Loire Valley Wine

Winemaker Description

The grapes for this wine are sourced from the main four appellations, including Sancerre and Pouilly Fume, which are known for their racy, mineral-driven style. The nose is fresh and vibrant with notes of lime zest, ruby grapefruit, green pear and mandarin oranges.

There is an undercurrent of wet stones throughout. True to its terroir, it is refreshing with moderate acidity but it also has some weight in the mid-palate due to being aged on its fine lees. 

Pale gold in color, clear and limpid.  A typical Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc nose, grassy and herbal combining with floral and citrus notes.   Crisp and clean in the mouth  with notes of orange, passion fruit and lots of herbal flavors.

Our Professional Review

Rand Sieger 67 Wine Buyer | This organic Cabernet Franc rosé from the center of the Loire Valley is made from hand harvested fruit half of which is whole cluster direct pressed, and half seigneé (bleeding off). It is dense and aromatic with fresh acidity and a light pearliness.

Winemaker Description

100% Cabernet Franc. Raffault uses 50% certified-organic estate fruit (from sandy, gravelly, flat parcels along the Vienne) and sources the other 50% from a neighboring grower in conversion to organic farming. All of the wine is made from hand-harvested fruit in the Raffault cellar.

Half of the fruit is pressed directly as whole clusters and the other half is saigné. The fermentation takes place spontaneously with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks. The wine does not go through malolactic fermentation and is aged in tank as well. It is bottled with a light, non-sterile filtration in the spring following the vintage. 

Winemaker Description

Vibrant and finesse-driven notes of framboise, rose petal, and wild flowers. Medium-bodied, supple, elegant and lively, with almost racy acidity, this graceful and finely built rosé is ideal for drinking over the coming summer months. 

Producer Description 

Purchased by the Comte Lafond, an ancestor of the current owner, Baron Patrick de Ladoucette, Château du Nozet and its surrounding vineyards have a reputation for producing the finest Pouilly-Fumé.

The delicate and complex olfactory expression opens on aromas which remind of white flower, exotic fruits. There is a very beautiful complexity for a vintage where the end-of-season’s sun brought a lot to the aromas. Excellent complexity that translates into great and elegant richness. Nice attack, straight and bright, it takes place with elegance on fruity notes associated with a dense structure and a beautiful acidity which brings a great length in the end of the mouth. There are aromas of exotic fruits (litchi, mango).

Expert Review

90 Points Vinous | The 2017 Brut Vouvray Pétillant is a lightly sparkling demi-sec style. This is a round and lightly biscuity expression with very fine delicate bubbles but not fully sparkling - the second fermentation uses some residual natural sugar that is retained from the first fermentation. Left on lees for around three years, it develops a light pastry character alongside floral notes and a salty sensation. The mouth-watering acidity combines with an attractive, textural roundness and weight.  

Winemaker Description

100% Cabernet Franc. Les Barnabés stands apart from Raffault's other main sites, Les Picasses and Les Peuilles, still in the Véron region but far to the west and downhill on a plain of alluvial soils near the Loire River.

The sandy, gravelly site yields a lighter style of Cabernet Franc more approachable with less aging compared to the other two. Like Picasses and Peuilles, Barnabés comes from fruit which is organically farmed, harvested by hand, destemmed but not crushed, and fermented in tank with native yeasts. The fermentation is at cooler temperatures and the aging in tank only, all to preserve the freshness and brightness of the fruit. It is the earliest release of the three reds.

Expert Review

Bart Hopkins 67Wine.com | A bright, energetic, beautifully focused red wine that makes food pairings an absolute pleasure. Juicy red fruits mingle with savory peppery complexity with supple tannins framed by classic minerality. Serve it lightly chilled and bring on the food!

 Winemaker Description

With the Classic, it is a fresh and fruity wine that expresses itself. 

The combination of freshness and delicate fragrances allows it to be served with grilled white fish and meats, shellfish, vegetable tians and Japanese dishes. Also, ideal for an aperitif. 

Producer Description 

Aromas of melons, fresh herbs, white flowers; a delicate note of sea salt. Creamy yet light on the tongue; poached white fruits, lime zest, grapefruit. Very long.

Winemaker Description

Tuffe is Philippe Vatan’s red made from a wide variety of parcels spread across his limestone-rich vineyards. Aged in stainless-steel in an immaculate cavernous cellar, this has classic Cabernet Franc notes that include black raspberry and just the right amount of savory herbs while finishing with well-integrated tannins. 

Winemaker Description 

Certified biodynamic. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. From the lieux-dits “Clos de l’Etand” and “Le Grand Lopin”. 3 ha total on the Chaume hill, facing south. Plaisance owns the only red grapes on the Chaume hill. 35+ year old vines. Spilite over schist bedrock. De-stemmed. 2-3 week maceration. Indigenous yeast. Fermented and aged in concrete for 11 months.

Winemaker Description 

Produced from their young vines from the first harvest selection, this Savennieres is a charming wine energized with aromas of citrus & white flowers, balanced with cool acidity.

Producer Description 

This wine comes from the estate's two oldest Romorantin vineyards .It is fermented in stainless steel tanks and concrete vats and aged in stainless steel and fiberglass on the lees. Powerful, racy aromatics coupled with richness akin to polished white stones, sea salt and dried white nectarine—if drinking now, decant and serve with poached chicken, swordfish and decadent cheeses; will also cellar well for another five years.

Herve Villemade has been working his family's vines in Cellettes since taking over from his father in 1995. Today, the estate represents about 22 hectares of organically farmed fruit within the Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny AOCs, along with a negociant license to supplement production with local grapes.

Producer Description 

A nectar from one end of the tasting to the other! An intensely golden adornment, a nose of perfectly over-ripe Chenin, underlined by great elegance, a note of almond cream, quince, very ripe peach skin.

The palate is very straight, freshness, tension and sweetness so well integrated, a finish of candy sugar crystals but also the fine bitterness of the schists, it is a very beautiful vintage, a wine built to last and already so pleasant to taste now. It is the cuvée representative of the estate's terroir, i.e. almost five vines.

Winemaker Description

100% Cabernet Franc. Les Picasses is the most famous Chinon lieu-dit, close to the village of Beaumont-En-Vron on the north bank of the Vienne River. It is a slope with full southern exposure and chalky clay-limestone soils. Raffault's mid-slope vines are at least 50 years old and are worked organically and harvested by hand.

The fruit is destemmed with the berries left whole; they are fermented with indigenous yeasts in tank with a maceration of 25-30 days. The wine is aged for one to two years in 30-hectoliter oak and chestnut foudres; it is then aged in bottle for several years before release. Winemaker Description. 

Made with a mixture of raisined grapes and others with botrytis, it is an excellent example of a Coteaux du Layon from the Loire, which brings together the best of two worlds. This delicious dessert wine is made 50:50 of noble rot and late harvest grapes. Made biodynamically and with natural yeast, it exhibits succulent flavours of mango, pineapple, and sweet spices such as saffron. A very high acidity makes this wine quite refreshing considering how sweet it is. Fruit and/or nut based desserts, salty blue cheese Deliciously sweet, with good acidity, ideal as an aperitif, with cheese or after dinner. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description

Intense and complex range of fruity Chenin Blanc, floral and spicy scents with notes of ripe fruit, pineapple, almond, anise, licorice and an ethereal nuance.

It carries appellation Savennières. The vines of an Middle Age of a score of years result from selections massales, and not clonales, to increase aromatic complexity. The grounds are primarily made schists but also sometimes of quartz and more rarely of sand. The outputs are of 30/35 hectolitres per hectare (50 authorized). Wine making out of wood or tank. Production: approximately 15 000 bottles/year.