François Chidaine is one of the France’s most exciting white wine makers. It’s not hype – the wines are terrific and the winemaking approach is impeccable. Great vineyards managed biodynamically, ultra low yields and ‘hands off’ élevage are the order of the day here. As we have written before, Chidaine has achieved for Chenin what Didier Dagueneau achieved (and Benjamin Dagueneau has continued to achieve) with Sauvignon: wines of staggering texture and complexity. It gives you an idea of Chidaine’s standing in the Loire that when Benjamin Dagueneau wanted to gain experience as a younger man, he went to work with Chidaine.
Chidaine has caused a mini revolution in Montlouis - in many ways the contemporary history of Montlouis is the history of this young vigneron - with a clutch of winemakers now following in his steps. Such is the dynamism of this movement, that on a recent visit to Domaine Huet (Vouvray), Noel Pinguet joked that he wished he could swap appellations! One of the remarkable aspects of Chidaine is that despite his success, his prices remain remarkably fair. As the Schildnecht quote above suggests, these are some of the finest value great wines (not to mention authentic wines of terroir) on the market.
The wines:
Montlouis: Clos de Breuil (Dry): The fruit comes from a single 3 hectare site and vine age here varies from 30 to 90 years. The soil is clay and flint over a subsoil of limestone. Vines are trained both guyot and goblet (bush vine) at 6,600 vines per hectare (this is the typical planting density for all of Chidaine’s vineyards). The fruit is hand harvested with several ‘tris’ through the vineyard and the wine spends 11 months on fine lees in 620 litre demi-muids. Clos Habert (off-dry with between 15-20 g/l residual sugar) is a 3 ha site with clay and flint soils, 60-year old guyot and bush trained vines. Hand harvested with ‘tris’ with very low yields (24 hl/ht). Les Tuffeaux (off-dry) come from a blend of sites with vine age between 30-90 years. The soil is predominantly clay interspersed with silex over limestone. A combination of guyot-trained and bush vines, hand harvesting in ‘tris’ with yields under 40hl/ht. Again, eleven months on fine lees.
Vouvray: The Les Argiles Vouvray (Dry; literally, ‘the clay soils’) comes from several sites but principally from 40-year old bush vines, grown on deep clay with chalk over a subsoil of limestone. Again, the fruit is hand harvested in ‘tris’ and spends eleven months on fine lees. Clos Baudoin (Dry), a beautiful site with 70-year-old vines arguably represents Chidaine's greatest site. Like Huet's Clos du Bourg, Clos Boudoin would surely be one of the candidates for Grand Cru status in Vouvray, should such a classification ever be brought into existence. The soils here are clay and chalk, with a bedrock of deep tuffeau – Vouvray’s distinctive soft limestone. This mineral-rich rock imparts a distinctive chalk dust characteristic that is vividly mirrored in Chidaine’s wines from this site.
