Around here, we don’t take $60 bottles of wine lightly, but when it’s limited access to a small-scale, biodynamic, profoundly textured Loire Valley white that rivals legend Nicolas Joly, it’s a purchase that must be made. Whether it’s in Savennières or SommSelect, Eric Morgat has become a buzzed-about sensation in record time, both for his deeply special raw material and consistently exceptional winemaking.
Although custodian to just six hectares, a coveted slice of that lies in the renowned, should-be-Grand cru “Roche-aux-Moines” where he works Chenin magic alongside a star-studded cast that includes, you guessed it, Nicolas Joly. But today’s 2015 “Fidès” isn’t just close in terms of vine proximity: Like Joly, Morgat’s wines pulse with insane power and palpable energy, all while delivering über-classic Chenin character and superb richness. I’d even add that “Fidès” isn’t merely a superlative wine from Savennières—it’s one I’d confidently put on a table next to France’s very best whites, and that includes the top Grand Crus of Burgundy. So yes, today’s mindbending, deeply layered, bone-dry Chenin is well worth the splurge for those who love to acquire serious wine, whether it costs $60 or $600. Note: there is never much that finds its way to our shores, so grab up to six bottles while you can!
“Fidès” means faith, or trust, and Morgat gave his wine this name as an homage to the monastic winemaking tradition that once defined Savennières. It might also describe his own heroic efforts to assemble his small domaine, which he did mostly by purchasing and then restoring, by hand, parcels that had been either neglected or abandoned. He is a devoted Chenin Blanc specialist—all his six hectares are planted to the variety—and his vineyards have been Certified Organic since 2007 (Biodynamic since 2012). In addition to his half-hectare vineyard in “Roche aux Moines,” Morgat uses fruit from three other distinct sites, all of them mostly on schist soil, to construct Fidès: “Le Clos Ferrard” (where he has an experimental Chenin Blanc nursery planted); “La Pierre Bécherelle” (a vineyard that had been fallow for decades before Morgat revived it); and his two-hectare “L’Enclos” vineyard, from which he also bottles a single-vineyard wine.
Savennières is a small appellation, with less than 200 hectares under vine and about 30 commercial wine producers. Morgat, who grew up in a winemaking family across the Loire in the Côteaux du Layon region, first started making Savennières in 1995. His wines display the rich character of the appellation, are harvested at shockingly low yields, and are fermented/aged in (mostly used) French oak. Whereas many wines from this appellation have a pronounced bruised fruit/oxidative quality, the 2015 Fidès doesn’t focus on that—instead, you’ll get lost in its constant push-pull of vibrancy and lushness.
Ask wine critic John Gilman who he gravitates toward when it comes to Loire Valley Chenin and it’s no competition: “To my palate, no one makes finer Savennières these days than Eric Morgat.” And while we have a long-held affinity for the likes of Joly and Roche-aux-Moines, it’s still hard to argue otherwise. As we wrote for last year’s 2014 offering, the tasting notes on the ‘15 are as much about texture as aroma/flavor: It has the fruit concentration and layers of a serious white Burgundy but a laser-beam of sky-high acidity to lift it up like top GG Riesling. Truly, Chenin Blanc has a seemingly magical ability to be weighty and weightless at the same time. Given at least a 60-minute decant, the nose reveals racy notes of yellow peach skin, sliced Anjou pear, Meyer lemon, crushed stone, white flowers, chamomile, lanolin, honeycomb, and stirred lees. On the palate, this is a classic, bone-dry, high-impact Chenin that reveals luxurious textures of bruised, waxy/woolly orchard fruits and pineapple that is masterfully balanced by mouthwatering acidity, pulverized minerals, and exotic spices. I recommend savoring slowly over 3-4 hours and storing your remaining bottles in a dark, cool place for future consumption around 2022-2025. Cheers!
