Domaine Belargus! And Other Loire Chenins We Love...
10/28/2024
"Through a unique collection of grands crus, single-plots and monopoles, some acquired from Jo Pithon, Domaine Belargus explores Anjou through all its micro-climates, using Chenin as its sole instrument. Cultivated in harmony with Nature's biodiversity, Belargus wines bear the singularity of the millenary plots that give birth to them. They express, through each cuvée, a vibrant panorama of Anjou.
Rocky outcrops sculpted by the winds, sand plateaus and sun-drenched steep hillsides make up a collection of terroirs with chiselled character. Deep beneath the surface are mingling purple shists, magmatic rocks, rolled pebbles and fine clays, all giving life and complexity to the soil. The vines plunge their roots deeply to extract complexity and mineral finesse. This environment is home to a thousand native species: fragrant heather, wild flowers, medicinal plants, colourful shrubs... This microcosm also belongs, depending on the hours and the seasons, to grasshoppers and bats, to sheep and birds.
On twenty-four hectares dedicated to the noble Chenin grape, the estate cultivates some of the most renown terroirs in Anjou. Its mission is to express their quintessence through a single-plot approach. Among its most remarkable plots: The Quarts-de-Chaume (grand cru), centre of gravity of the estate with ten hectares in one piece, centered around the three plots historically composing the appellation; The "Coteau des Treilles" (monopole), a wild and steep hillside, located in the heart of a classified "Regional Natural Reserve;" The "Clos des Ruchères" (monopole) in Savennières, planted on a rare hillside of purple schists." - (Text from Domaine Belargus website)
Tessa Laroche at the Domaine aux Moines consistently makes one of the finest Loire Chenins on the beautiful grand cru terroir of Roche-aux-Moines. And we can't forget Domaine du Closel, the Grande Dame of Savennières, where Evelyne de Jessy has been a great innovator and champion of Chenin!
The 2020 Domaine Bellivière Coteaux du Loir "Eparses Vieilles Vignes" is one of the greatest Chenins of the past few years. We have 11 btls. The 2022 Premices is simply gorgeous for early drinking. "the Bellivière wines, made in a very hands-off manner, are beacons of purity and definition, and in terms of significance of style they easily rank alongside those of Richard Leroy and Mark Angeli, if indeed they are not superior." (Wine Doctor)
We love the Chenins from Domaine de la Roche Bleue in Jasnières. Vibrant, intensely mineral wines that offer sensational quality and value.
Of course François Chidaine, pioneer of Biodynamic farming makes some on the most elegant and chiseled Chenins of the Loire!
The superb wines of Domaine François and Julien Pinon need no introduction to CSW customers: The 2022 dry Vouvrays are beautiful now and will cellar indefinitely; the 2018 sweet wines are incredibly fresh and delicious; the sparkling wines are among the most serious and complex of the Loire and will also age fabulously. Are these the World's Greatest Chenin Values?
And then there are the timeless wines of Domaine Huet, the estate that taught the world how to make great Chenin…
