From: Loire Valley, France
Blend: 80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Chardonnay
Taste: A blend of 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Chardonnay, delivering a wine featuring bright citrus aromas and complex mineral notes. Though this white wine blend is predominantly Sauvignon Blanc, the Chardonnay here shouldn’t be overlooked. In the glass, the aromas speak more to steely, mineral-driven Chardonnay with notes of sublimely fresh citrus, pear, and apple. The acidity and freshness of Sauvignon Blanc show more on the palate, with a nice minerality and a textured, zesty finish.
Pairing: This versatile white wine perfectly matches dishes that incorporate fresh ingredients. Some general pairing categories include seafood, salads, fresh produce, light poultry dishes, Japanese, Thai, or Vietnamese cuisine (go easy on the spice), and soft cheeses. More specific dishes we love are to pair this wine with ceviche, roasted cod and potatoes, fish or crab cakes, basil chicken or shrimp with fried rice, Vietnamese shrimp dumplings, shrimp risotto with peas (check out the recipe below), and either pasta or gnocchi with spring beans, peas, and mushrooms.
Shrimp Risotto With Peas
By Martha Rose Shulman
About. Many thanks to importer Louis Dressner for the following information!
Let us tell you how we met François Cazin. In the early 1990's, Joe Dressner and David Lillie (then working as the Loire buyer for Garnet Wine and Liquors) would travel each winter to attend the Salon des Vins de Loire. That fateful winter, the two had set out to find a producer from the recently created Cheverny appellation. Both started from opposite sides of the stand and tasted through every producer there. After comparing notes, the only wines both had truly enjoyed were François'. They approached him once more, this time together to ask if he'd be interested in having his wines imported to the United States. Here we are, nearly 30 years later and still working together.
Created in 1993, Cheverny is one of the most recent appellations in the Loire Valley. The area, south of the Loire and abutting the marshy region of Sologne (the best hunting grounds in France), has produced wines since the 6th century. The soils consist of various combinations of clay, limestone and silica. Many varietals are planted: Pinot Noir, Gamay, Cabernet and Côt for red wines, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin and Menu Pineau for the whites. Cazin tends vines of considerable age and the resulting yields are well below average in any given year. His Cheverny is fresh and floral, with appley-texture and crisp acidity. The flavors are sleek and precise. Since 1997, the wine has been bottled unfiltered by gravity. His wines have consistently been the top pick of the vintage at the annual Loire Valley wine show in Angers. By legislation, a Cheverny wine has to be a blend of varietals and Cazin’s white is 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Chardonnay.
Cazin also makes a cuvée of Cour-Cheverny, exclusively from the ancient local grape
Romorantin. This varietal, with its high acidity and minerality, can be angular and rough. But in the right hands, it achieves high ripeness and the wine has astonishing grapey, apricot and roasted nuts flavors, kept fresh and lively by good acidity. In very ripe vintages, when the grapes undergo passerillage or noble rot, Cazin vinifies some of his Romorantin off-dry, calling it "Cuvée Renaissance". A considerably smaller amount of red wine is also produced from Pinot Noir and Gamay.
This wine.
Country: France
Region: Loire
Color/Style: White
Grapes: 80% Sauvignon Blanc, 20% Chardonnay
SO2: During winemaking, at bottling
Soil Composition: Clay, Limestone
Farming: Sustainable
Age of vines: 30 years old
Exposure: Northeast
Fining/Filtration: Filtered, Unfined
Appellation: Cheverny
Winemaking: The grapes are direct pressed and each parcel is vinified individually in stainless steel. Elevage takes place in enamel lined and concrete tanks before being blended together prior to bottling. Small amounts of S02 are added at press, after malocatic fermentation and at bottling.