If you don’t know the name Pierre Ménard, it’s time to place your ear closer to the ground. In just a few vintages, this shot-out-of-a-cannon mastermind has soared into the elite tier of contemporary French wine, and today, his micro-cuvées are some of the Loire Valley’s hottest, rarest, most exciting biodynamic wines.
And I do mean “micro” in the truest sense of the word: From four hectares of old vines, he makes at least 10 cuvées, only half of which slip into America. Throughout his quiet yet meteoric rise, we’ve been able to secure a small per-annum allocation on a few cuvées, and are beyond thrilled to present his 2020 “Varenne de Chanzé.” Fermented dry and slowly aged in oak—some of which previously held Château Haut-Brion’s $1,000 Blanc—this noble wine does wonders in showcasing Chenin’s chameleonic complexities. It’s like a smokin’ Premier Cru Chablis with more exoticism, acid, flavor, depth…more everything. In short, this French phenom is delicious enough for funnel-to-mouth consumption while also being sneakily profound and age-worthy. One last note for all the Chenin cognoscenti out there: do not overlook the below bonus. Trust me on this one.
BONUS: We also have 30 bottles of Ménard’s super-rare ‘Quart des Noëls.’ This dry, powerful, intensely complex micro-cuvée hails from 100-year-old vines. One or two bottles can be purchased here.
After graduating from Angers’ prestigious school of agronomy, Pierre had his sights set on crafting wine, but not before traveling and further honing his craft in New Zealand, Canada, Hungary, Portugal, and none other than Pauillac’s Château Latour. When he returned home in 2013, his parents—who farm their own patchwork of vines and sell the crop to a local cooperative—gifted him a 0.2-hectare parcel of Chenin Blanc. He immediately went to work.
Pierre felt the region’s distinctiveness could best be conveyed through bone-dry whites. In his words, “Chenin with botrytis is a very good signature of a vintage, but dry Chenin is much more expressive of the place it comes from.” No doubt he’s onto something; Pierre is part of a movement in this little corner of the Loire—known as the “Anjou Noir” for its dark schist soils—where a cadre of legends-in-the-making focus primarily on dry wines. Today, he has quietly built up his domaine holdings to a “whopping” two hectares and now produces a wide and mesmerizing micro-cuvée range of (mostly) Chenin Blanc and Cab Franc.
Pierre took over the “La Varenne de Chanze” plot when he returned home, immediately converting farming to biodynamics. This steeply sloped vineyard was willed to him by his father’s uncle, and dark schist soils imbue the Chenin grown here with thrumming mineral freshness. Pierre harvests entirely by hand before a whole-cluster pressing, then racks the juice into a mixture of mostly used oak of various sizes and origins: 600L Austrian oak, a couple of foudres, a handful of 500L barrels, and 30 old barriques purchased from the one and only Château Haut-Brion. The wine naturally ferments and ages on its lees for approximately one year before blending and an unfined/unfiltered bottling.
With this marking the third vintage I’ve tasted, I’ve learned “La Varenne de Chanze” is an enthralling case study in the multifaceted complexities of Chenin Blanc. Blasted schist and quartzite rock, gorgeous swells of ripe fruit, and subtle savoriness are all here. It pours a glimmering straw-yellow with a greenish tint and booms with an entire orchard’s worth of fruit: green/yellow apple, grilled peach, Asian pear, apricot flesh, quince, and a vein of green citrus. After just 10 minutes of air, the palate delivers tense, mouthwatering layers of deep yellow fruit, smoky flowers, and a fusion of minerals and spice. It is a fascinating, sleek Chenin Blanc that ends with a dry, lengthy, animated finish. Enjoy now and over the next 3-5 years.
