New Energy in the Less Familiar Territory of Touraine in The Heart of The Loire Valley; A Place Where Talented Artisanal Vignerons are Introducing Changes and Reinvention. Two Packs: Red Touraine 11-Bottle Pack ($369) & White Touraine 12-Bottle Pack ($369)

Touraine may not grab the vinous headlines of, say, Sancerre or Vouvray, but in ways it is the aesthetic paradigm for the region: Made of castles and gardens and vineyards lining the capricious and majestic Loire from Anjou in the west to Sologne in the east, Touraine winds its way through communes in Indre-et-Loire and Loir-et-Cher.

As part of the Paris Basin, the terroir here is a blend of flinty clay, alluvial river gravel and the unique chalky, fine-grained limestone known as ‘tuffeau.’ White to yellowish-cream in appearance it contains trace levels of mica, and is in part responsible to the longevity of the wines it produces.

There’s more: Since the life of a natural vigneron is often about withdrawing from much of the socio-financial contract of modern urban life, it’s natural that many have sought out the lesser known Loire heartland—Touraine—to set up shop. Not only that, but there is also a generational change among the historic estates, where a new generation of ecology-conscious heirs have revamped old techniques with a new respect for the earth.

Thirst-Quenching Wines to Slake Summer Thirst

Capable of producing prestigious wines with promising futures, Touraine is also the home of wines which can kiss warm weather with the cool embrace of simplicity. These are beautiful representations of their varietals, produced in a style that emphasizes the lyrical, rather than the contemplative side of wine. They are also priced at a point in which you require no occasion more special than this afternoon to enjoy them.

And despite a common misconception, we’re not talking about white wines exclusively. Reds have carved out their own niche in Touraine, and the ones that serve summertime best are those low in alcohol and cooled to a refreshing temperature.

Orange wine is also produced here—see the entry below.

Upriver in Touraine: A Multitude of Soils and Grape Varieties

The vineyards of Touraine grow at the crossroads of oceanic and continental influences, and likewise, the soils are as varied as the breezes, being predominantly limestone, sand and siliceous clay from the Paris Basin, while the terraces bordering the Loire and the Vienne contain deposits of pebbles smoothed to roundness by the action of the water. Such variety supports a cornucopia of grape varieties and multifarious styles—easy-drinking white, red and rosés and sparkling wines along with sweet wines that will bend your mind as they crumble your molars. Whether red, white or shades between, Touraine wines are always vibrant with acidity and delicate, precise flavors.

Known locally as known locally as Pineau Blanc de la Loire, Chenin accounts for much of Touraine production; they are dry, fairly firm, lively and full, and keep well when bottled. The sparkling wines are allowed to use the designation Touraine mousse (sparkling Touraine wine). Up to 20% of Chardonnay grapes may be included in the mixture of varieties grown.

Red wine is produced from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Côt, Pinot Noir, Meunier, Pineau d’Aunis and Gamay grape varieties and tend to be firm.

Talented Artisan Vignerons in Touraine: A Quiet Revolution

Land at bargain basement prices in the Garden of France? Touraine, bolstered by the presence of the SAFER group (which controls the sale of agricultural land) is so welcoming to newcomers that it seems an obvious destination for new artisanal winemakers looking to make their mark. This is not a new phenomenon; the AOP has been attracting new waves of natural winemakers since the 1990s.

In fact, so flexible has the region been for young iconoclasts leaning toward experimentation that a new dilemma has arisen: How to find the ideal style and substance to best showcase Touraine’s remarkable terroirs? Ancient varieties like Pineau d’Aunis have retained a foothold while standbys like Sauvignon Blanc are being shifting to supporting roles. As always, tuffeau and flint produce a compelling expression of Chenin—one that is edgier and more bracing than elsewhere—and as these wines grow more popular, another quandary may loom among these talented freshmen (and freshwomen): How can they avoid becoming a monoculture appellation driven by financial success where everyone is chasing the same thing?

Red Touraine 11-Bottle Pack ($369) and White Touraine 12-Bottle Pack ($369)

A Touraine travelogue in wine, covering the best of our collection. This package showcases the revolution in style and substance that keeps Touraine at the forefront of innovation, and where (in a growing world of multinational wine companies) winemaking remains a family affair.

Coteaux-du-Loir

Limited to 22 communes in a rather obscure viticultural whisper just to the north of Touraine, Coteaux-du-Loir produces from a scant 180 acres of vines. The appellation is classified as part of the Loire Valley group even though it does not lie in the valley itself. In fact, the river it follows is the Loir, not the Loire, inevitable confusions notwithstanding.

52% of the vineyards are red wine varieties (primarily Pineau d’Aunis) but of most interest to wine lovers is the whites made from Chenin. They may vary from bone dry and steely to incredibly sweet—honey-scented botrytized wines that bear a passing resemblance to Savennières and Vouvray, although they generally lack the richness and finesse of these better-known wines.

Maison Gazeau-Baldi
(Coteaux-du-Loir)

Perched atop the Jasnières hillside in Lhomme, Maison Gazeau-Baldi is home to Aurély and Jean-Damien, whose modest 20-acre vineyard—currently in the midst of conversion to organic and biodynamic agriculture—has been making quality waves throughout their small appellation. The couple has been able to extract remarkable character from Chenin, Gamay, Côt and Pineau d’Aunis.

Organics is a concept on which the couple has entirely bought into. Says Aurély: “We seek balance in order to think of the vineyard as an ecosystem rather than a material. We work clay soils to obtain a filtering texture while freeing the vine from its competitors. The manure is mainly of animal origin; we prefer cow. We carefully select the buds, and sulfur and copper treatments are minimal and always combined with plant extracts. The harvest is entirely manual, with systematic sorting. The harvest is an opportunity to live a moment of sharing and meetings.”

Jean-Damien and Aurély Gazeau-Baldi, Maison Gazeau-Baldi

Jean Damien adds, “It’s a philosophy that carries through to the cellar. We value the potential of each plot, according to the vintage, then deliver an interpretation by choices of pressing, maceration, racking and aging time, without ever copying a process. We strive to listen to the directions taken by wine and adapt to them. The use of sulfur is minimal and antiseptic in principle. We gladly expose wines to oxygen with the idea of strengthening them. We are in the first year of organic conversion with the ECOCERT organization—labels are, above all, a way to make our practices more readable for consumers and partners. We plan to continue our approach with biodynamic certification.”

 1  Maison Gazeau-Baldi, 2022 Coteaux-du-Loir Rouge ‘Pineau d’Aunis’ ($33)
80% Pineau d’Aunis, 20% Côt from vines ranging from 5 to 70 years old. The d’Aunis sees whole bunch maceration with regular punch-downs for 20 days; the Côt is directly pressed. The wine pours a light red color and exhibits raspberry and strawberry mixed with earth and spice highlighted with a touch of pepper. Chilled for 15 minutes or so, it is a delightful companion for a charcuterie board. 11,000 bottles produced.

 1  Maison Gazeau-Baldi ‘Rendez-Vous’, 2022 VdF Loire-Atlantic Blanc ‘Chenin’ ($25)
100% Chenin Blanc crafted from vines less than 10 years old; this is an extremely limited production of 7,000 bottles. Having undergone a meticulous vinification process involving gentle pressing and cold settling, the wine shows fresh peach, grapefruit and a solid saline core.

Touraine Azay-le-Rideau

Even smaller in size than Coteaux-du-Loir, Azay-le-Rideau stretches over eight communes on the banks of the Indre and the Loire, close to where the rivers meet. A mere 148 acres, the terroir is mostly flinty clay, clay limestone and Aeolian sand mixed with clay, and whereas the Chenins are strikingly mineral with strong notes of quince and apricot, most of Azay’s production is rosé, produced by law with a minimum of 60% Grolleau, either vinified alone or blended with Gamay, Malbec and/or Cabernet Franc.

Domaine Marie Thibault
(Touraine Azay-le-Rideau)

“I grew up in the Loire Valley, but unlike many vignerons working in the Loire, I did not come from a winemaking family,” says Marie Thibault, adding, “But also unlike many of them, I have degrees in both biology and oenology.”

Marie Thibault began making wine in the early 2000s, working for a time with François Chidaine in Montlouis, where she fell in love with Chenin Blanc. In 2011, she founded her own nine acre estate on a single windy slope in Azay-le-Rideau, a lesser known commune of Touraine. She immediately converted to organics and has been certified with Ecocert since 2014. Among the natural elements in her vineyards is the flock of two dozen ewes that graze between the vine rows during the autumn; every ten days, they are penned inside a new hectare to keep the soil naturally fertile and the grass clipped.

Marie Thibault

“My vineyard is small, but the soils are extremely varied and as such, so are the grapes I grow. I work with Côt (Malbec), and have a special love for Gamay, Grolleau, Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc. Most of my vines are at least 50 years old. I compensate for small production by purchasing from organic estates nearby, especially those owned by my family.”

 2  Domaine Marie Thibault ‘Les Grandes Vignes’, 2018 VdF Loire-Touraine Rouge ‘Gamay’ ‘natural’ ($41)
Thibault’s unique lens on Gamay is seen in this example produced from 50+ year-old vines she discovered growing adjacent to her plot on flinty silex soil. The vines were untrained and un-trellised, and harvest was exceptionally labor-intensive. She allows a 10-month maceration in order to shows off the Gamay’s savory side, with crisp rhubarb, earthy red berry notes and fine-grained, well-integrated tannins showcased.

 3  Domaine Marie Thibault ‘Le Grolleau’, 2021 VdF Loire-Touraine Rouge ‘natural’ ($89) 1.5 Liter
A wine whose heritage is perfectly reflected in Thibault’s scant acres—Azay-le-Rideau is ground zero for Grolleau, first planted in early 19th century. ‘Le Grolleau’ is an ultra-fresh example made using Beaujolais-style carbonic maceration and held to a little over 10% abv, which solidly qualifies it as a ‘vin de soif.’ It is made using 60-year-old organic vines planted on hillsides on the southern slopes of the Indre—an early-ripening terroir filled with draining soils with a presence of flint, and bottled at the Estate in April 2022 without fining or filtration and just a micro-dose of sulfur. This wine is kept even fresher en magnum; it is fruity, juicy and velvety with sweet cranberry, blueberry, red plum, blueberry, cranberry, a touch of pepper with black cherry on the finish.

 2  Domaine Marie Thibault ‘Premier Nez’, 2019 VdF Loire-Touraine Blanc ‘Chenin’ ‘natural’ ($42)
A dry, mineral driven Chenin from 40-year-old vines. The wine is spiced with dried orange peel, anise, a touch of pine resin and ripe pear.

Touraine-Chenonceaux

Incorporating 27 communes located on both sides of the Cher River between Tours and Selles-sur-Cher, Touraine-Chenonceaux boasts soils designed to produce spectacular Sauvignon Blanc—clay with flints (with or without a covering of sand) and alkaline clay from the tuffeau limestone ridges. These tend to be intensely aromatic wines with notes of white flowers, ripe citrus and tropical fruit, full-bodied and imbued with a lingering finish.

Red wines, made from Cabernet Franc and Côt, are distinctive and elegant and suggest notes of fruit compote, anise and menthol. Concentration is key, and yields in Touraine-Chenonceaux are limited to 60 hectoliters per hectare for white wines and 55 hectoliters per hectare for red wines. Vineyards are planted on slopes running east-west to benefit from the region’s ample sunshine.

Clos Roussely
(Touraine-Chenonceaux)

Clos Roussely was once a lowly outbuilding of the great fortification at Angé-sur-Cher and as it happens, its five-foot-thick tuffeau walls serve to insulate the winery as efficiently as they once held off Attila the Hun. Not only that, but the 250-year-old hand-dug caves beneath it are ideal for aging the remarkable wines of Vincent Roussely. The transition from barn to vignoble began in 1917, when Anatole Roussely became the first of four generations to dedicate his life to detail; Vincent Roussely, his great-grandson, today works this remarkable terroir—22 acres of clay and limestone peppered with pockets of silex.

“It was my childhood dream to work these soils,” says Roussely, who inherited the estate in 2001. “The terroir is ideal for Sauvignon Blanc, which makes up about 80% of our plantings, but at the heart of Roussely is a small plot of old-vine Gamay. We also have Côt (Malbec), Pineau d’Aunis and a little Cabernet Franc. We have always farmed organically, both for the health of the vines and out of social responsibility, but we were officially certified in 2007.”

Vincent Roussely

The old-school methodology runs through every aspect of the winemaking process. Grapes are hand-harvested and are subject to slow, natural fermentation in the cool catacombs; Gamay undergoes the familiar Méthode Beaujolais, partial carbonic maceration in which some whole grapes are kept intact and begin alcoholic fermentation within the confines of their skins.

Evolving from tradition to technology, Roussely continues to experiment, using concrete eggs for some of his fermentations. “Innovative adaptation means more than simply exploring new techniques,” he says. “It also involves a commitment to ecological responsibility. Right now, about 65% of Loire Valley vineyards are organic and it’s our goal to see that number at 100% by 2030.”

3  Clos Roussely, 2022 Touraine-Chenonceaux Blanc ($25)
Made from 100% old-vine Sauvignon Blanc grown in organic vineyards, the wine emits a bouquet of white flowers, citrus and lemon curd with exotic tropical fruits to shore up a bracing acidity.
 

 4  Clos Roussely ‘L’Escale’, 2023 Touraine Blanc ($20)
A Sancerre-styled Sauvignon Blanc minus the price tag, this wine shows grapefruit, lime and lots of tropical fruit with a long, mineral driven finish. Although ‘l’escale’ means ‘the stop over,’ this is a wine that invites you to linger while you’re there.

 4  Clos Roussely ‘Canaille’, 2021 VdF Loire-Touraine Rouge ‘Gamay’ ($17)
‘Canaille’ is the French word for ‘scoundrel.’ 100% Gamay from vines between 25 and 50 years old grown organically on clay and limestone. Aged six months in stainless steel, the old vines add a striking depth to this exuberant Gamay, replete with notes of crushed raspberry, black cherry and nutmeg.

Orange is the New Red

Orange wine is an interesting style subset whose popularity has grown in tandem with the natural wine movement, although even within that space, orange wine has a niche all its own. In the Loire (as elsewhere), red wine is made by leaving crushed grapes in contact with their skins as they ferment. White wine is generally made without skin contact during fermentation… unless it’s destined to be orange wine, which is (essentially) white-skinned grapes crushed and fermented on the skins, which imparts eye-catching amber, copper and often orange tints.

Orange wines offer a different sort of bridge between red and white wines than rosé; tannin is generally more obvious and flavors are, like many natural wines, an acquired taste which may be likened to hay, bruised apples, dried apricot, and yes, even orange peel.

 5  Clos Roussely ‘Orange’, 2023 VdF Loire-Touraine ‘Sauvignon’ ($19)
Although winemakers and sommeliers are quick to point out that ‘orange’ refers to the color, this is another example of a skin-macerated Sauvignon Blanc that sends out vibes of orange pith along with apricot and earthy minerality. The wine is a painstaking labor of love, aged 6 months in stainless steel, neither yeasted, nor chaptalized, nor fined.

Cheverny & Cour-Cheverny

Around 40 Cheverny wine growers produce slightly under 3 million liters of red, white and rosé wines each year from 1500 acres of vineyards located in Cheverny itself and in 23 nearby parishes on the southern banks of the Loire. Reds are based on Gamay and Pinot Noir, while Cabernet Franc and Côt (the local name for Malbec) can play supporting roles. They are early-drinking wines best consumed within two years of vintage.

Whites are a combination of Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris with lesser proportions of Chardonnay, Chenin and Arbois (here spelled ‘Orbois’) allowed. Although these wines have been compared to the Sauvignons of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé, they lack the distinctive minerality and searing acidity that defines the eastern Loire’s two most-famous appellations.

Cour-Cheverny is a unique wine region located within the Cheverny appellation; it produces white wines made only from the rare grape variety Romorantin. Romorantin is an old Burgundian grape now only grown in Cour-Cheverny—wines are herbal, showing apple and pear behind Acacia flowers. They are also ripe for aging, and mature, Romorantin develops aromas of honey, lemon and beeswax.

Domaine Hervé Villemade
(Cheverny & Cour-Cheverny)

Hervé Villemade is where he belongs; at the helm of a family estate: “My grandparents founded the domain and I took over in 1995. At the time there were 8.5 hectares of rather young vines (15-20 years) that my grandparents had planted. The farm used to be in polyculture and the old vines from the 1960’s had been removed to plant new ones in the 1970’s. When I took over, I replanted five hectares and started renting some vines as well. I’ve also bought land over the years and today we find ourselves working 25 hectares—eight are mine, 8.5 are my parents’ and the rest is rented.”

Hervé Villemade

When Hervé first took the reins, the entire estate was farmed conventionally, with chemicals in the vineyards. Unaware of the alternatives, he followed in his parents’ footsteps until he became very bored with end results: “The wines were uninspired and bland,” he says. “Around this time I was introduced to wines that were different, that spoke to me, that struck a chord emotionally: Natural wines. Coincidentally, at the exact same time that I was discovering these wines I started developing a very serious allergy to sulfur. This was around 1997. My first attempt at sulfur free winemaking was two years later. What I hadn’t realized, and what I quickly found out (through Marcel Lapierre in particular), was that to make sulfur free wine, you needed clean grapes. From that point I immediately started converting the entire estate to organic agriculture and have worked this way ever since.”

 6  Domaine Hervé Villemade ‘Les Ardilles’, 2022 Cheverny Rouge ($37)
85% Pinot Noir, 15% Gamay from sandy clay soils with silex over limestone—produced only in exceptional vintages. Maceration lasts 20 days with moderate punching down, following which the wine is aged in tuns, barrels, truncated conical vats and amphorae. Crunchy red fruit and balanced acidity display Villemade’s signature style—an extreme purity of fruit.

 7  Domaine Hervé Villemade, 2022 Cheverny Rouge ($26)
40% Gamay and 60% Pinot Noir macerated (80% whole-cluster and 20% destemmed) for 15 to 20 days. It is fermented and aged in concrete and wooden ‘tronconique’ vats without pump-overs, pigeage, racking or filtration. The wine shows bright red fruit, especially black cherry with and slightly spicy and glossy touches.

 8  Domaine Hervé Villemade ‘Bovin’, 2022 VdF Loire-Touraine Rouge ‘Gamay’ ($28) 1 Liter
Hand-harvested, 100% Gamay from vines between 40 and 60 years old grown in the Cher Valley. The grapes are macerated for 10 days in concrete with intervention, then bottled using a minimum of sulfur for stability. The wine is ripe and crunchy with red fruit and displays the lighthearted ease that the label suggests.

 9  Domaine Hervé Villemade, 2022 VdF Loire-Touraine Rouge ‘Gamay’ ($25)
100% Gamay from the Cher Valley, the wine is aged in wooden vats without human intervention until it is bottled without filtration. The wine shows aromas of red fruits, candied blackberries with a hint of cinnamon behind balanced mineral notes and a silky finish.

5  Domaine Hervé Villemade ‘La Bodice’, 2022 Cheverny Blanc ($38)
80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Chardonnay; La Bodice is a single vineyard wine that combines tropical fruit and herbaceous citrus.

 6  Domaine Hervé Villemade ‘Les Acacias’, 2020 Cour-Cheverny Blanc ($50)
100% Romorantin, aged 50% in amphorae and 50% in demi-muids for 23 months. It shows a luscious and complex nose filled with white flower along with touches of honey and five-spice powder. The palate echoes the nose, with a mineral backbone and hints of smoke.

Famille Percher
(Cheverny & Cour-Cheverny)

Perhaps the most interesting parcel farmed by Luc Percher (of Famille Percher) is ‘La Marigonnerie’ directly adjacent to the winery. In Napoleon times the vineyard area was a pond, and although the region sits on a bed of limestone sprinkled with granitic sand, the pond left behind a bed of clay which, about 120 years ago, was planted to Romorantin—a local white wine variety with its own appellation (Cour-Cheverny) where it is the only grape permitted.

Luc began making wine here in 2005. “When I arrived, the sand was as white as a beach. I fell in love with the ambience—a few wispy trees and an expansive horizon-line. It is quiet terroir.”

Luc Percher

His 22 acres of vines, tended with certifications from BIO and Déméter, is hardly restricted to Romorantin, although only his 100% Romorantin can be labeled Cour-Cheverny. His Sélection Massale old-vine vineyards contain ten different grape varieties, and some even more rare than Romorantin—Menu-Pineau, Gamay Fréaux and Chaudenay, for example. In order to maintain the biological heritage of these grapes, Luc is committed soil maintenance, through hilling, stripping, scratching and the establishment of controlled natural grassing. “These practices are respectful of the earth, the plants and the environment; they support the development of biodiversity and preserve the terroirs. You no longer see the white sand between the vine rows—it is covered by grass and other vegetation. We echo that philosophy in the cellar, being minimalist on the interventions in order to more faithfully reflect the grape varieties and the purity of place.”

 10  Famille Percher, 2019 Cheverny Rouge ($36)
A 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay grown on sandy clay with a limestone base. It is fermented with indigenous years and spends 15 days macerating before élevage in stainless steel on fine lees. It shows a frisky nose of black cherries and cassis with an edge of earth—graphite, tree bark, espresso and forest floor. Tannins are moderate and the finish is long.

 7   Famille Percher, 2019 Cheverny Blanc ($36)
60% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Menu Pineau from sandy, clay limestone soils. Fermentation is done on indigenous yeasts with élevage in stainless steel and bottled without fining or filtering. Menu Pineau is the local name for Arbois and in Cheverny produces wine characterized by low acidity, apple aromas and a delicate, mineral substructure.

 8  Famille Percher, 2020 Cour-Cheverny Blanc ($46)
You won’t experience many wines made from 120-year-old vines, but this one comes from Percher’s oldest parcel. 100% Romorantin showing a bouquet of honeysuckle and acacia and an intensely mineral-driven palate of pear, apple skins and honeycomb.

Le Petit Chambord
(Cheverny & Cour-Cheverny)

“The wines of François Cazin are wines of purity, minerality and a sweet-sour vibrancy that makes my mouth water for more. I have no doubt that he is one of the leading vignerons in the appellation, along with Michel Gendrier, Michel Quenouix, Laura Semeria and Christian Tessier, among one or two others. Indeed, I am sure there are some who would place him at the very top.”

François Cazin works with approximately 50 acres of vineyards; three-quarters in the Cheverny appellation, while the rest is are in the Cour-Cheverny appellation. As this latter appellation only amounts to about 125 acres in its entirety, François Cazin is cultivating about 10% of the entire appellation, where his Romorantin vines average over 30 years old.

In his Cheverny and Crémant-de-Loire acres he tends Pinot Noir, Gamay, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, as well as small parcels of Côt and Menu Pineau. The Gamay and Sauvignon Blanc tend to be planted on more sandy-clay soils, while clay and limestone is favored for Pinot Noir.

François Cazin, Le Petit Chambord

“Everything in my Cour-Cheverny vineyard has to be done manually because of solid coat of limestone directly underneath the superficial soil,” Cazin says, championing his old-school endeavors. “Some of these vines are older than my dad; they were planted by my grandfather. It goes without saying that these are 100% in Massale, and they are in better shape than the vast majority of my other vines. For example, the clonal selection on the other side of the house is much younger, but there is way more mortality.”

 11  Le Petit Chambord ‘Vendanges Manuelles’, 2022 Cheverny Rouge ($23)
Pinot Noir/Gamay/Côt from estate vines averaging thirty years old and grown on clay-limestone soils. The Pinot Noir is destemmed and macerated for a week while the Gamay is whole-cluster fermented semi-carbonically; the small bit of darker, more tannic Côt (aka Malbec), adds a touch of color and structure.

 9  Le Petit Chambord ‘Vendanges Manuelles’, 2023 Cheverny Rosé ($21)
A blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir, made with both direct-press and saignée methods; each parcel is vinified individually in stainless steel and élevage takes place in enamel-lined concrete tanks with pre-bottling blending.

 10  Le Petit Chambord ‘Vendangé à la Main’, 2023 Cheverny Blanc ($22)
82% Sauvignon Blanc,18% Chardonnay; the wine shows a nice balance of Chardonnay’s roundness and buttery fruity notes and fresh citrus notes of Sauvignon Blanc.

 11  Le Petit Chambord ‘Vendanges Manuelles’, 2021 Cour-Cheverny Blanc ($24)
100% Romorantin from vines between 40 and 90 years old. The wine shows orange blossom, candle wax, pear and lemon peel.

 12  Le Petit Chambord ‘Renaissance – Vendanges Manuelles’, 2020 Cour-Cheverny Blanc ‘Moelleux’ ($27)
‘Moelleux’ indicates sweetness, although it often highlights the fattiness inherent in the grapes. In this one, the harvest is direct pressed and fermented in stainless steel, then later, cold stabilized with an addition of sulfur to keep sugars in the wine and block fermentation. Élevage is done in 300-liter barrels for six months, then in underground vats until the following spring. It offers a symphony of apricot, honey and quince with a balanced acidity that lingers on the palate.

Notebook …

Vin-de-France (VdF): Should I Stay, or Should I Go?

Created in 2009 as a category of wine meant to encourage both experimentation and exploration, this label designation means only that the grapes were grown in France. The quality (or, perhaps, lack thereof) does not stem from its region of origin or a strict set of specifications, but in the freedom it offers winemakers and winegrowers to get their creative juices flowing.

By eschewing the rules and regulations of the location-based Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) or Indication Géographique Protégée (IGP), VdF allows innovation among winemakers who wish to grow varieties not permitted within their particular region and who relish to freedom to produce creative, boundary-pushing wines.

The plusses are obvious: Vin de France-labeled wines are generally much more affordable than their AOC counterparts, and may serve as entry points to an estate’s terroir-driven, higher-end selections without the matching price tags.

The downside (if any) is that the VdF designation is marketed directly at drinkers who are intimidated by the elaborate, geography-grounded system that many of us love and consider the defining feature of our fascination with the subject. Many Francophiles, both in the United States and abroad, believe that any major change to the French wine system meant merely to sell more bottles at the expense of tradition sort of misses the point of the entire artform.

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Posted on 2024.07.25 in Touraine, Coteaux-du-Loir, Cheverny, Coteaux-du-Loir, Cour-Cheverny, Touraine Azay-le-Rideau, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire