Loire Valley

• Bourgueil
• Jasnières
• Muscadet
• Mont Louis
• Sancerre
• Saumur
• Savennières
• Touraine
• Vouvray

This is a lightly sparkling wine made from Chenin Blanc in the Loire Valley in France.  Golden in color, the mousse quickly fades in the glass.  Medium sized bubbles.  The nose is different with yeast, slight doughy notes along with a bit of salinity.  Medium to full bodied.  On the palate, this is refreshing.  Dry.  Notes of honey (not sweet) and crushed shells.  Good acidity.  Long finish.  This drinks well on its own but really needs some food.  It would be very nice with a wide range of foods from a Beet Salad to a Quiche.  Unique and not a substitute for a Champagne styled wine.  Drink

From one of the top producers of Muscadet, this is a crisp white and excellent value.  Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is clean with crushed shells, salinity, and slight lemon.  Medium bodied.  A bit rounder in texture than many Muscadets.  On the palate, minerals, crushed shells and slight lemon.  Good finish.  This wine is nice on its own but better with food.  A great choice with shellfish, but also nice with Artichoke Dip (not an easy match).  Drink over the next few years.  

Excellent showing for this bottle at age 21.  Golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is nice with orange peel, sea air, slight apple cider, peach and minerality.  Full bodied.  Good acidity.  On the palate, this is complex but also delicious.  Deep with apples, peach and minerality.  Plenty of depth.  Long finish.  Great on its own, this went quite well with vegetarian spicy Indian Food.  Drink over the next ten years.  

Wow.  Great showing for this.  And, as good as it was on opening, it was even better with a few hours of air!  Golden yellow in color, clear and bright.  The nose has honey, salinity, and crushed shells.  Full bodied.  Slightly sweet with some Botrytis.  On the palate, orange rind, minerality, with good acidity.  A bit of almonds on the finish.  This is complex and deep.  Drinking well with a couple hours of air, this should improve over the next ten years.  It should easily go three more decades.  Just a stunning wine.  It will work with more savory dessert such as a polenta cake but is qu

Wow.  Beautiful wine.  Golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose has slight tangerine, pears, chalk and a bit of ginger.  Full bodied.  Dry.  Deep if still tight.  Great balance.  On the palate, this is delicious.  Young, so if drinking soon, give it air.  Notes of ginger, pears and slight burnt orange peel.  Long finish.  This is great now, but still may improve a bit.  Drink over the next twenty years.  Great on its own or with food.  This would work well with grilled Trout.  

Chidaine is one of our favorite producers of win es in the Loire Valley.  Compared to most Sancerre's or Pouilly Fume's, this is a tremendous value if you like Lorie Sauvignon Blanc (the ancestral home of the grape).  Not sure, well for the price, it sure seems worth checking out.  Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose has minerality, hay, peach and slight grapefruit.  Light bodied.  Good balance.  On the palate, minerality with grapefruit.

I have always felt that Muscadet can age better than given credit for.  Yes, with age it loses some of that raw crispness, but it rounds out and can get almost Chablis-like.  Of course, that depends on the producer.  Golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is classic with salinity/crushed shells along with lanolin and a hint of citrus.  Medium bodied.

Huet is one of the top producers in the world.  That they make Chenin Blanc in the Loire Valley just keeps the price down.  The 2020 is another star.  Light golden in color, clear and bright.  It has a great nose with orange peel, slight ginger, sea air, quince.  Full bodied.  Great balance.  On the palate, this is slightly sweet with enough acidity to counter it.  Flavors of quince, slight ginger and salinity.  Long finish.  This is drinking great now and should for another fifteen years.  Great on its own, this will work nice with Thai food.

We drank thru a case of this wine and this was the last bottle.  Ten were superb, one was off and one was corked which was about par for the course back in the day with sweet Loire white wines.  This was also superb, and if you have any, no hurry on them.  Golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is great with orange peel, apricots, sea air, canned peach syrup.  Full bodied.  Slightly sweet.  On the palate, canned peach syrup, oranges, and slight caramel note.  Long finish.  Great on its own, this will work well with not too sweet (and no chocolate) desserts.  Drink up over the next fiv

This was accidently added to a tasting of Loire Cabernet Franc.  It is of course, Pinot Noir.  Certainly not a fair way to sample the wine as it was only after the wines were unveiled that the mistake was identified.  A couple people did say it was Pinot like which is very impressive.  Still, here is the tasting note.