Sancerre Blanc 2023... its straight Sancerre Blanc, a blend of parcels (limestone 45%, flint 45% and 10% marl), is fermented in tank after being hand harvested. It is a stellar ‘entry’ wine to their range.VINOUS
Domaine Vacheron is one of Sancerre’s elite properties, producing both white and red Sancerre wines of amazing purity and definition. The domaine has been completely transformed over to biodynamic farming with two young cousins, Jean-Laurent and Jean-Dominique Vacheron, at the helm. No synthetic material is used in the vineyard, harvests are carried out exclusively by hand, and the only fertilizer used is produced from the compost pile. Yields are kept extremely low. Having inherited some of the most coveted parcels in the appellation, the cousins are trying a Burgundian approach to Sancerre winemaking, with parcels being vinified .
Flinty sparks mix with fresh thyme and grapefruit pith aromas. The pure core of fruit cascades like a waterfall onto the palate, it’s luminous and palate staining while a minerally vein reminds you of its chalky and fossil laden soils it shares with Chablis. It slithers along, finishing with a mouth watering saline finish. It’s a refined and stylish Sancerre, so very damn delicious. GABRIELLE POY
2023sauvignon BlancFrance422$85.00 As low as $76.50 -
Francois Chidaine Montlouis Les Tuffeaux 2020More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2020Chenin BlancFrance422$90.00 As low as $81.00 -
Huet Vouvray Le Mont Sec 2023The 2023 Vouvray Sec Le Mont is precise, upright and flinty. It's less immediately charming than the styles we've seen in recent warmer vintages, but it was only tasted three weeks after bottling - this is one to revisit. There's just the right amount of juicy, peachy flesh within this light-bodied yet concentrated wine. It has the potential to charm but does so without showing off. Flinty and tightly sewn together, it has curves in the right places, but you're just going to have to wait for it to take shape (95) REBECCA GIBB MW, Vinous
One of the great dry white wines of the Loire. This dry chenin blanc is rich and concentrated, but also graceful and delicate. Full-bodied but so elegant and precise, with a wet stone minerality that builds in a spectacular manner in the very long, refined finish. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. (96) STUART PIGOT, JamesSuckling.com2022Chenin BlancFrance422Special Price $102.00 Regular Price $120.00 -
Francois Chidaine Vin de France Moelleux (Vouvray) 2018Again this moelleux cuvée has a very gentle residual sugar, with just 25 g/l. Unsurprisingly it feels very pure and fresh on the nose, with a very focused style, with scents of peach leaf and some lightly honeyed orchard fruit. The palate is pure, fresh and bright, mixing a pithy substance of both orchard and citrus fruits, fresh and pure, with a very fine acid backbone. This is quite striking in the finish, where it is long and cleansed with wonderful vibrancy. Very good potential here but it needs time.”
CHRIS KISSACK, thewinedoctor.com
Chidaine does not release a Moelleux from his Vouvray vineyards every year—the balance has to be just so—and so you can be sure that when he does it is worth seeking out. It's drawn from the clay-limestone vineyards (of Le Bouchet, L’Espagnole, L’Homme, La Chatterie et al.) and made in the same fashion as Les Tuffeaux. As we have seen chez Huet, 2018 was a stunning year for sweeter styles of Chenin Blanc and here the song remains the same.2016Chenin BlancFrance422$105.00 As low as $94.50 -
Huet Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec 2022The 2022 Le Haut-Lieu Demi-Sec is juicy, though never generous, but still a comforting Vouvray that remains focused; there's sufficient tension from the acidity despite the season's warmth. Welcoming and friendly from the off, there's fine fruit here with a pretty talc note. It has a sense of persistence and presence that elevates this wine from purely a fruity Chenin. Really charming. REBECCA GIBB MW2022Chenin BlancFrance422$120.00 As low as $108.00 -
Pierre Bise Savennieres Roche Aux Moines 2020The 2020 Roche aux Moines is a full bodied, round shouldered style with supple texture and a reassuring sense of grip from a combination of acid, phenolics and the schistous/sandstone soils of this famous vineyard. It's a wine that takes its 14% alcohol with ease and glides along, providing long, long length. Having spent 18 months on lees in barrel, there is an integrated nutty oak and pastry-like character within the wine's core. Mouth-watering acidity makes you want more. REBECCA GIBB MW, Vinous2020Chenin BlancFrance422$120.00 As low as $108.00 -
Francois Chidaine Montlouis Les Bournais 2022More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2022Chenin BlancFrance422$125.00 As low as $112.50 -
Huet Vouvray Le Haut-Lieu Franc de Pied Sec 2017More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2017Chenin BlancFrance422$230.00 As low as $207.00