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.