As one of our former colleagues might say, the drive from Mountlouis to Les Quatre Piliers is not too shabby. You are hugging the Cher tributary, and as you veer southeast, away from the Loire River, you’re soon driving through those majestic tree-lined roads that crop up everywhere in French historical dramas and tourism brochures. Legend has it that Napolean started these sun-dappled boulevards so his troops could march in the shade. Regardless, before long, we’re passing the Château de Chenonceau, one of the jewels of French Renaissance architecture. Then there are the ruins of the 11th-century Château de Montrichard and signs for the Cave des Roches, the limestone caves that have been supplying Michelin-quality mushrooms since 1893. But as wine hunters, it’s the future, not the past, that we’re searching for. Touraine—and we’re talking about the appellation rather than the sprawling region that stretches from Chinon to Valençay in the west—has long been known for the quality of its food. Cereals, legumes and vegetables thrive in this area’s fertile soils, while Limousin cattle graze on the lusher riverside meadows. Grape growing, too, is not difficult to spot, even if very few aspirational growers have arisen on the slopes of this pocket of the eastern Loire.We’re here to visit Valentin Desloges, a young grower in the pretty riverside village of Noyers-sur-Cher who has been raved about by impeccable sources as one of the Loire’s hottest talents. Valentin worked with soul brothers Raphaël Coche (Coche-Dury) and Thierry Pillot (Domaine Paul Pillot) before returning home to take control of his father’s vines. His first vintage was 2020. There are currently 10 hectares in play, split evenly between the Cher’s right and left banks. In Noyers-sur-Cher, Valentin works with five hectares planted to Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Pineau d’Aunis and Chenin Blanc. The cool, shallow terroir in the lieu-dit Les Puits aux Chiens features flinty, sandy white clay over limestone. On the river’s left bank at Saint-Aignan, a second terroir has older vines and red clay soils (again over limestone). It gives Desloges his top single-vineyard wines: Bel Air from Sauvignon and Au dessus de Vitré from Cabernet Franc. In some ways, not least the remarkable quality of his Sauvignon wines, Valentin’s story reminds us of Didier Dagueneau, whom we first met not far away 20 years ago. Like Dagueneau when he started, Desloges is a driven young maker—headstrong even—heavily influenced by great growers in other regions, particularly Burgundy. Like Dagueneau, he returned home to an area not known for greatness. And again, like that great man, Desloges proceeded to farm at the highest level and work ultra-precisely in the cellar to produce wines of a quality far surpassing anything seen before in the region.Valentin’s winemaking would not look out of place in the more progressive cellars of the Côte d’Or. He micromanages the pressing to obtain the most balanced juices possible. He is experimenting with whole bunches for his Pineau d’Aunis and Pinot Noir, but the reds are mostly destemmed. They ferment slowly with indigenous yeasts in stainless-steel tanks before aging in older casks sourced from Burgundy and Bordeaux. The whites are pressed as whole bunches and ferment and age in the same oak barrels. In the near future, Valentin hopes to use only his own barrels, made from oak staves personally sourced from the nearby Loches forest and aged in-house. All the wines are bottled without filtration. Without exaggeration, Valentin’s Sauvignon reminds us strongly of the great man mentioned above (and his son). Intense but nuanced, they are post-varietal wines of great intensity and finesse. The red wines are no less exciting. As a range, Desloges’ wines are a revelation—without doubt, already a reference for this beautiful area. Tasting them for the first time and seeing the work behind the wines gave us that wonderful buzz we can’t get enough of.