chenin blanc

TASTY ‘LITTLE’ SAUMUR FROM A TOP SOURCE

The central figure in this story is Arnaud Lambert, author of the Chateau de Brézé Cremant we sold a while back and the owner of forty hectares of vineyards of serious vineyards in the Loire. The holdings are principally within three communes: two within the Saumur-Champigny appellation (Montsoreau and Saint-Cyr, on opposite sides of the appellation—north and south, respectively) and the resurrected, historic commune, Brézé, on the southernmost border of the AOP Saumur-Champigny.

Lambert bottles nearly twenty different cuvees under Chateau de Brézé and his own eponymous label. He is highly respected in the region and has garnered some strong press for his still wines from a number of writers, particularly the reds. So when Lambert does something, we pay attention. This cuvee is new to us and a little less specific than most of his work which focuses on specific sites. That’s fine by us as the combination of Lambert’s skills, the quality of his sites and the riper 2022 vintage combine to make an engaging, complex, rather accessible window into this producer’s style.

As we have said many times, we are de facto fans of Chenin Blanc and consider it one of the world’s great whites by virtue of not only it’s quality when it is at its best, but also its versatility to perform beautifully in every expression from bone dry to exotic, botrytised dessert wines. This one is dry and fairly easy going as Chenin Blanc goes, making it a perfect ambassador for both Chenin and Lambert.

The nose on the Arnaud Lambert Saumur Blanc Les Parcelles 2022 is an inviting mixture of classic Chenin with notes of orange, peach, and quince with streaks of earth and chalky minerality. All of this comes through on the palate in a dry but fruit focused style, with a rounded, supple palate feel and without the sometimes searing acidity that can make this varietal difficult for some folks to appreciate. Because of Lambert’s approach to Chenin emphasizing the varietal purity and unique terroir of Saumur, and this wine’s relatively gentler demeanor make it a wine to win friends for the region.

The modest fare ($21.98) for this blend of a variety of properties (hence the title Les Parcelles) also make this a marvelous option for a broader range of people and more food applications. It is particularly good for lighter Asian and fish dishes as well as offering up a lovely aperitif option that, while it is an easy approach to the varietal, it is definitely not the ‘same old thing.’ Holiday ham? You bet! Classy, workhorse, versatile Chenin from an impeccable source, yeah we got that.

TERRES BLANCHES REVISITED

If the subject matter looks a little familiar, guilty as charged. We sent this email on Les Terres Blaches in early October. We reiterated our dismay with the natural wine movement in general, which we’ve mostly eliminated in this piece, and spent a good bit of type extolling these folks in the Anjou for making some of the cleanest, best, most exemplary natural wines we had ever come across. There was no press at the time, and the interest admittedly disappointing. Literally a couple of weeks later, Wine Advocate’s Stephan Reinhardt ‘went off’ on two of the four wines we highlighted in that piece (plus the prior vintage of the ‘pet-nat’). We intend to send it out again with the Wine Advocate notes but the holiday email schedule is crammed and these wines deserve attention. So, for the moment, here are our original comments with Reinhardt’s notes inserted.

In 2004, Celine and Benoit took over the 8.5 hectare domaine of Bernard Coutel, who was retiring and had no family members to follow in his footsteps. Certified in Organic Agriculture since 2010, the Blets also work in the cellar to the rhythm of the wines. Their wines are the expression of the particular grape variety on the specific terroir as unfettered as possible. Their mission is to produce grapes and develop natural wines while protecting their environment throughout the farm. That synergy affects everything. The estate is located in Anjou, in the Loire Valley. The grapes varieties are Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. The vines are planted between 4,500 and 4,800 vines per hectare with natural grassing every other row, the other row is plowed after the harvest to bury the compost and maintained by hoeing the rest of the year. It is very methodical.

They refer to what they do as ‘peasant agriculture’, adhering to centuries old traditions that predated chemicals and machines. In their words, “To offer you hand-sewn natural wines, we strive to produce beautiful ripe grapes.” They are fanatics in the vineyards and you feel the energy and clarity of purpose in their wines. Us proffering ‘natural wines’ will be shock to many. But we aren’t pushing them because they are ‘natural’. We are talking about Terres Blanches because the wines impressed the heck out of us. These kids are on to something, and the wines are under $25.

The Celine et Benoit Blet Les Terres Blanches Les 3 Poiriers Anjou Blanc 2019 is also 100% Chenin made from a later harvest of grapes from similar (or the same?) soils. These ‘healthy, golden’ grapes were pressed into neutral barrels via gravity where they fermented slowly without SO2, and then bottled with no fining or filtration. This subtle, complex Chenin reminds us of a top-notch Vouvray sec, except for the price. Pear, peach, maybe a little orange, with well woven in, delicate minerality, sneakily complex and subtly captivating, this is a star.

From Wine Advocate, “From the second sorting of grapes picked in fully ripe and healthy condition at the end of September, the 2019 Anjou Chenin Les 3 Poiriers displays an intense yet refined and elegant bouquet of perfectly ripe Chenin Blanc grapes intermingled with very fine and refreshing, flinty, crystalline and lemony sandstone aromas. Medium to full-bodied, this is a concentrated, dense, intense and persistent Chenin with remarkable mineral tension and vitality. The wine fermented in two- to eight-year-old barrels, then was blended in July of the following year and bottled in September just before the 2020 harvest. This is an impressive, ripe, elegant and sustainable, well-structured and tensioned Chenin with excellent ripeness and concentration. A long-distance runner for sure. 14% alcohol. Tasted in June 2021…93 points.”

Like all of the others in this lineup, the Celine et Benoit Blet Les Terres Blanches Anjou Rouge Demon 2019 exudes great purity. In keeping with the theme this 100% Cabernet Franc of a particular variety referred as ‘Breton’ that was originally planted by an abbot of that name. It was harvested at optimum ripeness, destemmed, and given 5 weeks maceration then transferred to neutral (2-5 year old) barrels. Bottled unfiltered and unfined, with no SO2, this exudes ripe Franc character of dark red and blue fruit, is tender on the palate and without any green of funky notes. A gentle, engaging red that shows all the best sides of Cabernet Franc. Celine and Benoit refer to their produce as enlightened peasant wine. It seems the ‘peasants’ drink pretty well around these.

From Wine Advocate, “The 2019 Anjou Démon is from the Poulette parcels above the Hautes Bruyères and was completely destemmed before the infusion on the mash, which took one month. The bouquet is beautifully fine and elegant, with red and dark berry aromas, also cassis, along with crystalline stony notes. Smooth, refined and highly elegant on the palate, with perfectly ripe black berry fruit aromas and silky tannins, this is an intense and beautifully aromatic Cabernet Franc with outstanding finesse and balance. The tannins are marvelously refined and intermingled with the ripe and crystalline acidity, and the finish is ripe, long, sweet and balanced. A fabulous wine. Tasted in June 2021… 93+ points.”

In closing, we didn’t buy these because they were ‘natural’, but because they were really good, well priced, and quite distinctive. The fact that they were ‘natural’ had zero effect on our decision. The fact that wines this clean and expressive could be made that way was something of a revelation given our experience with the natural wine category. Clearly these kids are working hard and, in our eyes, setting an example. These aren’t wines particularly targeted for ‘natural wine’ buffs. These stylish, energetic wines are for anyone!

GET SOME CHIDAINE IN YOUR MOUTH

Although we do try to be a little cheerier than the news, it is hard to ignore the effects of the pandemic. At this moment it is hard to imagine how the restaurant business will ever be the same, and we have mused at how the wine industry will move forward after this hopefully comes to an end. In the meantime, the disruption of the restaurant trade, as we have mentioned before, has given us greater access to certain relatively scarce, high demand labels. After all, they can’t tell us they are saving for restaurants.

The point of the story is that we were able to grab enough of one of our favorite producers in sufficient quantities to actually talk about. We have professed our love for Loire Chenin Blancs on a number of occasions. While there are a number of excellent producers in the region, there are three we think are top of the heap. Francois Chidaine is one of them (Huet and Foreau are the other two if you’re wondering).

A unique success story who starting farming ogranically and biodynamically in the early 2000s as he accumulated his own properties, Chidaine has established quite a reputation for riveting wines with lots of energy. Most of his properties are located in Montlouis, the less famous village across the river from Vouvray, but the stuff he puts in the bottle can stand alongside anything.

We have a smattering of things but we’ll highlight the Francois Chidaine Montlouis Sur Loire Les Bournais 2018. When Chidaine planted this vineyard, he commented that he thought one day this would be his best plot. Sitting atop the Montlouis plateau, Les Bournais is the only parcel in Montlouis to possess the classic soil components that Vouvray is so famous for; solid limestone bedrock, covered with chalky limestone chunks and clay.

This is dry Chenin Blanc you can serve anywhere that you could serve a white Burgndy, and a few places you couldn’t (like Asian cuisine), that we are perfectly capable of waxing poetic about. But Antonio Galloni already did that for us, “The 2018 Montlouis Les Bournais is a wine of mind-blowing complexity and nuance. So deep yet also weightless and effortless, Les Bournais dazzles from the very first taste. Dried flowers, lime, mint, lemon confit and tangerine oil hover on the palate in a breathtaking Montlouis endowed with tons of translucence and sheer character. Don’t miss it…96 Points.”

We’ll briefly mention the Francois Chidaine (Vouvray) Les Argiles 2017, also fermented dry, from more clay-based soils on the Vouvray side of the river (argiles is French for clay). The fruits lean a bit more towards apple and pear with a little touch of honey and caramel on the finish, perhaps a little denser because of the clay, but always with the riveting acidity to keep everything humming along.

This isn’t like what most folks think of as Chenin Blanc but this is world class juice that deserves an audience. Chidaine’s wines are favorites around here.

(Browse all Chidaine)

A TRIO OF INTRIGUING CALIFORNIA WHITES

NORIA SAUVIGNON BLANC BEVILL FAMILY VINEYARD RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY 2017-There are many approaches to wine, and those approaches can vary based on a number of factors, not the least of which is orientation based on where someone is from. Nori Nakamura first learned about fine wine at his uncle’s Italian restaurant in Tokyo. After college he visited Italy and tasted a phenomenal 1981 Barbaresco that clarified his life’s goal of being a winemaker. He earned a Japan Sommelier Certification in Tokyo and transferred to the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco where he religiously visited wine country every weekend for two years.

He decided winemaking was his ultimate passion and graduated from U.C. Davis in 2002. He went on to become assistant winemaker at Koves-Newlan, Pine Ridge Vineyards and Artesa and head winemaker at Jamison Ranch and is currently at Larson Family Winery. Noria, Spanish for ‘waterwheel’, is his own project, the term symbolic of a ‘circle of life’ state of mind. But his ideal involves sake as much as wine, referring to this as inspired by daiginjo sake (junmai daiginjo is the top level of sake indicating the smallest percentage of a rice kernel, polished down to less than 60% of the original…it’s a long story).

In any case a top daiginjo is the finest, most refined level of sake and the Noria Sauvignon Blanc Bevill Family Vineyard Russian River Valley 2017 reflects that ethereal presence and light-on-its-feet nature of a fine sake in personality but reflects it in this distinctive varietal bottling. The owner of Bevill Vineyard was the uncle of one of Nori’s Japanese friends who made the introduction and Nori decided the higher pitched expressive fruit of Russian River Sauvignon Blanc would be a stylistic complement to what he intended for this wine.

Made from 97% Sauvignon Blanc and 3% Gewurztraminer, which gently spikes the aromatics in an engaging way, this Sauv. Blanc expresses fruit components of lime, pear, lemon grass and orange as well as stones, bay and a whiff of honey. The flavor is important, but equally so is the texture which is ample but also extremely delicate and one that sits airily atop the palate. Not aggressive in any aspect, this succinctly proportioned, refreshing wine that will make both a polite aperitif or a sensational foil for lighter fare. A cool, off-the-beaten-path find.

FOXEN CHENIN BLANC OLD VINES ERNESTO WICKENDEN VINEYARD 2018-We know that it says ‘old vines’, but honestly there aren’t a lot of new vines of the varietal being planted these days, and not a lot of practitioners either. Perhaps even more pertinent is the fact that even among the few, experienced folks that regularly produce a Chenin Blanc in California, sensational examples are relatively rare and many of those are priced near the epic examples from the Loire Valley. We wrote about a stunning offering from Chalone a couple of years back but it has been pretty quiet otherwise.

We have tasted many vintages of the Foxen with the hopes that they would have one of those ‘home run’ moments but, previously, we have not been moved. This, however, is the one! The Foxen Chenin Blanc Old Vines Ernesto Wickenden Vineyard 2018 showcases everything we love about Chenin Blanc, and we dare say if there were more examples like this of beautifully honed, dry styled Chenin Blanc, the varietally would be considerably more popular with consumers. The complexity of the peach, orange zest, baking spice and floral aspects like this one exhibits make for a very engaging drink. There simply haven’t been enough examples like this in California to make a lasting impression.

Antonio Galloni tells the story beautifully and covers all the bases, though we could easily spew substantial rhetoric ourselves given our enthusiasm for this particular bottling, “The 2018 Chenin Blanc Ernesto Wickenden Vineyard Old Vines is a dense, powerful wine that shows the more savory side of Chenin off to great effect. Dried flowers, herb, almonds and mineral inflections give the Chenin its super distinctive personality. There is plenty of texture and depth, but the fruit is pushed into the background. The Foxen Chenin is one of the most distinctive wines in Santa Barbara. It is also an insane value… 94 Points.”

Our experience with this wine over the years is perhaps less enthusiastic based on our extensive familiarity with the top efforts in the Loire. But this one can play with those big boys, and that is high praise from us. “All we are saying (clap) is give Chenin a chance (clap).”

This one will change a lot of people’s existing notions on Chenin Blanc.

ALMA DE CATTLEYA SAUVIGNON BLANC SONOMA COUNTY 2019–Bibiana González Rave Pisoni seems to be a consistent source of news. Her credentials are nothing short of amazing. This is a Colombian born lady that decided in her teens that wine was her calling and she proceeded to get herself to France where she worked with luminaries like Ogier and Clusel-Roch in the Rhone and Haut Brion and La Dominique in Bordeaux (there was a stint in South Africa as well). She didn’t slow down when she got to California in 2007, working at La Crema, Peay Vineyards, Au Bon Climat and Qupé before Lynmar, where she was winemaker from 2009 through 2011.

She married Jeff Pisoni, of the Pisoni Vineyard family, formed a winery with him called Shared Notes (they make a $60 Sauvignon that’s pretty special), secured new grape sources for her own wines and signed on as winemaker for Jayson Pahlmeyer’s Sonoma Coast Pinot and Chardonnay project called Wayfarer Ranch. Her premium label is called Cattelaya (named for the national flower of Columbia, an orchid) and, along the way she created a value-focused label called Alma de Cattleya (alma is the Spanish word for ‘soul’) that may be discreetly one of the best value labels in California.

She has displayed ‘touch’ in a way that only the best winemakers seem to possess, and to be able to experience her style at the modest fares that the Alma de Cattleya wines sell for is a bonafied opportunity. The girl has remarkable chops and we have been particular fans of the work she does with Sauvignon Blanc under her value label. We’ll get the review out of the way first. Wine Spectator bestowed a 90 point score on the Alma de Cattleya Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County 2019, with comments “Shows terrific intensity, opening with honeysuckle, pear and melon flavors, revealing a tangy side of Meyer lemon juice. Refreshing and fragrant through the finish. Drink now.”

To us that way undersells this Sauv. Blanc and we will respectfully suggest that, in some tasting flight of who knows how many wines, the Cattleya’s precise and delicate nature may have been lost a little bit in the crowd. The review suggests this is a ‘nice little wine’. It has way more character and dimension than that.

One on one, the way most people drink wine, this wine’s florality, harmony and presence make a much greater impression. This is a lovely example that highlights the fruit notes of pear, melon, and fig elements that are round, lifted and fresh and one should take the opportunity to experience this lady’s particular skill at this kind of price. Most domestic Sauvignons in this kind of price don’t have anywhere near the ‘alma’ this one does.

MAYBE WE SHOULDN’T LET THE OLD WAYS DIE…

There seems to be a growing trend among some California winemakers to go back to the more balanced styles of California’s formative years in the ‘60s and ‘70’s. During all this time Husch winery has been doing the same things and delivering clear stylistic examples that have been virtually unchanged the winery was founded in 1971. It claims to have been the first winery in the Anderson Valley. In 1979 the Oswald family purchased the estate and the third generation to run the winery are currently at the helm.

We bring them up not to praise their Cabernet or Chardonnay, which are still well made, traditional styles of their respective genre. But they are stars with two genres of wine that aren’t widely grown or even talked about in California. They are delicious examples of their breed and ridiculously cheap by today’s overblown California standards.

Part of the juice for the Husch Dry Gewurztraminer Anderson Valley 2017 comes from vines planted in 1968 and the cool climate here suits the varietal like few places in the Golden State. As such it is dry, crisp, delicate, spicy and ‘Gewurtzy’ without being overdone or clumsy. Sometimes Gewurz can be a little ‘dumpy’ on the finish, but not this one. Clean, bright, varietal with a subtle fruit and floral nose, delicate spice notes through the palate, and lift to the finish. Fire this up with a holiday ham or any number of lighter preparations of fish or fowl, particularly with an Asian slant.

If you think talking about Gewurz is off the wall, their Husch Chenin Blanc Mendocino County 2018 is a marvelous throwback (though it’s not a throwback to them as they have always made it this way). They started in 1984 and have been making one of the best in the state ever since. Yeah, Chenin has a bad rap thanks to a lot of mass produced examples when the genre was widely popular in the ’70s. But a well made Chenin still has a place at the table or on the porch. We think a touch of sweetness is necessary to offset the blazing acidity in this varietal, and this is a super refreshing display of orange, peach and melon flavors with a hint of ‘stone’ and great cut to the finish. It has the same kind of food versatility as their gewurz, and is, again, silly ‘cheap’.

Sure it’s ‘hipper’ to say you drink some semi-oxidized lab experiment under the banner of ‘natural wine’. But we’d rather have something direct, precise, and that does exactly what it should. There is precious little of these varietals made in California any more. But even though they are ‘old school’ they are riveting examples of a time gone by.

A DELICIOUS, WELL-PRICED WHITE AND AN UNUSUAL STORY

The search for great wines and great wine deals is never ending, but the discovery is always more fun when there is a unique story. Exciting wines certainly can come from anywhere, and the catalyst doesn’t necessarily have to be wine itself (though it often is). This particular white value gem starts more like a Disney story, with two young men, a long journey, and a dog.

It started in 2014, when two foreign exchange students from the U.S., Walker Brown and Charles Brain, chose to embark on a 6 day, 100-mile trek through South Africa’s Wild Coast. This part of the Cape is said to be the birthplace of Nelson Mandela. On the second day of this backpacking expedition, the travelers were joined by a wandering dog that the locals called Lubanzi, who accompanied them until the night before the final morning of the trip when he disappeared.

The story of the wandering dog, the striking beauty of South Africa, and a deep appreciation of the culture of the South African people motivated the pair to return to South Africa two years later with the idea of bringing well-made, true South African wine into the U.S. market. They met with over 40 small family farms and cooperatives in an effort to build a network from which they could source quality grapes on a consistent basis. Their intent sounded idealistic, their missions statement was that they were trying to build “… a young, innovative, and socially responsible wine brand built on the concepts of collaboration & exploration, with a ‘locally run, globally minded’ mantra.”

A lot of lofty ideas to be sure, but they found the right people to work with and proceeded to do exactly that. They made two wines that, in their minds, were the best choices to represent the unique terroirs of South Africa. The red, a Rhone blend, was certainly solid if a bit undistinguished, but the Chenin Blanc rocked us, particularly for the price.

We have been selling South African wines since the early 90s and have learned that they can be a bit parochial. Chenins in particular, on the plus side, show riveting fruit, driving acidity, and some intense stony minerality. The good ones can rival the best Chenins from the Loire Vally from the likes of Huet, Foreau, or Chidane. A lot of them, however, can cost substantially more than their accomplished French counterparts. On the flip side, many of them a bit too searing with an in-your-face minerality that is off-putting for American palates.

These out-of-towners and their winemaker managed to strike a remarkable balance between the tender, dry, citrus, melon, and peach fruit and well woven in, subtle, stony minerality from the decomposed granite and shale in a bush-vine, unirrigated vineyard in Swartland. Some 80% of this came from old vines.

This is a lovely foil for fish or fowl, and presents an excellent choice for aperitif (OK, porch pounder) scenarios. Well meshed, pleasing and brightly fleshy from front to back, nothing sticks out. ‘Nicely done’, we said, figuring that this sharply packaged bottle with a complex label and tee-top natural cork (we’d never seen one quite like it) was setting us up for something in the $25-30 price range.

While much of the press we read in our research in places like the Washington Post, Forbes, Eater, and the Mother Nature Network was commending their new age, socially conscious business model, we found some enthusiastic words from James Suckling about the wine itself, “Love the dried-peach and apple character with hints of cream and apricots. Medium to full body, sliced fruit and a flavorful finish. Drink now….91 points’.

As to the drink now part, we’ll be doing plenty of that! The wine was delicious, the package was striking, and the review was compelling. But the biggest surprise was the price, a mere $11.98! The Lubanzi Chenin Blanc 2017 far over-delivers for the price point. Clearly this is no ordinary story.

As to what all of the non-wine media attention was on about, well that’s almost over the top. Brown and Brain noticed in their vineyard travels that the living conditions for South African small farmers were difficult, to say the least. They wanted to give back to the community. So half of the profits from sales go directly back to the Pebbles Project, which is an NGO that supports the families who live and work on the farms that produce the grapes. Socially conscious, a superb value and a surprisingly engaging beverage, they have all the bases covered!

Serious Saumur

We often make the joke that if a purveyor brings an average wine buyer three wines, he will buy one. If they bring him 10, he will buy one. We are geared a little differently. We don’t believe in token buys. If we taste 20 wines and aren’t thoroughly jazzed with any of them, we buy zero. By the same token, if someone brings in three exceptional wines, we’ll buy all three. That happened on the day we tasted the Haut Baigneux wines. The purveyor also had in tow the Yvonne Saumur Blanc 2015, which thrilled even given the stiff competition.

There has been vineyards around this chateau in Parnay since the Middle-ages and the building itself dates back to the 1500s. It was abandoned when Yvonne and Jean-François Lamunière took over here in 1997 with the intent of revitalizing the estate. Matheiu Vallee took over in 2007 and kept their name on the property as an hommage to the work the Lamunières had done. The property has been organic since 1997 and went biodynamic in 2012.

There are 3 hectares of Chenin Blanc in clay-over-tuffeau (the fine grained local limestone). Perhaps a little more intentional gravitas here, the wine is fermented slowly over four months and malolactic occurs in oak, 30% new, and it is bottled unfiltered. Oak doesn’t always play well with Chenin but it is clearly enlightened and perfectly integrated in this case. There are a few more ‘bass’ notes to the quince and yellow pit fruit flavors, with a little more Chardonnay like feel in the mouth and a salty character that is somewhat Chablis like. Serious stuff here.

Loire Young Guns

As we so often remind people, we have been doing this a long time, and our ‘wines tasted’ tally might look something like the old McDonald’s ‘burgers sold’ signs. Yet, still, there are always new things to find. In all of the time we have spent in introducing people to new wines, we don’t ever recall using the words Touraine Azay-le-Rideau in a sentence. Yet, as lovers of Chenin Blanc at its best, we have recently come to know this obscure appellation in the Loire because one of the hottest new winemakers in the region happens to be working there.

First the appellation. Located east of Samur and northeast of Chinon, Touraine Azay-le-Rideau is a small designation comprised of only 148 acres of land made up of flinty clay, clay limestone and Aeolian sand mixed with clay soils. It isn’t a place even most wine-savvy folks are familiar with. PLus, it‘s hard to get people’s attention in this part of the region if you are competing with the other main claim-to-fame beverage of the area, Grolleau Rose. But if you are good enough, you will rise above (though probably not as quickly as in a more mainstream media haunt like Napa or Bordeaux).

As for history of the region, it has apparently been producing wine since Roman times, and currently has nine producers. Domaine des Hauts Baigneux only dates back to 2013 when old friends (but not old guys) Nicolas Grosbois and Philippe Mesnier purchased 12 hectares of grapes. They immediately began farming all the vines organically, and set about on an ambitious project to reintroduce the wines of Azay-le-Rideau to a thirsty world. As you might expect with a varietal as transparent as Chenin Blanc, the fermentation is done with natural yeasts only and there is minimal intervention in the cellar including limited to no use of sulfites in bottling.

This is our first go-round with Hauts Baigneaux so we aren’t sure how much the 2015 vintage had to do with these fresh, pristine wines. As such, we aren’t ready to declare these guys the second coming of Huet or Chidaine, but the wines impressed the heck out of us.

The Hauts Baigneux Touraine Azay-le-Rideau Blanc Chenin 2015 comes from two vineyards, one in Hauts Baigneaux and one in Sache, with vines 30 to 60 years of age. The grapes were harvested by hand and fermented in demi-muids (600-liter barrels roughly 2.5 times the size of a ‘regular’ barrel, probably ‘neutral’ in this case). The wine then spent 18 months in contact with the lies in a combination of demi-muids, concrete ‘eggs’ and regular barriques.

This shows classic Chenin flavors of peach, apricot and quince, hints of honey and vanilla, with a good bit of subtle but insistent minerality underlying everything. There is a pleasing, slight waxiness to the texture approximating physical fruit, and a precise, restrained clean nip of acidity. The style here we would describe as demi-demi-sec, which hits the perfect note. Some bone dry Chenins can be bitter in the finish, and some demi-secs can be a touch sweet. This one strikes the just the right chord and the acid gives it just the right tension. This will age as well, too, only 300 cases made.

Hauts Baigneux Clos des Brancs Touraine Azay-le-Rideau 2015 comes from a single, one hectare plot in the Sache parcel, again with 30-60 year old vines surround by a wall (hence the clos thing). It is the absolute best parcel according to the domain, near the top of the hill and with a distinctly rockier profile. This wine is also done in neutral oak and concrete eggs, and the more specific terroir shows and even more insistent minerality than the Blanc Chenin with subtle whiffs of toast from the lees.

If you are a fan of great Chenin Blanc and the names we mentioned earlier, these wines are a find and they might well turn out to be the next big things with a couple more vintages under their belt.