2011 Montlouis Les Bournais

As they were bottling at the property, I tasted a large range of wines with François Chidaine this summer in his little wine shop in town. As the majority of his business is with professional clients, and most of that in export, he did not want to lose contact with private clients and so set up La Cave Insolite in the middle of Montlouis, population 10,452. On the shelves are herbs, spices, honey and, beyond his own wines, a thoughtful selection from many of his biodynamic friends. Although the estate was only founded in 1989, Chidaine has been one of Rudolf Steiner’s pioneers on the Loire, having turned “green” in 1997. A very quiet, subtle gentlemann, he became better known to a wider public in 2002 when he took over the erstwhile estate of Prince Poniatowski in Vouvray. That was part and parcel of a gradual expansion from humble beginnings that has seen the estate grow to its current 30 hectares, about two-thirds of which are still now in Montlouis. As his yields are generally quite low, he seldom produces more than 150,000 bottles a year, often relatively evenly split between bubbles, dry, off-dry and noble late-harvest chenin blancs. The last two vintages, though, have been particularly challenging. After having bottled very little Vouvray in 2012, he made almost none in 2013. Harvesting everything by hand, he does the majority of his selections on sorting tables in the vineyard so as not to contaminate the juice. He then ferments in 600-liter casks, only 10% of which are new in any given year, using only wild yeasts. The often contentious question about malolactic fermentations is not an issue for him. “Sometimes they happen. Sometimes they do not.” We tasted the wines below in flights from sparkling to sweet, trying in particular to assess the style of the individual vineyards. He likes to drink most of his wines either very young, when they are still on their primary fruit, or after seven or eight years of age. If you admire purity in chenin blanc, this is an address to remember.

As they were bottling at the property, I tasted a large range of wines with François Chidaine this summer in his little wine shop in town. As the majority of his business is with professional clients, and most of that in export, he did not want to lose contact with private clients and so set up La Cave Insolite in the middle of Montlouis, population 10,452. On the shelves are herbs, spices, honey and, beyond his own wines, a thoughtful selection from many of his biodynamic friends. Although the estate was only founded in 1989, Chidaine has been one of Rudolf Steiner’s pioneers on the Loire, having turned “green” in 1997. A very quiet, subtle gentlemann, he became better known to a wider public in 2002 when he took over the erstwhile estate of Prince Poniatowski in Vouvray. That was part and parcel of a gradual expansion from humble beginnings that has seen the estate grow to its current 30 hectares, about two-thirds of which are still now in Montlouis. As his yields are generally quite low, he seldom produces more than 150,000 bottles a year, often relatively evenly split between bubbles, dry, off-dry and noble late-harvest chenin blancs. The last two vintages, though, have been particularly challenging. After having bottled very little Vouvray in 2012, he made almost none in 2013. Harvesting everything by hand, he does the majority of his selections on sorting tables in the vineyard so as not to contaminate the juice. He then ferments in 600-liter casks, only 10% of which are new in any given year, using only wild yeasts. The often contentious question about malolactic fermentations is not an issue for him. “Sometimes they happen. Sometimes they do not.” We tasted the wines below in flights from sparkling to sweet, trying in particular to assess the style of the individual vineyards. He likes to drink most of his wines either very young, when they are still on their primary fruit, or after seven or eight years of age. If you admire purity in chenin blanc, this is an address to remember.