Loire 2021 Releases

This north-facing limestone site is cool and late ripening. In a warm year like 2019 its quality soars. There is such a fine acidity and outstanding length. I was really blown away by this, and can’t wait to see how the fruit and acidity entwine further with some bottle age. Nervous and tense, this warrants attention.

This is a warmer, south-facing site than Fumet. In 2019 there is wonderful weight from the peachy nectarine fruit and a floral lift. Just gorgeous right now, and the weight will carry it so well through a few years in the cellar.

This is packed with juicy concentration, with an impressive tension. This is terroir-driven Sauvignon Blanc, with the texture and balance to age well, though it’s probably too enticing to ignore right now. Impressive length.

As the name suggests, this cuvée has no dosage, and so has not a drop of residual sugar. As a result, the wine expresses abundant freshness and minerality, supported by bright citrus and green fruit. The 2017 has a bright refreshing acidity and subtle richness, thanks to its oak ageing.

90% Chenin Blanc, 10% Chardonnay. Year in, year out, this is a firm favourite of ours for its deliciously smooth, creamy palate, and fresh, lightly citrus flavours as well as its unbeatable price. The 2018 Saphir is brimming with energy.

This cuvée has gone from strength to strength since it was first made in 2000. Ageing in oak barrels adds complexity and depth. The palate is nicely textured and vinous, and there’s a wonderful fresh bread and bruised apple character throughout. This is really impressive for the price.

90% Chenin Blanc, 10% Chardonnay. 2015 is a superb vintage for this excellent value cuvée. With a few years in magnum this Saumur Brut has developed some complex savoury characters. With tension and energy on the palate, it has a good depth of flavour. This is a great format for celebrations.

This is a new cuvée in 2019 made from young vines across three parcels, all of which Damien has planted himself. They have all been pruned in the goblet fashion, which encourages small bunches to ripen: Damien is seeking an intensity of flavour. This wine has a lovely white fruit, floral character in its maiden vintage. It has Savennières’s structure, but with some pretty fruit, meaning it avoids seeming austere in its youth.

This parcel is one of Damien’s most prized sites, with rhyolite soil (he is very precise when it comes to describing the geology here) that is a “hot” soil, giving greater maturity than the schist soils across most of the appellation where tension is the signature. This is rich, creamy, supple, peachy, and structured. With a few years in bottle this wine is hitting its stride. Apricots and mango are intensely entwined with the punchy acidity, giving this wine dramatic drive.

This cuvée had formerly been known as Blanc Fumé. It is a blend of equal parts marl, clay, and flinty soils from across the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. It’s hardly fitting to call this Dagueneau’s ‘entry level’ wine, but it is probably their most accessible. There is ample green fruits and a superbly expressed chiselled texture.

Silex is one of the Dagueneau signature wines, and has brought an obscure name for a type of soil - flint - into the fine wine mainstream. The 2018 has a sublime power to it, and a smoky, ethereal perfume.

Pur Sang is French for thoroughbred, and his is indeed a first rate cuvée. It is a ripe and enticing style, with peachy fruit, and the toasty caress of a little new oak. Sublime winemaking, drawing out the weighty concentration of Sauvignon with the nervous and brilliant freshness of this region.

This is the only parcel Didier bought on the other side of the river in Sancerre, and he chose the appellation’s greatest site. It remains one of the defining wines of the Sancerre appellation to this day, expressing the profound complexity and regal power of the white Kimmeridgian marl soils of the famous slope.

This comes from a similar site to the Silex parcel, but is slightly lower and north-west facing, making it fractionally cooler. This means it excels in warm vintages. Indeed, tasting this, you’d never associate this vibrating, scintillatingly wine in your glass with a millésime solaire. Outstanding.

Chailloux is the local Sancerrois name for flint (more commonly known as silex), and this parcel is tucked up in the north-east of the appellation where this soil type predominates. It has a northwest aspect and is shaded by a large forest. Flinty sites are often a little warmer, but this one keeps cool, and produces profound acidity. This 2019 is so pure and fresh. After its 12 month élevage, it promises to be irresistible.

This parcel of Kimmeridgian marl, known locally as terres blanches, gives wines full of flavour and texture. The acidity and alcohol are so perfectly matched in 2019. This is all about power and precision.

This parcel is just behind the house, with Kimmeridgian limestone soils. It has fresh aromas of citrus fruits and oyster brine, with a lightly fruity and fresh palate, with nice minerality on the finish. Restrained and terroir-driven.

Sancerre’s best known and greatest site, this dramatic hillside of terres blanches in Chavignol wraps around the hillside and dips into the commune of Verdigny, where Luc’s parcel lies. This 2018 has that signature power and depth you should expect from this exceptional site. The attack is ample and weighted, with a luminous acidity that drives through to a long, lingering finish. This will age with great style.

Luc Prieur’s Sancerre Blanc is one of the best value in the appellation - detailed, balanced, so refreshing, and admirably ageworthy. It comes from parcels dotted around the village of Verdigny and is a blend of the three major soil types found in the region: caillottes, silex and terres blanches. The 2019 is poised and restrained, with a fine saline structure and impressive tension. This is exceptional terroir-driven Sauvignon Blanc from one of the finest young talents in the region.

Pieuchaud is a flinty-soiled lieu dit in the commune of Thauvenay in the south-east of the appellation. Luc decided to isolate this vineyard after noting it always produced fruit with great maturity whilst maintaining high acidity - the secret to single vineyard wines in his opinion. In a warm vintage like 2018, this stood out for its nerve, vim, flinty precision, and raw charge.

This is everything we’ve been looking for in a dry Vouvray: precise, chiselled Chenin fruit, balanced weight, sappy freshness, and flinty finish. It comes from clay and flint soils around the domaine, and is a great showcase for the 2019 vintage. So refreshing and well-made.

This sparkling wine is made by transferring the still sweet and fermenting grape juice into bottle, and then trapping the subsequent carbon dioxide as it continues to ferment to dryness in the bottle. No dosage is added, though the spent yeast cells are expelled, leaving a brilliant, crystalline sparkling wine behind. It has such a wonderful depth and complexity on the nose, with a vinous structure on the palate, and a salty zing. The creamy mousse wraps around crunchy apple fruit. Experience from tasting back vintages of this cuvée shows me this wine ages brilliantly, and will develop complex depth, and savoury precision with a few years in bottle. It’s one of the most exciting wines on the list this year.

This is the jewel in the crown of this domaine. It comes from a limestone (tuffeau) site overlooking the Loire which is so steep it has to be worked by horse instead of tractor. The nose has a chalky, mineral note alongside the apple and quince notes. The palate has a satisfying and silky weight, and a long, powerful finish.

This has got to be one of the best value sweet wines on the market. It is bottled in 50cl exclusively for Lay & Wheeler - the perfect size, we feel. It is a beautiful pale golden colour, and the aromas are focussed around Seville oranges and acacia honey. The palate is singing with acidity: zippy, lightly bitter, fresh and just sweet enough. The finish is astonishing for such a modestly priced wine, with quince, tangerine, and honeycomb flavours lingering.