Description
Château de l’Éperonnière, Savennières “Croix Picot”
Say the word “Savennières” in a room full of sommeliers—no matter how many are or where their personal tastes may run—and I guarantee they’ll all picture the same thing: Chenin Blanc at its driest, most singularly mineral, and longest-lived best. It’s the Loire Valley equivalent to Burgundy’s Puligny-Montrachet, a region whose heights-scaling examples of a single variety are so quintessential they’ve come to define the variety itself. Unfortunately for the sommeliers in that room, many Savènnieres that live up to the name have seen similar price increases.
Today, we have access to one of the few remaining anomalies: “Croix Picot” from Château de l’Éperonnière. It’s an impeccable bottling made by one of the great Chenin Blanc families in the Loire, and it somehow comes in at less than $40. Oozing with bruised orchard and citrus fruits, this powerful yet wildly refreshing white resonates with sculpted schist minerality that sets it up for 5+ years of aging. In short, this rare treat is the Chenin version of getting to drink Puligny back when it was priced this low—and we all know what happened to those prices…
PLEASE NOTE: This wine is only available as a pre-offer. It will be arriving at our warehouse in 2-3 weeks.
Just what makes Savennières so special? For one, it’s minuscule, with less than 150 hectares under vine. And then there’s its distinctive terroir: to the east, the Loire’s other Chenin hotspots Vouvray and Montlouis lie over famed limestone “tuffeau” soils. But as a subzone of the Anjou region, Savennière’s vines plunge their roots into schist and volcanic earth. The resulting wines are imbued with more texture, weight, and density, paired with a particularly chiseled, electric minerality. It’s simply the most filigreed expression of Chenin you can have, and today’s offering is a thrilling example. The “Croix Picot” vineyard is almost entirely schist, hard on the banks of the Loire, rendering a rigorous and textured expression of this noble variety.
Château de l’Éperonnière is run by the Tijou family, one of the great Chenin dynasties of the Anjou. The Tijous first rose to prominence as the proprietors of the Château Soucherie, a hallmark estate producing world-class Chenin in every style imaginable. But in the early 2000s, owner Pierre-Yves Tijou fell ill and was forced to sell off the property and “downsize.” He and his son Mathieu took over Château de l’Éperonnière just down the road and have never looked back. Mathieu is now in charge, able to focus intensely on every detail of the modestly sized property. Farming is strictly organic and yields are kept very low for maximum concentration, and once the fruit arrives in the cellar, fermentations progress spontaneously in neutral French barriques. Following 12 months of maturation, the wines undergo a light filtration before bottling.
Treat “Croix Picot” as you would white Burgundy, chilled to around 50 degrees and served in all-purpose stems. It pours a vivid straw with hints of green and silver, and the nose sings with pitch-perfect Chenin beauty. Poached pear, bruised green apple, quince, lemon meringue, chamomile, waxy wool, and pulverized stone pour forth. The palate leads with more bruised orchard fruit and a wonderfully opulent texture before a wave of rocky, almost smoky minerality brings together a snappy finish. It’s mouth-coating yet piercing, complex and heady yet refreshing, and among the best examples of Savennières that can be found for such a friendly price. Cheers!
