Located due east from the mountain vineyards of Gigondas, Martinelle combines an organic focus with a fiery passion in wines that speak honestly of the land’s beauty and of endless pleasure. Each bottle captures the deep, savory flavors of southern grapes while remaining lively and vivacious, just like the cool mistral winds that whip through the countryside in the heat of the northern Provençal summer.
Wines from Le Clos du Caillou are Rhône blends at their most intense. Concentrated and richly textured, these organically raised, older-vine wines capture the spice and silk of old-vine Grenache grown on the region’s finest terroirs. Each wine too reflects the native perfumes of the south, the “garrigue” blend of thyme, rosemary and lavender that grows wild among the estate’s vines.
In the 1960s, Antonin Faravel began to carve his vineyards out of the crumbling stone cliffs of the Dentelles de Montmirail (pictured on the family’s wine labels). He knew that the cooler temperatures and rocky soils would produce perfectly ripe grapes, with better acidic balance and lower alcohol, too. While other winemakers quickly followed Antonin’s lead, Domaine la Bouïssiere without question is the original, high-altitude Gigondas.
The Vacherons are without question Sancerre’s leading winemaking clan. From the family’s pioneering work in identifying and exploiting the region’s top terroirs to their leading position in biodynamic viticulture today, there are few if any artisans in Sancerre as exacting or as respected.
Of all our Loire selections, there are few wines that express the thirst-quenching kick of the region’s mineral-rich terroir better than does Jacky Preys’ Fié Gris “Terroir Pierre à Fusil.” In French, pierre à fusil means gunflint. Touraine was a center for gunflint production during the Napoleonic era. The region’s flint-rich soils infuse grapes with a vibrant, nervous energy that is translated as a whiff of smoke in the wine’s perfumes and in crisp and clean, citrus-inspired flavors.
The petite village of Sury-en-Vaux, northwest of Sancerre, is our secret source of extraordinarily character-rich Loire wines. Winemaker Jean-Marc Pastou for some 30 years has followed a singular calling, to make the most honest and terroir-true Sancerre his few acres will give.
Violet-scented, smooth as silk and tangy: the most satisfying Cabernet Franc wines hail from the cellars of Domaine de Noiré in Chinon. Winemaker Jean-Max Manceau, a Chinon native, has long been a champion of the region’s reds, and his own wines are the standard for the heights Chinon can achieve.
Tressallier is the source of one of France’s oldest, rarest and most vibrant whites, and Domaine Nebout is the artisan family behind one of the most expressive, pure Tressallier wines. Tressallier combines the delicious tension of premier cru Chablis with the chalky notes characteristic of Loire Valley Sauvignon in a wine that is bone dry, vibrantly flavored and invigorating.
As taut as a violin bow string or as lush as a symphonic finale—there are few grapes as deliciously varied in temperament as is Chenin Blanc from Vouvray. Domaine de Margalleau, with four generations of winemakers dedicated exclusively to Chenin Blanc, is the source of Vouvray’s most expressive examples of this native grape, whether bone dry, semi-sweet or sparkling.
A natural pair with fresh seafood, Muscadet too is still one of the great values in white wine, as even the top bottles from the region’s best terroirs—like our old-vine selection from Domaine de la Grenaudière—are more than affordable.