Savennières, Bel Ouvrage, Damien Laureau - 2016

In terms of the Chenin grape variety, if there is one Loire appellation with an age-old reputation, capable of producing long-keeping vintages, likely to become more complex over many years and to rival the greatest whites of Burgundy, it is Savennières, where there are of course the long-established estates, including the mythical Coulée de Serrant, the Domaine aux Moines and others. But there is also a generation of young, ambitious and hyper-talented winemakers, who have developed a new aesthetic of wines, which has since been celebrated by the world's critics and has received top marks in the guides. Like his colleague and friend Richard Leroy, who had experienced more or less the same adventure a few years earlier, Damien Laureau decided to take over a winegrowing and arboricultural estate in Sainte-Gemmes-Loire in 1999 after having worked for two years in a Parisian company. The adventure lasted until the autumn of 2006, when the fruit growing was abandoned, as well as part of the vineyard, in AOC Anjou. Damien then refocused on the vineyards of Savennières and the mythical Roche-aux-Moines. Today, the estate has about 8.5 hectares and started its organic conversion in 2009. It was certified with the 2012 vintage. Cultivating the vines without synthetic products allows to maintain the life in the soil at its optimum in order to obtain the truest possible expression of the...