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Organic. In 2021, this bottling sports the Thierry Germain name instead of the domaine label because it contains purchased fruit to supplement the usual source, where yields were dramatically reduced. Over the years, this white has emerged as one of the Loire Valley's purest and most exciting Chenin Blancs, and this edition is no different. L'Insolite's fruit traditionally comes from two densely planted vineyards on clay and limestone soils riddled with sandstone and flint. These lieux-dits—Les Cerpes and Saint-Vincent—lie close to the town of Saumur, where the oldest vines are now 90 years old.
Germain presses the whole bunches long and slow before the juice naturally ferments in 1,200-litre Austrian (Stockinger) ovals and 600-litre casks (ex-Alphonse Mellot). The wine rests on fine lees, slowly building texture for another 12 months before bottling. Germain thinks of this wine as the Loire's answer to German Riesling, hence the name, which means 'unusual'. The cooler 2021 season has gifted a scintillating L'Insolite: a wine of laser-like focus with racy, grapefruit-charged flesh entwined with a nip of reduction and salty bite. It drinks like excellent young Chablis.