Wine Club Members (04/2026)

Hello! Welcome & Welcome Back!

It means so much to me that you took the time to subscribe to this wine club and, more importantly, chose to spend your hard earned money with us. This month's club release is focused on the wines of the Loire Valley, in particular Savennières and Chinon. Savennières (pronounced sahve-en-yayr), a relatively small appellation of only 150 hectares, is made up of three hillsides on the right bank of the Loire, plunging into the river, just south-west of the town of Angers. It is famous for its shallow rocky, schist based soils and for its stern, dry, idiosyncratic expression of Chenin Blanc. The wines of Savennières are all about stony minerality and power. They are the perfect match to richer white fleshed seafood dishes. My recommendation is monkfish with mushrooms. Any of the recipes here will do, but I have my eyes on the Roast Monkfish in Sake Broth in particular.

Chinon, the largest red-wine appellation of the Loire by volume, is located around the royal city of Chinon in the Touraine district. Cabernet Franc, locally called Breton, is the main grape variety, while Chenin Blanc plantings are on the rise. Chinon’s vineyards stretch south of the Loire on both banks of the Vienne over 2,400 ha/5,900 acres, yet the majority of the wines are made on the right bank with Cravant-les-Coteaux as the main producing commune. Protected by forests to the east and west and by small hills called puys, Chinon enjoys one of the warmest climates of Touraine, and its wines tend to be more concentrated than those of its neighbours. Cabernet Franc is the quintessential Bistro red, with much of it traditionally consumed by thirsty Parisians. I consider it Bordeaux light, with similar notes of tobacco and graphite, but medium bodied with refreshing acidity. Roast a chicken; break out the steak frites. Just the red for spring.

The Gist on the Wines

Domaine de la Bergerie's “Clos le Grand Beaupréau” Savennières comes from vines located at the top of Epiré hill, the well-ventilated, highest point in Savennières, just below the Moulin de Beaupréau, southwest-facing, early-ripening. The topsoil (30 to 50 cm) is composed of windblown aeolian sands, covering a subsoil of brittle schists that allow for deep rooting. The wine is fermented and aged in 400L French oak (25% new) for 12 months, softening some of Savennières' hallmark rough edges. A full-bodied, powerful wine on the palate. It is very open, right from the first nose with notes of honey, apple, quince, and flowers all framed by a strident acidity and nutty almond on the finish.

Francis and Annick Jourdan’s Varesnes bottling is made from vines planted on the plain up from the riverbank in Cravant-les-Côteaux. The soils here have more clay and limestone in them than down closer to the river and the Jourdans’ vines are now closing in on fifty years of age for this bottling. The wine is fermented in tank and aged for fourteen months in cement vats. The 2021 Varesnes shows lovely depth on both the nose and palate, with the very pure bouquet wafting from the glass in a complex blend of sweet dark berries, black cherries, cigar wrapper, dark soil tones, woodsmoke, a hint of juniper berry and a touch of tree bark. On the palate the wine is deep, full- bodied and shows a nice touch of sappiness at the core, with lovely soil undertow and grip, fine- grained tannins and a long, seamlessly balanced and complex finish.

The Details on the Wines

Domaine de la Bergerie, Chenin Blanc, "Clos le Grand Beaupreau," Savennières, Loire Valley, France (2019)

Domaine de la Bergerie has been a family estate since 1964, first purchased by Marie-Scholastique Horeau and eventually passed down to her grandson, Yves Guégniard, with his wife, Marie-Annick. Now, Yves and Marie-Annick's daughters, Anne and Marie, have finished their studies and are poised to take the lead, with Anne particularly focused on converting the estate to organic viticulture.

The estate is in the heart of Côteaux du Layon, in the Anjou region of the central Loire Valley. It has always adhered to a high standard of excellence, including green harvesting, strict sorting, and separate vinification of each parcel. Encompassing a total of 89 acres, the vineyards are spread throughout multiple appellations, including Anjou (blanc and rouge), Savennières, Côteaux du Layon, and Quarts de Chaume.

Their vineyards in Anjou are on schist bedrock: a soil that gives tremendous character and uniqueness to the wines, but at the price of a great deal of effort. These soils retain very little water, which can generate the stress the vines need to produce complex and concentrated fruit, but it also requires the vigneronnes to adapt at every moment, changing their practices to make sure that the vines don’t suffer too much and that the grapes arrive at a perfect degree of ripeness.

Anne and Marie describe their principal grape, Chenin Blanc, as a “mirror” of the soil in which it grows. It is therefore extremely important to them to work with the maximum respect for their terroir, in order to allow it to fully express itself in their wines. Each cuvée is vinified and aged so that the character of the terroir shines through above all else.

Domaine Jourdan, Cabernet Franc, "Cuvée Varesnes," Chinon, Loire Valley, France (2021)

In 2012 Francis and Annick Jourdan left their home in Normandy to start a new life in Chinon. They were cereal farmers and grain brokers with a passion for the vine, so much so that Francis actually tried to get the rights to plant a vineyard near Caen but could not persuade the authorities to let him (he admits that he has two feet in the soil but a head sometimes in the clouds). Consequently, they jumped at the chance to exchange the production of grains for the production of wine when the opportunity came in the form of Philippe Pichard, who was the fifth generation to run his family’s domaine in Chinon. But he had no heir, and when the Jourdans offered to buy into the domaine as partners, he agreed.

Pichard went organic in 2000, eventually applied for and received certification from Ecocert in 2011. After the Jourdans came on board, the domaine received biodynamic certification from Demeter in 2015. The Jourdans embraced the philosophy—it was their wish to make wines as naturally as possible. In the years that followed, Francis and Philippe added modern windmills and a water spraying system for frost protection. Today, the domaine farms 44 acres divided into 20 parcels.

Nearly 80% of these vines are within a mile and a quarter of the winery, which lies in the eastern part of the Chinon appellation near the village of Cravant-les-Côteaux. This is the small Vienne River valley, and the domaine’s vines start pretty much at the river, range across the plain (or benchland, if you prefer), and extend up to the plateau above Cravant. At the river, the soils are sand and gravel; the plain is limestone and much more clay; and the hillside heading up to the plateau has clay with a lot of limestone. Each cuvée is grounded in its geology. All the vines are hand-harvested, the grapes are de-stemmed, and all ferments are normally allowed to happen spontaneously.