“I realized that I would never use carbonic maceration on my top cuvées, so why am I doing this on the Ad Libitum?” Thus spake Damien to me in the... read more →
Blandine (more on the vinification) and Jérémie (more in the vineyard) are making promising wine, not far from the Puzelats. This côt gets a short maceration of a week before... read more →
This is a perennial favorite pet’nat from Damien Delecheneau. It is from Touraine vines, around 80 years old and planted by Damien’s great-grandfather. The 2018 is not quite as dry... read more →
Brent Mayeaux did many wine stages (apprenticeships) from conventional to the natural, including Philippe Bornard in the Jura and Yahou Fatal in the Auvergne. Working on his second vintage, he’s... read more →
Reynald comes out of the Claude Courtois lineage of winemaking. That means he doesn’t do carbonic. His wines are traditional, destemmed, crushed and raised in old wood. In the barely... read more →
Jérémie Illouz farms six hectares and is making some very spectacular wine in Cahors that he now just labels Vin de France. This one is a blend of 50% Malbec... read more →
If you’re lamenting the lack of real Bordeaux, this one will restore your faith. In Margaux (one of my favorite zones in Bordeaux), priced well under $100, it’s a bargain... read more →
Claude Courtois lives and works in the ‘we get no respect’ east of Orléans commune of Soings-en-Sologne in the Loir-et-Cher. His roots are deep in the back-to-nature movement—not in the... read more →
Clos Roche Blanche is gone but the genetic material for the wine lives on in loving granitic instead of limestone soils. Fermentation is preceded by a four-day cold maceration. Only... read more →
From organic vines between 15-45 years from limestone soils. Damien raises this wine in tank, no wood involvement. The result is a wine with purity, structure, velvet, bones, dusty fruit... read more →