WHOLESALE LIST
All of these wines are produced by small growers who make wines that we find exciting, vibrant and delicious. In general they are at the very least organic, rely on natural yeasts for fermentation with minimal additions in the cellar, sometimes none. The list is subject to change. All prices ex VAT.
COTEAUX D’ANCENIS, LOIRE
JACQUES FEVRIER, LE RAISIN A PLUME
Jacques Fevrier is a former sommelier who spent time working around the world with conventional and then natural wine and falling in love with the latter, decided it was time to make them himself. He chose Oudon, not the most fashionable of locations, but a place where the terroir was varied, there were quite a few varieties to work with and he could afford to actually buy some land. He’s a thoughtful, skilled winemaker making understated wines that reveal themselves to be packed with personality - a rising star of the Loire. Soils of schiste and granite bring a freshness to the fruit, all wines are unfiltered, unfined and without additions. Wines of real character and honesty from a winemaker who is really getting into his groove.
PGM 2022 £16.50
The return of Jacques' lovely Pinot Gris, given a shorter 7 days on the skins whole bunch it's aromatic, fresh and lively, with plenty of stone fruit and a little tannin too balance the aromatics. Consistently a favourite.
PATIS DES ROSIERS 2022 £14.50
100% Gamay from the mineral soils of Ancenis. Given around 15 days on the skins whole bunch, before ageing in fibreglass. As always exceptional value, lush with silky fruit, but with a lovely tension and backbone to it.
A BOUT 2020 £15.50
Abouriou is a rare varietal, native to this region. In 2020 Jacques took a different approach to this varietal giving it just a two day whole bunch maceration to create a lighter style of this variety, which related to merlot. It has lovely wild dusty fruit, a touch of structure and plenty of length
A BOUT 2021 £16
Because of the frost and mildew in this vintage, Jacques did not have many grapes, so he chose to blend the Abouriou with his Cabernet Franc, Giving a short maceration it's created a delicious light, soft red with silky tannins and plenty of wild black fruit.
ANJOU, LOIRE
CEDRIC GARREAU, GARO’VIN
Cedric Garreau farms 3 hectares of vines around Beaulieu-sur-Layon in Anjou and is not keen on expanding any further as he prefers to do everything himself (aside from the help with picking at the harvest). He is quiet and measured in his approach and this is reflected in his wines, structured, elegant, they speak for themselves. He farms organically, using biodynamic methods, the only sulfites used are to clean the barrels.
SONMAMNBULLES ROSE 2023 £15.50
100% Grolleau Noir. Cedric presses the grapes direct, which in this vintage gave a beautiful pale pink colour to the wine. He leaves it on the lees for just a few months, preferring his pink fizz to be fresher and on the fruit. Bursting with pink fruit, with a lovely balance of acidity, this is a perfect aperitif as we get closer to the festive season. Very stable for btg.
LUNATIC PRINTEMPS 2023 £15
100% Chenin Blanc from soils on purple schiste. In the fresher, generous 2023 vintage Cedric had so much juice he decided to make a new cuvee, aged in tank rather than barrel that he could release a little earlier. Clocking in at 10.5% it is lean, mineral and very fresh, but still retains a lovely texture and depth to the wine. Stays open well over a few days.
LUNATIC 2023 £17
100% Chenin Blanc from soils on purple schiste. This is the original version of Lunatic, direct press Chenin, aged in barrel. In a fresh vintage this has a lovely mix of clean, fresh fruit with plenty of minerality, given ageing on the lees in barrel for complexity. Already drinking very well.
LUNATIC ORANGE 2022 £17.50
100% Chenin Blanc from the same parcel as the Lunatic white. Cedric makes this maceration only in the more generous vintages, destemming the fruit and giving it around three weeks on the skins, then ageing in tank. Rounded and on the fruit, it has lovely tannins, beautiful aromatics and a lush texture. Great food wine.
LULU BERLUE 2022 £12.50
A delight to have this charming red wine back in stock. Cabernet Franc & Grolleau Noir, given a carbonic maceration for a couple of weeks, before pressing off and ageing in cuve. Bright with dark fruit, this is a brilliant bistro wine, nimble, lithe and perfect served with a light chill.
METISSE 2020 £14.50
A lovely blend of ⅔ Cab Franc ⅓ Cab sauv, planted at southern exposure. He destems the fruit and gives three weeks of maceration before ageing in old barrels. , 2020 was a pretty stellar year and while sunny had a little more rain later on than the very dry 2019 - giving a lush wine full of silky dark fruit and sultry tannins.
SOLERA NV £27 (500ML)
A rarity - a sweet wine produced without additives, from what was the most famous style of the Anjou region at what point. On subsequent visits to see Cedric we have tasted from this barrel which he has been filling slowly with botrytised Chenin from vintages 2016/2017/2018, which is left for extended ageing to make sure it won't referment when bottled. Sweet wines made without sulfites are some of the most special wines out there, perfect for a special occasion to pair with dessert or cheese.
ANJOU, LOIRE
VINS HODGSON, RABLAY SUR-LAYON
In a bid to become a wine writer Kenji Hodgson moved from British Columbia to Japan to do an internship at a winery in Japan where he luckily fell in with a winemaker trying to work more naturally and first tried some french natural wines. On his return to Canada he met Mai in Vancouver who had been working in vineyards and together after a period working vineyards in British Columbia they moved to the Loire to immerse themselves in the natural wine scene, the production and the people. At first the intention was to move back to Canada and buy vines, but they couldn’t afford the land, so winemaker mentor Mark Angeli suggested buying a parcel in Anjou. They never went back.. All of the wines are produced without additions, they have a rigour and attention to detail that is second to none. Inspiring people making inspiring wines. These are long-lasting true wines of terroir and really they reward cellaring.
AUSSIGOUINS 2020 £30
Kenji: Aussigouins is schiste and sandstone. It’s a dense, hard soil, very austere. The drainage is not as good as in “Faia.” So you have moments of lots of humidity, and other moments in the summer when it’s super dry. It’s a complicated vineyard from that point of view. It also gives the wine huge amplitude. I think it has the potential to become a very powerful, driven kind of wine.
2020 was a dry vintage with decent yields, we cellared this wine for a couple of years to let it rest and now it's starting to blossom. This wine is starting to drink well, but as with all their wines, will age wonderfully.
FAIA 2019 £28
Kenji: '“Faia” is mostly clay sands, quartz, and a little volcanic soil. For me the defining terroir characteristic of ‘Faia’ is its very shallow soil. It’s a slice of earth about 30cm deep, all in the same zone.'
From the 2019 vintage, a tough one where frost took the majority of their Chenin leaving them with yields of 12HL/ha, then the hot dry summer, resulted in quick spikes in maturity. The wine took a while to finish it's sugars, they added marc (the skins after pressing from 2020 to help. Once it had become dry it was bottled, but needed time before release, it's now in a great place, though undoubtedly, will achieve further grace and complexity with more bottle age.
LUCHINI BLANC 2022/2023 £19
A welcome release from Mai & Kenji. The P'tit Luchini moniker is used when they have wines that don't quite fit the bill of their estate cuvees - Faia/Aussigouins.
Luchini" blanc is 100% Chenin Blanc - a portion of Faia 22 (aged in foudre) that they held back from the bottling, assembled with some of Faia 23 fermented in clay jar.. The wine is still young (bottled last spring) but gaining a nice complexity with time. As usual a wine you could age, for sure, but these Luchini bottlings also tend to be very enjoyable in their youth. Limited quantities as usual.
LUCHINI ROUGE 2023 £19
A welcome new release from Mai & Kenji. The P'tit Luchini moniker is used when they have wines that don't quite fit the bill of their estate cuvees - Faia/Aussigouins or Grande Piece. This is a blend of all their red varietals, including the first significant harvest of the syrah they planted a few years ago...
Kenji: "Luchini" rouge is an assemblage of all the reds of 23: grolleau, syrah, and cabernet. 23 being a lighter vintage, we chose to call it Luchini although it is essentially O Galarneau. It has nice fruit flavours and fresh acidity. Tasting good and ready to be opened though could also age several years.
HENCHER, PARKINSON & WRIGHT - HARVEST WINE 2022 £21
in the harvest of 2022 myself and two friends were fortunate to go out to Anjou and spend two weeks helping harvest with Mai & Kenji Hodgson. We picked a lot of Chenin Blanc, cleaned a lot of equipment and met a lot of great people. Though it was hard work it never felt like it, I guess getting to drink old vintages of Aussigouins & Faia at harvest lunch helped...
While we there we were given the opportunity by Mai & Kenji to barrel a wine from some of the grapes we'd picked from two of the vineyards that make up some of what goes into their Faia cuvee. We filled an old barrel gifted to them by Richard Leroy on the morning of the day we had to head back to the UK, said a prayer and waited. After getting the OK from Kenji that the wine was ready to bottle, we headed back the next May to bottle it by hand, with no additions of course, with a label we'd created from a picture taken on the trip of a chair behind their cellar that offered rest after a long day picking fruit. We had some 'help' from Jun Hodgson on the labelling too.
After a long rest we have decided that now is the time to release this wine, one of less than 300. We think it's tasting good already, but will be cellaring this for a number of years, partly to remember those sunny harvest days and partly because we tasted some incredible old vintages of Hodgson Chenin on that trip which if this wine gets even halfway too, it'll have been worth the wait.
ANJOU, LOIRE
SIMON ROUILLARD
Simon Rouillard is a producer recently installed in Anjou, after spending a number of years working with some brilliant producers - Domaine De La Tournelle, Phillip Bornard & Babass to name a few. He has found two hectares of old vines in Anjou, which require a lot of work and replanting, plus he is planting new parcels of Grolleau & Chenin. In order to supplement this work and help him set up, he has been making some negociant wine from fruit bought from friends in the area. From 2022 though, all his wines are from his own fruit.
APRES LA PLUIE 2022 £15.50
100% Grolleau. In 2022 the fruit was of particularly good quality so Simon have the grapes a slightly longer maceration giving more intensity of fruit but still with the bright weightless tannins we have come to expect from his wines.
MINUIT 2022 £18.50
In 2022 Simon decided to again co-ferment his varietals from this plot. It's a blend of Gamay, Chenin & Grolleau Noir. The grapes were co-fermented for 8 days together in whole bunches, with a light foot-pressing, then aged in tank. It has lovely dark red fruit, but is bright and complex too. Bright rounded and retains freshness despite the warm vintage.
MINUIT 2021 £18.50 / MAGNUM £38
In the disastrous vintage of 2021 Simon put all his estate fruit into one wine. it's Gamay 70%, Chenin 20%, Grolleau Noir 10%. The grapes were co-fermented for 8 days together in whole bunches, with a light foot-pressing, then aged in tank. It has lovely dark red fruit, but is bright and complex too. An exciting, delicious wine that points to a bright future for this young winemaker. We got just 60 bottles and 6 magnums. Drinking very well.
SAUMUR, LOIRE
FABIEN PÉRREARD, LE NADIR
After spending a few years travelling the world and creating images as a graphic designer. Fabien Perreard was inspired to become a winemaker and follow the path of the new artisanal winemaking scene of Anjou.
In 2018 and 2019 he studied and worked in the wineyards of Saumur: first with Jean-Pierre Chevallier - Chateau de Villeneuve (Souzay), and then with Matthieu Vallée - Chateau Yvonne (Parnay) as well as Aymeric Hillaire - Domaine Mélaric (Puy Notre Dame).
In 2020 he got 1 ha of chenin from Gil Caborderie - Domaine des Cabors in Forges, in the south-Saumurois, where the vines are cultivated in organic farming since 2012, and then I get 1 ha more of chenin/grolleau noir/cabernet franc from a vine-grower of Brossay in the same area and started the conversion to organic growing immediately. Côme Isambert has hosted Fabien in his cave in Saumur since his first vintage, offering advice and help.
He work his 2 hectares alone; a few friends would help for the tillage in spring and for the harvest in autumn. Fabien only uses a tractor for the tillage; the rest of the work is handmade. Treatments are very rarely used. In the cellar he utilises an old wooden vertical basket press and generally ages in barrel. Usually the wine is racked only 2 times : one at the end of the fermentation and one in the end of maturation (made in barrels, fiber tanks and inox tanks). Always without additions.
OCTOBRE 2020 £13.80
50% Cabernet Franc from Brossay, 50% Grolleau from Forges. The grapes were macerated gently whole bunch for ten days and then aged in barrel for eight months. Bright and light on it’s feet this is brimming with wild herbaceous fruit.
SAMUR, LOIRE
CÔME ISAMBERT,
Côme Isambert is a brilliant winemaker who produces miniscule quantities in his cellar under a Chateau in Saumur (formerly a mushroom factory.) He vinifies part time, also working as a teacher.. He has worked in wine and the organic sector for 12 years, including time working under Eric Dubois at Clos Cristal, in Austria with Christian Tschida (allegedly pushing him into working more naturally…) He started making his own wines in 2013, buying only organic fruit from suppliers he know who are producing good quality grapes on chalke and schiste. Grapes are always hand-harvested in boxes, with no pumping of the juice, fermentations tend to be slow because of the coolness of the caves where the barrels are kept. Recently Côme has started to work with apples, quince & pears from Normandy, other soft fruit like raspberries plus occasionally.. Carrots.
CABERNIN 2021 £16
This year's Cabernin is a blend of direct press Chenin, Cabernet Franc and some Chardonnay which had a short maceration on the skins. The chardonnay adds a roundness and fleshy texture to the minerality of the Chenin and savoury notes of the Cabernet Franc. Another delicious one-off from a singular winemaker.
CHIMERE BLANCHE 2020 £9.50
Chimère blanche 2020 Blend of pears ( 80 %) vinified for Perry with grapes of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc (20%), according soft tannins, aromas of pear and acidity of the two fruits. Aged 12 months in fiberglass tank. Has sediment from the perry, can be decanted if wished. Unique and wonderful expression of the symbiosis between these fruits. Clocks in at a brisk 8%
GRIMACE ROSE 2021 £17.50
The third iteration of Grimace, from the cool 2021 vintage. A shorter maceration of three weeks on the skins has given a wine pouring a beautiful pale pink, with lovely pink fruit and a refreshing acidity. A delicious, delicate rose.
ONOMATOPEE 2021 £14.50
Always a favourite from Côme, produced from free run juice, the 2021 version is a blend of Gamay & Grolleau Noir, similar in character to the 2019. Bright, aromatic and very juicy.
50 CENT 2020 £10
50% Pear 50% Apple. Picked riper than previous years this is rounded and broad, dry but with lovely chalky fruit. Delicious on its own or with cheese.
L’ÉPHÉMÈRE #9 £10
A delicious wild-fermented beer produced in collaboration with the Hula Hoop brewery, Pear must, Quince was added to the mash. Refreshing & fruity!
BERRIE, LOIRE
FRANCOIS SAINT-LO, RUE DES BELLES CAVES
In troglodyte caves deep in Berrie, near Saumur, François Saint-Lo runs the Rue Des Belles Caves. Working in restaurants & wine bars he then dived headlong into winemaking, learning with producers like Olivier Cousin & Eric Dubois.. Eventually he bought his own place near Berrie, approximately 25km south of Saumur, it was basically an ancient ruin, but has previously been used for wine production and since 2012 has been restored with the help of friends. Like his mentors François prefers to work with horses in the vineyards and all other work is done by hand. In the cellar he & the team use old barrels, fibreglass and two massive antique basket presses that was there when he took over the place.
LES POUCHES MACERATION 2019 £26.50
100% Chenin Blanc. A remarkable wine, from the dry, warm 2019 vintage. The grapes were given the usual 14 days of whole bunch maceration, then pressed very slowly before putting straight into barrel. Because of the warmer vintage, they gave the juice a full 30 months in barrel before bottling and ageing the bottles for a year before release.
It's powerful and ripe with incredible depth to the fruit, length and texture. Drinking well now, but will also no doubt age wonderfully.
LES POUCHES 2020 £24.50
100% Chenin Blanc. For the first time in a while, a direct press Chenin Blanc from François and it's well worth waiting for. 2020 was a generous vintage and he set aside some Chenin to press direct - slowly as always, they press in their huge basket press through the night, as slowly as possible. The wine was put into barrel for over two years before bottling and release in 2023.
It has a lovely texture and is full of minerals, fruit and spice, drinking well, but well worth holding on to for a good few years..
LES POUCHES MACERATION 2021 £24.50 MAGNUM £50
100% Chenin Blanc. In 2021 he gave the grapes as usual around two weeks of whole bunch maceration, before pressing slowly in a huge antique basket press. A cooler vintage where fermentations were quick, this is already showing beautifully. Pouring a golden yellow it's saline and mineral with lovely aromatics, a real treat. We have a few Magnums..
HEY GG! 2021 £18
100% Grolleau Gris given a twenty day maceration. After the popularity of this wine last year it is a pleasure to have this wine back in stock. The pale pink colour belies the depth of fruit of this wine with incredibly precise aromatics and a lot of pink fruit. Drinking beautifully! 9.5%
HEY GG! 2022 £18.50
100% Grolleau Gris given a twenty day maceration. A deeper pink than last year, this is a delicious bright rose, with beautiful pink fruit like blood orange and grapefruit. Perfect for spring!
HEY GRO! 2020 £15
100% Grolleau Noir, given a twenty day maceration. The process is the same as for Hey GG. This Gro has just a touch more structure and elegance, though and is wonderfully ripe for just 10% abv.
HEY GRO 2021 £18 / £40
As always this is 100% Grolleau Noir, given a gentle maceration for around two weeks. In this cooler vintage, it has produced a remarkably open, fruity and rounded wine clocking in at just 8.5%!
HEY GRO! 2022 £18.50
100% Grolleau Noir. Bloody, juicy and full of fruit, this is just the thing for aperitif, or with a plate of charcuterie. Low in alcohol but big in flavour as usual!
UNIS 2022 £22.50 / MAGNUM £47
100% Pineau d'Aunis. The parcel sits on the same plot as the old vine Bois Guyon Cabernet Franc. This vintage pours a beautiful pale red and screams with pretty red fruits and white pepper. A classic!
HEY GAMIN! 2021 £19
100% Gamay from a tiny 0.3 hectare parcel. They give the grapes a 20 day whole bunch maceration before pressing slowly and then ageing in fibreglass. In the cool 2021 vintage, this has brought a light, expressive wine reminiscent of a poulsard from the Jura, bright, effervescent and full of minerals and fruit!
HEY GAMIN! 2022 £22.50
100% Gamay from a tiny 0.3 hectare parcel. As usual they gave the grapes a 20 day whole bunch maceration before pressing slowly. For the first time though, it was aged in barrel rather than fibreglass, giving a silky, sumptous texture to the bright red fruit. Perhaps our favourite vintage of this wine to date, we don't expect it to hang around too long..
LES PALENNES 2019 £22.50
100% Cabernet Franc from 60-70 year old vines. Always very expressive in it’s youth, this has wonderful length and very vibrant fruit. A dry, warm vintage has brought a wine of concentration and depth that is built to age and is drinking wonderfully now.
LES PALENNES 2020 £24.50
100% Cabernet Franc from 60-70 year old vines on limestone, given a two week whole bunch maceration. In this warm vintage, this is full of bright dark fruit, with a savoury edge, a really elegant expression of the varietal that is drinking very well already, but as with all of his Cabernet's will age wonderfully.
LE BOIS GUYON 2019 £22.50
100% Cabernet Franc from vines between 80-90 years old. Whole bunch maceration for around two weeks. Wonderfully ripe fruit, with a lovely herbaceous note, this is already drinking really well, though will age wonderfully.
LE BOIS GUYON 2020 £24.50 MAGNUM £50
100% Cabernet Franc from vines between 80-90 years old. Whole bunch maceration for around two weeks. The 2020 has silky tannins, with pure black fruit and a distinct minerality. Drinking well already, but experience tells us it will age beautifully.
BERRIE,
ROMUALD & STEPHANIE SAUVAGE, CLOS DES FOLIES
We came across Clos Des Folies through Francois Saint-Lo on a visit there. Romuald & Stephanie have worked in vineyards for 23 years, beginning with Jo Pithon, Francois Poirel and then Olivier Cousin. They took on this domaine in 2014, 2.5 hectares of Cabernet Franc & Grolleau, most of the vines being 60-70 years old. Their son works in the cellar with Francois as his assistant in the cellar, as well as with this domain. You can see the touch of what he has learnt in the wines, with incredibly purity of fruit. I was blown away when I first got to try their wines over whole lamb cooked over fire at Francois’ old cellar. Everything is done by hand with no chemicals used in the vineyard or cellar, no sulfites at all. The wines are brimming with energy - a real treat. Unfortunately there isn't a lot to go around.
DENISE ROSE 2021 £18
100% Cabernet Franc from very old vines. This unique one-off made in tiny batches is a perfect rose. Whole bunch pressed, then agedin vat for a year or so. Bright pink fruit, lovely acidity and freshness, perfect for the sun.
BOYAU ROUGE 2014 £23.50
100% Cabernet Franc from vines just very old vines on hard limestone. The fruit was destemmed and given around 3 weeks maceration. After ageing in barrel for around a year this has rested in bottle and we are delighted to grab some of the last available. Drinking wonderfully right now.
VENDOME, LOIR-SUR-CHER
ARIANE LESNE
Ariane Lesné worked as a retailer, then a wine agent, then made the move into producing her own wines after falling in love with natural wine over a bottle of Emile Heredia’s Les Verres Des Poets in Paris. She worked at an estate in Burgundy for 5 years, before taking the opportunity to take over the reins at Emile Heredia's estate when he put it up for sale,at the end of 2014. She worked with Emile for the first vintage, but is now ploughing her own furrow in this little appellation, one of the very few in France to have Pineau d’Aunis as it’s AOC red varietal. She works tirelessly in the vineyards, where old vines sit in flinty topsoils with a deeper limestone bedrock, they have been without chemicals since 1999.. In recent years with loss of fruit due to frost and other factors she has supplemented the estate wines with her negociant project Goutte a Goutte; young wines of freshness and fruit.
Goutte a Goutte: GAGA DE TOI ROSE 2022 £13.50
Produced from a direct press of 100% Pineau d’Aunis, from her own vines, then aged in tank for freshness. This pours the most delicate hue of peach, it’s mineral, with pink fruit, but dry - perfect summer drinking!
Goutte a Goutte: GAGA DE TOI ROUGE 2021 £14 MAGNUM £32
100% Gamay, half from Cedric Fleury in the Vendome and half from Domaine De Cambalu, down in Francueil. A three week whole bunch maceration, then aged in tank, this has a lovely spice to the bright red fruit and enough silky tannins to go down well at the barbecue.
Domaine De Montrieux: ITHYBOLE 2021 £18
In 2021 Ariane unfortunately lost most of her tiny Chenin parcel, so decided to make her Ithybole from a direct press of some of her Pineau d'Aunis vines, an old fashioned Gris d'Aunis. Given can extended 15 months ageing. It has wonderful minerality, and a haunting hint of the classic aunis fruit you'd expect in a red version. Unusual and delicious.
Domaine De Montrieux: PICROCHOLE 2021 £17 / £40
100% Pineau d’Aunis. 2021 was a tough vintage and Ariane lost a lot of fruit to mildew, so decided to combine the young and old vines into one wine. The cooler vintage has provided a wine that is drinking very well already with a lovely soft texture, herbal fruit that classic white pepper finish.
Domaine De Montrieux: GRANDGOUSIER 2020 £19.50
This remarkable Pineau d'Aunis is made from a patch of Ariane's oldest vines which date up to 120 years old. It's given a ten week whole bunch maceration before ageing in steel for 18 months. It's a beautifully dense, haunting expression of what has to be one of the most beguiling grape varietals, alive with herbs and the hallmark white pepper. Drinking exceptionally well now, but able to age wonderfully too.
MAREUIL-SUR CHER-LOIRE
LAURENT SAILLARD
Laurent has a deep restaurant background, spending 13 years in New York, opening Balthazar, before starting his own restaurant one of the first to focus on natural wine in the city. Eventually he decided he wanted to start producing himself, moving back to France, to the Loire valley, starting, working for other growers, principally Noella Morantin, starting to make his own wines on the side, When the historic Clos Roche Blanche vineyard came up for sale, he was offered it and because he didn't want the full 13.5 hectares bought it in conjunction with Julien Pineau. Now 8 years in, he has forged his own identity, using the fruit from this beautiful vineyard, walled by forest and organic since the 90's. It hasn't been plain sailing though, with frost an increasingly difficult issue and terrible vintages like the aforementioned 2021, he bought fruit from Domaine De Cambalu in 2020, a 17 hectare organic estate just 15 minutes down the road and has continued that relationship, which has provided him with some varietals he doesn't have on the estate, like Grolleau & Pineau d'Aunis.
YOU & ME 2023 £16.50
100% Chenin blanc bought from his friends at the organic estate Domaine De Cambal just down the road. Rounded, textured and mineral with plenty of ripe fruit, this is our favourite iteration of this wine so far.
BLANK 2023 £18
100% Sauvignon from 50 year old vines planted on Clos Roche Blanche. Pressed direct, then aged in 400l cuve. Balances the ripe fruit of the varietal with a lovely texture, minerality and length. Always a favourite.
SCARLETTE 2023 £17.50
100% Pineau d'Aunis given a whole bunch two week maceration before pressing and ageing in 15hl wooden vat for ten months. More length and depth than his popular Discute cuvee, frokm the older vines and longer maceration, this a wonderful example of this delicious varietal.
LA PAUSE 2023 £16.50
100% Gamay from the Roche Blanche estate, vines mostly 50+ years old. Laurent gave the grapes a two week whole bunch maceration, then pressed into 500l barrel and a 40hl wood vat. A really beautiful vintage for this wines with lovely silky red fruit, depth and elegance. Perfect in large format, with something grilled.
UN ETE PARTAGE 2023 £14.50
70% gamay/30% grolleau. Again destemmed and macerated for around a week. Silky dark red fruit, this is a beautiful blend, bright fresh and lovely lightly chilled, a great wine to reach for when the barbecue gets fired.
POUILLE, LOIRE
JULIEN PINEAU
Julien Pineau is now 7 years into his journey, having taken over the reins of Clos Roche Blanche with Laurent Saillard. 2021 was a crazy year, he moved his cellar to his house, just down the road from the vineyard, building a purpose built space. Coupled with this, 2021 was the most difficult vintage in memory, losing 90% of the fruit on the vineyard, this led Julien to purchase fruit from the south, around Provence, where he once worked. He hired a truck and took a team down to friends in the region.
ESTATE
LES SUCETTES A L'AUNIS 2022 £17.50
100% Pineau d'Aunis given a ten day whole bunch maceration. A much better vintage than the disastrous 2021, this has lovely soft fruit and a silky structure, with lot's of herbs and just a hint of white pepper.
COUP D'JUS 2019 £14.50
100% Cot from the Clos Roche Blanche. In 2019 Julien reduced the maceration on the Cot giving it just a week with very little extraction, aged 25% in barrel and 75% in inox tank. All the lovely dark red berry fruit you expect from the varietal but without the jammy heavy tannins you might expect from the varietal. Brilliant expression of the grape from very beautiful terroir.
COUFFY, LOIRE
CHRISTOPHE FOUCHER, LA LUNOTTE
La Lunotte is ran by the enigmatic Christophe Foucher, making very clean, pure and delicious wines always without additions in his tiny Chai in Couffy, near the Touraine river. He is permanently relaxed and certainly enjoys a good time, but his winemaking is very, very precise and farming impeccable. He’s been here since 2002 when he gave up work as an engineer and teacher. All of his wines are bottled without sulphur and are unfiltered and unfined. Vineyard work is led by 20 yers of experience, beyond organic, some biodynamic practises, he stopped spraying copper in 2018. Christophe is a master and we’re so happy to bring his wines to the UK.
HAUTS PLESSIS 2022 £15
100% Menu Pineau from 80+ year old vines. This rare varietal is prized locally and makes unique wines with a distinct minerality and focus. Christophe's is one of our favourite examples. Starting to drink well, but will be a wonder with a little bottle age.
ROSSIGNOUX 1 2022 £15
100% Sauvignon aged in barrel for a year then in tank for another. This is a classic vintage with beautiful ripe fruit balanced by a beautiful line of acidity and a slight oxidative note that is very well integrated. One of the best Sauvignon's you can drink.
ROSSIGNOUX 3 2020 £15.50
This 2020 Sauvignon was not topped up, resulting in an intriguing oxidative character which balances the ripe tropical fruit. A wine of length, depth and real power that as usual represents incredible value. Great food wine too.
ORMEAUX 2023 £15
This is 100% Gamay grown on clay, flint and silex soils near Christophe's cellar in Couffy. In the cooler vintage of 2023 he macerated the fruit whole bunch for about two weeks before pressing and ageing in tank.
It's another beautiful vintage of what is consistently one of our favourite red wines, with beautiful aromatics, bright fruit and surprising length.