Winemaker Notes
Les Choisilles is a concentrated, powerful dry wine that often needs several years to develop.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This offers a core of pear, green fig and quince flavors that show incredible purity, framed by notes of bittersweet almond, sea salt and chalk, with hints of fennel and lime zest adding to the complexity. Vibrant acidity links all the elements and perfectly executes the rather savory, mouthwatering finish. Best from 2022 through 2033. 1,700 cases made, 97 cases imported.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From clay-silex soils topping the tuff bedrock, picked in several selective passages and vinified in demi-muids for 11 months, the 2018 Montlouis sur Loire Les Choisilles offers a pure, deep, fresh and flinty bouquet with ripe and elegant fruit. Full-bodied, intense and highly energetic on the palate, with perfectly ripe and concentrated pear and tropical fruit flavors and a crystalline yet dense texture, this is another impressive and sustainable Chenin from Chidaine's home appellation. The wine is remarkably deep, intense and complex yet also refined and stimulatingly saline on the finish. I'd keep it for at least another one or even two years before drinking, then this 2018 should be able to age for 15 years and more. From 30- to 90-year-old vines whose deep roots managed the challenges of the vintage brilliantly. Bottled in August 2019; tasted in March 2021. Rating : 91+
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
Praised for its stately Renaissance-era chateaux, the picturesque Loire valley produces pleasant wines of just about every style. Just south of Paris, the appellation lies along the river of the same name and stretches from the Atlantic coast to the center of France.
The Loire can be divided into three main growing areas, from west to east: the Lower Loire, Middle Loire, and Upper/Central Loire. The Pay Nantais region of the Lower Loire—farthest west and closest to the Atlantic—has a maritime climate and focuses on the Melon de Bourgogne variety, which makes refreshing, crisp, aromatic whites.
The Middle Loire contains Anjou, Saumur and Touraine. In Anjou, Chenin Blanc produces some of, if not the most, outstanding dry and sweet wines with a sleek, mineral edge and characteristics of crisp apple, pear and honeysuckle. Cabernet Franc dominates red and rosé production here, supported often by Grolleau and Cabernet Sauvignon. Sparkling Crémant de Loire is a specialty of Saumur. Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc are common in Touraine as well, along with Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay and Malbec (known locally as Côt).
The Upper Loire, with a warm, continental climate, is Sauvignon Blanc country, home to the world-renowned appellations of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Pinot Noir and Gamay produce bright, easy-drinking red wines here.