There are people in life who you hang out with and feel energised and then there are others who suck your spirit - like the Death Eaters à la Harry Potter. The 2019 Touche Mitaine is thankfully the former. It is a...

(94+ points) Situated just 100 meters from the estate, the 2022 Sancerre Les Denisottes plot spans a modest 1.3 hectares of clay and calcareous soils known as “terres blanches” in Sancerre. Evoking a pure, delicate...

The 2015 L'Amiral is an impressive, savory, refined Cabernet Franc that is almost Bordeaux-like in its classicism. This cuvée is only made in what the producer deems to be an exceptional year, and then aged in barrel for...

Shows soft, supple chamomile and baked apple notes framed by pleasingly bitter tannins. A distinctive, earthy white, showing some evolution, with ground ginger, warm hay and spices infusing the broad palate, while citrusy...

The 2022 Le Mont Sec is a parcel of Chenin planted on clay with scattered flint, giving a certain tension to the style you certainly don't find in the come-hither Clos du Bourg. Its supple, concentrated core of fruit sits...

97+ Bottled just two weeks prior to my visit, the 2017 Chateau Grillet was still looking awfully good for having been fined, filtered and stuck into a confined space. It's a forward, opulent vintage, boasting flamboyant...

Faint aromas of roasted meat, almost animal, on the nose, but very pure impressions on the palate. All crystalline black fruits, with suggestions of minerality on the finish.

The 2022 Clos du Bourg Sec bottling from Domaine Huët is also a superb young wine. The wine’s aromatic constellation is classy and already shows enormous potential, wafting from the glass in a mix of ripe quince, apple, a...

The 2020 Château-Grillet knocks it out of the park. Vinified from just-ripe fruit harvested between the 26th and 31st of August, it dazzles with outstanding purity and complexity. Fragrant linden blossom, chamomile and...

A real burst of fresh apricot and peach, lemon verbena and green tea. This has the salt and power of Château-Grillet, the confit lemon peel on the finish, the salted nuts. Very full-bodied indeed, very rounded and long...

(96 - 98 points) I tasted three different components of the 2018 Chateau Grillet. First, from the top of the property, a round, lush, silky, long wine (94 - 96). Second, from just behind the château, a more exotic...

An elegant, firmly structured red, featuring fresh red currant, smoked meat and dusty herbs driven by salty, tangy acidity. Reveals crushed tobacco leaf and black tea that add nice range, with an iodine spine providing...

Ripe grapefruit and nettles on the nose, following through to a medium-bodied, silky palate, where the juice turns more lemony, though the light pithy grapefruit grip remains and, together with dry minerals gives a tight...

(97-98 points) The intensely yellow colored 2020 Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Première Trie is highly concentrated and complex on the nose that exhibits candied lemon zest and chutney aromas along with calcareous and walnut...

This lush, refined wine boasts lots of complexity, with pineapple chutney, yellow fig paste, verbena and heather notes that are edged with crystalized ginger, mango, cardamom and mineral elements. Beautiful and enticing...

This youthful Loire red has a touch of funk on the nose that slowly dissipates with aeration to reveal a wealth of red-berry fruit and some wild herbs. On the fresh, medium-bodied palate there’s plenty of depth and some...

An offbeat style, with good richness and concentration to the mirabelle plum, crushed apple, acacia and honeycomb flavors. Silky and broad on the palate, with citrus oil and serious herbaceousness weaving through. The...

Typically the last parcel to be picked by Cotat, the 2022 Cul de Beaujeu is a welcoming, open style. The merest hint of residual sugar (3g/l) is part of the roundness on the palate, but it's not sweet, merely smoothing...

This 2021 Le Mont Sec fills the mouth with pear, pineapple, nectarine and violet flavors. There's a sense of seduction and succulence through the middle of this wine. The flint and the coolness of the site seem to bring a...

The Fosse-Sèche 2019 Eolithe is absolutely beautiful again in its purity, freshness and iron-scented floral and fruity expression of violets and licorice as well as perfectly ripe cherries, cranberries, black and red...

A harmonious white, with vivid complexity, offering glazed yellow fig, persimmon and Bosc pear notes intertwined with ginger, chamomile, marzipan and heather details. Notes of spice and honeysuckle waft on the long...

The grand vin at this domaine, the clos in question is positioned next to the cellars, on the left bank of the Vienne. The vines, aged between 70 and 80 years, are rooted into the calcareous soils of the slope. This...

The 2017 Val de Loire Grolleau is intense and finely reductive on the more bloody and concentrated nose that offers dark, black fruit with tobacco and leathery flavors. Silky-textured, round and sweet on the palate, this...