Montlouis Les Bournais (Sec) 2023
Montlouis Les Bournais (Sec) 2023
AC, François Chidaine, 750 ml
A gem from the Loire
- A Chenin Blanc with character, depth and ageing potential.
- A complex interplay of flavours, juicy and concentrated, with a hint of minerality and a lovely finish.
- Pairs well with fish, seafood, creamy sauces and goat’s cheese au gratin.
Description
With Les Bournais, François Chidaine impressively demonstrates why he is considered one of the great Chenin Blanc winemakers of the Loire. The grapes come from a first-class plot in Montlouis-sur-Loire, whose tuffeau limestone lends the wine its distinctive character. Vinified as a dry wine, it combines precision with depth and a delicate tension. On the nose, thyme and a hint of mint meet candied pineapple. With a little air, the wine continues to open up, revealing new facets. On the palate, it is juicy and concentrated, with subtle spice, lively acidity and lovely length. A Chenin Blanc with plenty of character and the potential to become even more complex over the years. It makes for an elegant and exciting accompaniment to fish and seafood, poultry or creamy dishes. Vegetarians will particularly appreciate pairing it with gratinated goat’s cheese or Camembert.
Wines for Autumn's Golden Days
Perfect for autumn cuisine and cosy moments: benefit from a 15% price advantage on our autumn wine selection until 31 October 2026, whilst stocks last.
Attributes
| Grape variety: | Chenin Blanc |
| Producer: | François Chidaine |
| Origin: | France / Loire / Touraine |
| Other vintages: | 2022 |
| Label: | Certified organic or biodynamic wine with no declaration on the label |
| Ripening potential: | 2 to 15 years |
| Drinking temperature: | 10 to 12 °C |
| Food Pairing: | Grilled fish, Fresh water fish with cream sauce, Scaloppine di vitello al limone, Goat's cheese, Coquilles Saint Jacques on lentils |
| Vinification: | soft pressing |
| Harvest: | hand-picking with simultaneous grape sel |
| Maturation: | partly in steel tank, partly in wooden barrel/foudre, on the yeast, bâtonnage |
| Volume: | 13.0 % |
| Note: | Contains sulphites |
Chenin Blanc
Small area, great variety
The Chenin blanc now grows on just one percent of French vineyards. But its wines are immensely diverse. The homeland of this grape is the Loire Valley. There it muscles into the light-footed frothers of Saumur and Vouvray. The vintners of Bonnezeaux and Quarts-de-Chaume process them into beguilingly sweet wines. And in Savennières it yields dry whites with mineral cores and great aging potential. They smell of apple, honey and fresh straw, and show great body and a stimulating acidity. The world's largest area of Chenin blanc is in South Africa, where it landed in the mid-17th century with Dutch traders. The most exciting wines result from old vines drawn from traditional bush forms.
Loire
Loire: the regal wine river
The French refer to the river landscape of the Loire simply as “the garden of France.” It is no wonder that kings and the nobility built their magnificent chateaux here. At the same time, the Loire is a highly varied wine river. From Pouilly-sur-Loire in the east, to Nantes at the river’s outlet, into the Atlantic, the vineyards follow the river's course and yield highly distinctive wines from varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Muscadet and the red Cabernet Franc..
France
France – Philosophy in a bottle
According to French philosophy, wine should be an expression of the soil and climate. They use the word “terroir” to describe this. Terroir makes every wine different, and many especially good. French wine is regarded worldwide as an expression of cultural perfection. The French believe that humans are responsible for the quality of the berries, the vine variety for their character, and nature for the quantity. This philosophy can be expressed succinctly as: “the truth is the vineyard, not the man.”
