Loire

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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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  1. Damien Pinon Vouvray Brut NV
    Damien Pinon Vouvray Brut NV
    Third generation vignerons, the Pinons have 25 hectares in Vernou-sur-Brenne. 50% of their production is sparkling and 50% still wine with nothing sold off to the négoce.

    We have long loved the wines of Damien Pinon and when we first tried this little number we were pretty stoked. Great sparkling Loire is such a treat. It captures all that zingy, racy, pure goodness of chenin blanc while bringing the added dimension of bubbles into the equation. They seem like a perfect partnership and we absolutely love this wine.

    Quince and granny smith, talcum powder, quartyz spice and a gently honeysuckle, floral element that floats deliciously around in the background. Its pure and precise but fills out across the palate with each sip. Sometimes, Loire Sparkling is a little too lean  but this deliver plenty of fruit at the same time to balance of the fine, minerally acidity.
    NV
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  2. Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux 2018
    Huet Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux 2018
    The 2018 Vouvray Clos du Bourg Moelleux is ripe and already quite open on the remarkably fine and precise nose where delicate chalky notes intermix with yeasty aromas of ripe apples and even very fine flinty hints. On the palate, this is a sweet, lush, salty-piquant and refined but tightly woven Chenin with structure, remarkable finesse, tickling salinity and serious but fine tannins, as if it was a Pinot Noir. Filigreed and feminine on the tongue, the 2018 develops a long, tensioned, tightly woven and stimulatingly salty finish. Great class and aging potential. STEPHAN REINHARDT, Wine Advocate
    2018
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  3. Francois Chidaine Clos Habert 2019
    Francois Chidaine Clos Habert 2019
    This Domaine has a number of cuvées that often fall into what would traditionally be called demi-sec territory. However, Chidaine prefers to call these wines tendre, or 'gently dry'. This three-hectare clos sits just above the Clos de Breuil, on a plateau where the silex (flint) gives way to broken chalk and clay.
    From a soil composed of clay and coarse flint elements covering the subsoil made up of tuff, the 2019 Montlouis sur Loire Clos Habert opens with a very fine and delicate bouquet of finely concentrated yellow-fleshed fruit aromas along with herbal and flinty notes. Round and intense, with perfectly ripe fruit, fine tannins and delicate acidity, this is a sustainably intense and salty Chenin that is far too young to be served today but will age for some decades. STEPHAN REINHARDT, wineadvocate.com
    2019
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  4. Domaine du Salvard Unique Sauvignon Blanc 2020
    Domaine du Salvard Unique Sauvignon Blanc 2020
    Previously labelled 'Unique' Sauvignon Blanc. With a new name and spanking new label designed by the talented French-based artist Louise Sheeran, the package here now reflects the quality of the wine inside. Cropped from mature vines rooted in the sandy clay soils of Cheverny's Fougères sur Bièvre, Blanc de Salvard is 100% Sauvignon Blanc raised on lees without any oak. The Delaille brothers' 2020 is another succulent and vibrant white, packed with aromas and flavours of pithy citrus, and shot through with smoky, resinous freshness and mouth-watering acidity. Classic Vin de Soif Loire.
    2020
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  5. Pierre Bise Savennieres Roche Aux Moines 2020
    Pierre Bise Savennieres Roche Aux Moines 2020
    The 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, Vinous
    2020
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  6. Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly Fume Luminance 2020
    Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly Fume Luminance 2020

    The 2020 Pouilly Fumé Luminance is pure, fragrant and enticing. Forget a bouquet of flowers for your nearest and dearest, buy this highly floral style of Poully Fumé instead with its attractive elderflower and nectarine perfume. Formerly known as Predilection, this is tender and far more textured than most; it's creamy and blossoming and that's due to both the kimmeridgian-marl soils and 18 months on lees. A light chalky texture coats the roof of the mouth on the long, scented and salty finish. REBECCA GIBB, Vinous.com

    From Kimmeridgian limestone, the 2020 Pouilly Fumé Luminance (known as "Prédilection" until the 2019 vintage) is excitingly pure and mineral on the saline and complex nose that indicates ripe and concentrated fruit. On the palate, this is a rich and intense, finely tannic, bitter yet stimulatingly fresh and saline Pouilly with a long and powerful finish. STEPHAN RHEINHARDT, Wine Advocate


     

    2020
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  7. Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly Fume Leon 2020 375ml
    Jonathan Didier Pabiot Pouilly Fume Leon 2020 375ml

    The 2020 Léon is surprisingly tangy and bright for this warm vintage with just 13% alcohol. It's light in body and focused while 12-18 months on lees has provided a sense of roundness and texture to the mid palate as well as a touch of autolysis-derived pastry character to the apple and citrus fruit and lightly floral aromas. Vibrant, fresh and youthful. Best enjoyed in the first three to six years of its life for its energy. REBECCA GIBB, Vinous.com

    The former Florilège comes with a new name this year. Predominantly from limestone soils but also silex, the 2020 Pouilly Fumé Léon offers a clear, deep, fresh and spicy, quite complex and iodine bouquet with great precision and mineral intensity. Aged in stainless steel, concrete and 20% oak barrels (228 and 500 liter), this is a rich and round, very elegant and aromatic Pouilly-Fumé with good mineral and fruity freshness and a long, intense and tensioned finish that reveals fine tannins and crisp grip. This is a substantial wine with excellent aging potential. STEPHAN RHEINHARDT, Wine Advocate

    2020
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  8. Rocher des Violettes Les Borderies Demi Sec Montlouis 2020
    Rocher des Violettes Les Borderies Demi Sec Montlouis 2020
    From a single vineyard of 50+ year old vines on sand and silex (with pure limesonte just below).
    Borderies is often the first vineyard to be harvested from slightly raisened fruit. Notes of jasmine, apple pie and crushed rocks on the nose lead into a subtle sweetness without heaviness. On the palate orchard fruits join in, signing off chalky minerality and a stream of quince-like phenolics which bring balance and punctuate the flow of sweetness. This is a delectable off-dry wine which could be served with cheese or richer seafood dishes. GABRIELLE POY



    A little flint and white flowers with just picked anjou pear and a touch of pineapple and a little hint of bees wax. Fine and elegant with pure white fruits and a chalky mineral streak. Crystal clear and clean. Very pure. MYLES THOMSON, PWS
    2020
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  9. Rocher des Violettes Le Grand Poirier Molleaux Montlouis 2020
    Rocher des Violettes Le Grand Poirier Molleaux Montlouis 2020
    From a 0.8 ha plot ‘Le Grand Poirier’ planted in 1950.  This has about 50% botrytis and aged in older barrels. RS 85 g/l
    Smells so very strongly of fresh sage and honey and pineapple and medjool dates soaked in warm water. Lovely earthiness. Linden leaf. Saffron. An unusual nuttiness. Pineapple syrup and pressed sage on the palate. The sweetness fills the mouth but this is a wine that needs your silence, your listening, your waiting. If you give it time, sit back, find a nook in the garden or tucked into your old armchair, it's a wine that gives so much more than sweetness. It hands you memories of rain on earth, of bruised clover underneath the ripening grapes, of bees, blue skies, black skies, pink-blazed-morning skies, mist-draped dawns. You can taste yeast, old wood, black coffee, a slowly melting fingertip of dark chocolate on your tongue, ginger-biscuit crumbs. It's something, this wine. TAMLYN CURRIN, Jancis Robinson
    2020
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  10. Rocher des Violettes Petillant Originel Montlouis 2019
    Rocher des Violettes Petillant Originel Montlouis 2019
    A mid-gold hue, with abundant pastry notes, honeysuckle, orange balm and oatmeal accents, pointing toward a fuller-weighted, very ripe and ambitious Mountlouis fizz. A warm year. This is a commune that has strutted past Vouvray on the opposite side of the Loire, and is today responsible for a good swag of the most exciting white-wine producers in the region, if not the world. The wine finishes textural and bright, marked by chenin's lanolin, tarte tatin and dried hay, before a plume of dutiful freshness. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. NED GOODWINE MW, James Suckling


    100% sparkling chenin blanc made in the Pétillant Naturel style from a single parcel in the  lieu-dit “Le Moulin”
    Preserved lemon and citrus pith with chalky notes sprinkled throughout and a delicate lift and soft fruit profile. Dry and chalky with a savoury edge. Pure with a seam of mineral that runs the length. Only 5 producers making this wine in Montlouis - very cool. MYLES THOMSON, PWS
    2020
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  11. Rocher des Violettes Cot Touraine 2020
    Rocher des Violettes Cot Touraine 2020
    This comes from a wide ranging age of vines between 5 - 129 years old on silty clay over limestone from the sites; Bel-Air, La Rochère, Le Grand Poirier and Les Borderies.
    Made from Cot, the local name for malbec there's an ebullient lift to the nose of maraschino cherries, violets and fragrant blackberries with hints of black pepper thanks to the inclusion of whole bunches. A framework of tannins envelopes the intense core of dark berries with an undertow of savoury minerality to support. This is handsomely structured and will repay cellar time, though it's appealing and delicious from the outset. GABRIELLE POY

    2020
    Cabernet Franc
    France
    422
  12. Domaine du Salvard Unique Sauvignon Blanc 2022
    Domaine du Salvard Unique Sauvignon Blanc 2022
    Previously labelled ‘Unique’ Sauvignon Blanc. With a new name and spanking new label designed by the talented French-based artist Louise Sheeran, the package here now reflects the quality of the wine inside. Cropped from mature vines rooted in the sandy clay soils of Cheverny’s Fougères sur Bièvre, Blanc de Salvard is 100% Sauvignon Blanc raised on lees without any oak.

    This is how sauvignon blanc should be. Racy, minerality at its core but tamed with white fruits, nectarine, a little hint of something tropical delicately in the background and packed with flavour without being a one-dimensional tropical fruit bomb. This a great example of what a little care and attention can turn this somewhat ubiquitous grape into something so freakin delicious.
    2022
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  13. Rocher des Violettes Vin de France Chenin 2022
    Rocher des Violettes Vin de France Chenin 2022

    Xavier Weisskopf is based in Montlouis, across the Loire from Vouvray, and makes a variety of wines, often from old vines. This wine, labeled Vin de France, comes from old vines in a section of Montlouis that is scheduled to be reclassified as Touraine next year, so Mr. Weisskopf decided to simply call it Vin de France. Its dry and delicious, with aromas and flavors of lemon, honey and flowers, just right for scallops or other seafood dishes. ERIC ASIMOV, The New York Times

    A very inviting style, with a supple texture to the apple and yellow plum flavors, underlined by spice and chalky mineral notes. Some nice lemon-edged acidity keeps this fresh. Drink now. WINE SPECTATOR

    2022
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  14. Damien Pinon Tuffo Vouvray Sec 2022
    Damien Pinon Tuffo Vouvray Sec 2022
    Damien Pinon is the third generation of his family to naturally farm Chenin Blanc in the chalky soils of Vernou-sur-Brenne in the appellation of Vouvray. His vines are old, creating lush, expressive white wines.

    Ah Tuffo! This wine seems to never fail us. Not only is it a wonderful example of classic Vouvray it always delivers that little x-factor and bit of pizzaz we like. That lovely clay/waxed citrus and quince fruit comes at you straight off-the-bat with that slaty chalky thin that chenin does in the Loire so well. Some apple and pear drop generosity on the palate is cut by crunchy acidity and a little hit of phenolic grip that stick all those beautiful flavours to your mouth. There is a little floral flourish in the middle and spritz of mixed sweet spice on the finish. A cracker!
    2022
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  15. Francois Chidaine Vin de France Moelleux (Vouvray) 2018
    Francois Chidaine Vin de France Moelleux (Vouvray) 2018
    Again 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.
    2016
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
  16. Gerard Boulay Sancerre Clos Beaujeu 2022
    Gerard Boulay Sancerre Clos Beaujeu 2022
    In one of the region’s most regarded sites, Boulay’s vines claim prime position, sitting on that vein of Kimmeridgian limestone, the same that runs down through Chablis. Vines here are as old as 110 years. The steep slopes, old vines, and SE exposure ensures that this is often one of the most densely fruited wines. However this year I found it had a little more generosity than the others, certainly not a big wine, in the sense of fruitfulness, but if any in this bracket could be said to be “easy going” then this would come closest. I was startled by how good this wine was and it is only the first. Long, salty, tactile and struck through by a rod of acidity that tightens everything up at the end. It’s excellent! ROSCOE
    2022
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  17. Gerard Boulay Sancerre Les Monts Damnes 2022
    Gerard Boulay Sancerre Les Monts Damnes 2022
    Some may call this one of Chavignol’s Grand Crus, I would be among them. Though warmer and more exposed than some of Boulays other sites the steep vineyard has more chalky clay components in the soil, does that make a difference? I don’t know but every year I find this to be a bit more structural, grippy and phenolic backed wines in the line up, nothing this year to change my opinion there.
    Where this sets itself apart from some recent releases is this tightrope it seems to be walking, perhaps the wrong analogy, more of a tug of war. On one side you have this compact but heavy, dense fruit pulling down on the palate while on the other, offering equal resistance is the crisp acidity and almost chewy phenolic/extract characters. They kind of grip the fruit and pull it along, for now they are winning this game but only just. I think this may be the first to open up and expose its more charming characters. When it does I expect it will be gorgeous to drink. ROSCOE
    2022
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  18. Gerard Boulay Sancerre Comtesse 2022
    Gerard Boulay Sancerre Comtesse 2022
    From a tiny 0.40 hectare plot of 70 year old vines on the chalky soils of Monts Damnes this is supposed to represent the pinnacle of the Boulay’s bottlings, usually it does. This year it goes toe to toe with the La Cote. Honestly, only time will tell which of them will eventually take home the meat tray, but for now I think it’s a toss of the coin.
    Here there is an inescapable muscularity to the wine. It’s almost brawny and chewy. The extract is off the hook and it seems like its all that stands between your palate and a veritable onslaught of intensity and flavour. Hugely long and wildly intense, this is really quite something and has a long, glorious future ahead of it. Like the La Cote, these are Grand Cru quality wines that unerringly articulate their terroir. Exceptional wine. ROSCOE
    2022
    sauvignon Blanc
    France
    422
  19. Huet Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Sec 2022 375ml
    Huet Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Sec 2022 375ml
    Domaine Huet reigns supreme in Vouvray. They make some of the world's most pure dry wines and piquant sweet styles from the racy and multifaceted Chenin Blanc. But you'll need patience, these powerhouses need around a decade to start revealing their inherent complexities.

    Le Haut Lieu is the original vineyard,  purchased by founder Gaston Huet in 1928. It's based on heavy clay and chalk in the topsoil means these wines tend to be the most approachable in youth, though they age beautifully.

    The 2022 Le Haut-Lieu Sec is a lithe, reductive style with floral character and talcum powder. Full of phenolic, lip-smacking texture woven through its core, lending a sense of satisfying grunt to this dry yet balanced style. Clarity, precision and harmony are keywords in this wine's execution. A little more fleeting on the finish than ideal. (5.5g/L) REBECCA GIBB MW, Vinous

    2022
    Chenin Blanc
    France
    422
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