Pierre Ménard came home to Anjou after working harvests at Château Latour, in the Douro, in Tokaj. He'd seen how the big boys do it. Then he carved out 1.5 hectares from his parents' 13-hectare cooperative operation and blazed his own trail.
The Clos des Mailles sits on the banks of the Layon, where schist meets blue-green veins of phthanite—a dark sedimentary rock shot through with quartz that only exists in Savennières and Coteaux du Layon. The oldest vines here date to 1920, the youngest to 1993. This wine is all biodynamic, all hand-harvested, all fermented with native yeasts in old barrels that ferment cold and slow until spring.
This IS NOT sweet Anjou. Ménard makes bone-dry Chenin that would make Huet and Foreau take notice. He does multiple passes through the vineyard, pulling out any botrytised grapes for a separate sweet bottling. What's left is pristine fruit that gets pressed all night—sometimes eight hours straight—then aged in 1-to-3-year-old barrels without racking.
The man draws his own labels, waxes and numbers every bottle by hand, and plays music to his fermenting wine. He's not trimming some rows just to see what happens. This is artisan winemaking at its most obsessive. Get in on the proverbial rez-de-chaussée.
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT
Cult Status: Domaine Belargus bottles go for $100+ if you can find it. Richard Leroy commands eye-popping sums. Ménard is working the same soils, same philosophy, same microscopic production—at a fraction of the price.
Insiders get it: San Francisco's savviest wine bar, owned by the Michelin-starred gurus of Quince, has this on the list. They know what's coming—Ménard is about to blow up.
100-Year-Old Vines on Phthanite: This isn't just old-vine Chenin. It's century-old roots drilling through blue quartz-veined schist that exists nowhere else on earth except this tiny corner of the Loire.
HOW TO SERVE IT
45-48°F. Big white Burgundy stems. This needs air—give it 20 minutes in the glass to tame that struck-flint reduction, which is catnip to so many of us.
Killer with raw oysters, grilled John Dory, or a simple roast chicken with lemon and thyme. Try it with aged Comté too.
Drink now through 2040. This wine has decades ahead of it.
