Chidaine's Pétillant comes from 100% estate-grown Chenin Blanc, now from a range of Chidaine's chalkier sites in Vouvray. François arrests the primary fermentation when the wine has between 14 and 16 g/L of residual sugar, so he does not need to add sugar for the secondary fermentation in bottle. The wine is dry (no dosage), mouth-watering and crunchy with Bosc pear, ripe apple skin and a savoury, sappy energy and freshness. It is low pressure (2.5 bars) and therefore only gently sparkling in the true pétillant style. Aged on lees for 36 months before disgorgement, this is a great bargain for lovers of quality grower Champagne. In sum, a beautifully vibrant, pure, long and mineral wine that begs to be used during a meal—not to mention before and after!

Chidaine’s Montlouis Brut Nature is made from old-vine, biodynamically farmed, hand-harvested fruit cropped at a very low 35 hectolitres per hectare (a figure almost unheard of in Champagne). To be specific, this zero-dosage Montlouis is 100% Chenin Blanc from the flinty (perruches) sites of Le Volagray and Les Landes, as well as the clay- and limestone-dominant (aubuis) sites of Clos Renard and Les Epinais. Chidaine picks his grapes for sparkling wine at around 11.5 to 12.5 degrees of potential alcohol (i.e. flavour-ripe) as he wants his terroir to shine through. The base wine is wild-fermented in old, 620-litre barrels.

This release offers wonderful aromas and flavours of green apple, pistachio, baking spice and white flowers. Again, the palate is engagingly vinous, with a creamy texture shot through with saline energy and spicy complexity. The finish tapers to a long, grippy, mineral-infused close—something seldom encountered in Chenin-based sparkling wines. There’s so much to love here, and what value for a world class sparkling wine!

The last time we offered a back vintage of Chidaine’s exceptional sparkling was with the 2005, which arrived in 2018. That wine was a revelation; we were not aware that Chidaine was bottle-aging a parcel of his Montlouis brut. The 2008, from a year François describes as exceptional for his sparkling wines (and for Champagne, by the way), is even better.

Chidaine is widely acknowledged in France as one of the Loire Valley’s great sparkling-wine craftsmen, not least by Benjamin Dagueneau (who enlisted Chidaine’s help when trialling his own sparkling). This wine goes some way to explaining the accolade. It’s a pure, complex and elegant release that expresses the chalky terroir of its origin through an abundance of salty, marine and truffle aromas and flavours. The palate is still firmly structured, with great purity and persistent minerality. Grab some while it lasts! 

Settled on a limestone plateau above the Loire, the chalky soils of Les Bournais would not be out of place on Vouvray’s Première Côte (home to Clos de Bourg and Le Mont). Unlike most of Montlouis—which is on clay and flint—this four-hectare vineyard is on a pocket of clay and Bournais limestone, from which it takes its name. Planted in 1998, the vines gently follow the contours of the land, right to the edge of a chalky precipice. The roots have just 35 centimetres of clay soils to burrow through before hitting the limestone bedrock, perhaps one reason we always see a distinctive smokiness in the aromas of these wines.

When tasted alongside the Clos de Breuil and Les Choisilles cuvées, this is clearly an altogether more ‘Vouvray’ expression of Montlouis, with a powdery, chalky structure that reflects its soils and location. Chidaine now raises this wine in a single 1,000-litre untoasted oval made specifically for this wine. It’s hard to say what effect this will have on its evolution, but one thing is for sure: the new vintage is a hair-raiser. François Chidaine seldom comments on his wines during a tasting, but here he broke with tradition: “I like it a lot”. Translation: Buy what you can. This is a sensational Loire Chenin of exceptional intensity and length of flavour, humming with energy and chalky, limestone cut.

Off-dry. This gorgeous, pulpy Chenin Blanc is drawn from the second, later pickings across a range of Chidaine’s old Chenin plots (including the Clos du Volagray, Saint-Martin and Les Grillonnières) that have stony soils which are heavy in yellow limestone, or tuffeau. These vines range in age from 30 to 90 years and are always cropped at tiny yields. The wine fermented with native yeasts, then matured in 620-litre demi-muids for 10 months.

François Chidaine does not produce this cuvée every year; when he does, it’s a case of run, don’t walk. It ended up with 10 g/L residual sugar (low for this wine—the 2020 has 14.8 g/L), which is rendered almost imperceptible by the balancing mineral and saline energy that runs like an arrow through the palate. Again, expect great length, intensity and pulpy succulence over a mouthwatering mineral backbone. It sings on its own or with some charcuterie but will take you to another realm when paired with southeast Asian flavours and textures.

Most readers will already know that although this wine is grown in Vouvray, it is not permitted to bear that name because it ferments and matures across the river in Montlouis. It is therefore labelled Vin de France, a change in circumstance that has not bothered Chidaine’s clients one jot.
As always, this magnificent bottling is drawn from a series of clay-rich (argiles) Vouvray sites that surround the Clos Baudoin. These include L’Espagnole, La Chatterie, L’Homme, Les Reugnières and Le Haut Lieu (of Huet fame). Set away from the river, these sites are mostly populated with 40-year-old bush vines, which grow on deep, chalky clay over a limestone subsoil. All these vineyards are managed biodynamically and with regenerative agriculture. Les Argiles is hand-harvested with multiple passes through the vineyards. Fermentation occurs with indigenous yeasts and the wine ages on lees in 620-litre demi-muids for about 11 months.

Manuela Chidaine described 2016 as a “vintage from hell”. Stemming from the severe frost that blanketed the central Loire on 27th April, this domaine lost an astonishing 90% of its forthcoming crop. By harvest time, this translated to an average yield of 5 hl/ha. As such, the domaine could only realise four cuvées from their Montlouis/Vouvray vineyards. This delicious moelleux is one wine that made the cut.

The wine is a blend of strictly sorted, late-harvested and botrytised grapes culled from parcels in Montlouis and Vouvray (hence the Vin de France appellation). It was raised for 11 months in used 600-litre barrels and bottled unfiltered. Ending up with just 35 g/L residual sugar, it is a glorious riot of quince, citrus oils and roasted pineapple bound by scintillating freshness and fabulous length of flavour. There’s also some serious complexity on the crunchy finish by way of grapefruit, smoke and spice nuances. It’s a wine to excite a top Mosel producer!

Chidaine's rare vins liquoreux are made exclusively from botrytised fruit, making them the richest and sweetest wines in the portfolio. Unlike in Vouvray, the conditions required to grow this rare style of Montlouis come around once in a blue moon. The last time we shipped this cuvée was from 2009, when it was called Les Lys. It is a multi-site blend from three vineyards that are picked over successive passes. It fermented with native yeasts and matured in demi-muid. The 2020 stopped fermenting with just over 100 g/L residual sugar, yet it remains a vibrant and wonderfully balanced wine. When called on, Chidaine is a master of this style; in short, it is a remarkably delicious, layered and complex wine, as the review below makes clear.

If the Domaine’s Montlouis vin liquoreux is a rare bird, its counterpart from Vouvray is rarer still. As fans of Domaine Huet will attest, 2009 was a sensational year in the Loire for our growers’ sweet styles, and the apple has not fallen far from the tree here. Crafted from hand-selected botrytised grapes from L’Espagnole and L’Homme, this incredible and complex wine fermented at snail's pace for well over a year (I can’t remember exactly) until it finished with 130 g/L of residual sugar.

Finally released after 13 years in Chidaine’s cellar, it’s oozing brightness and energy. A kaleidoscope of flavours and textures unfolds in the glass with roasted peach drizzled with honey, candied apricot and a procession of invigorating citrus and spice, all underscored by botrytis grip and herbal freshness. Tinged with truffle and saffron complexity, the finish is endless.