Charme Du Loire Chenin Blanc 2018 Jean Pierre Robinot
Jean Pierre Robinot, a highly sensitive visionary non-conformist craftsman, is considered to be the father of the natural wine movement in the Loire and throughout France, as he founded the first natural wine shop in Paris, before his return to the Loire where he began producing his wines. His will has always been to produce wines far from fashions and approvals, indeed simple interpreters of nature and the terroir of the Loire, his beloved land. This "Charme" Du Loire 2018 is an original reinterpretation of Chenin Blanc. Natural white wine, produced only with Chenin blanc grapes from 30-40 year old vines grown in Chahaignes, the small birthplace of Robinot, with a biodynamic approach based on plant infusions and small quantities of copper. Thanks to the ocean breezes and the good temperature variations from day to night, the grapes grow healthy and intact. All forms of chemistry are prohibited in the vineyard, the same applies to the cellar: no to such as filtrations, clarifications and addition of sulphites, spontaneous fermentations with indigenous yeasts without temperature control. Refinement takes place in used barriques, located inside the cellar carved into the rock. Robinot's Charme wine is a poetic and vital portrait of the south-western Loire Valley. It has a beautiful golden yellow color, impenetrable and with the presence of suspended particles, due to the absence of filtration processes. The nose is dynamic with a bouquet of citrus fruits, officinal herbs, citrus notes, dried fruit and light iodine essences. The sip is of great elegance and structure, refined and subtle, with aromas that continue to change in the glass after some time in contact with oxygen. A sublime version of Chenin Blanc.
REGION: Loire Valley (France)
GRAPES: 100% Chenin blanc
VINIFICATION: Spontaneous alcoholic fermentation with indigenous yeasts and slow maceration on the skins. Biodynamic agriculture Aging 24 months in used barriques.
Natural Wines: the philosophy behind winemaking
Natural wine does not mean only without the addition of sulphites, it means working according to the ancient winemaking traditions with sulfur and copper in the vineyard, based on the effort of manual labor, the least interventionist activities possible letting the cycles of Nature do most of the work up to vinification of grape juice as it is, without any substances if not its own. The result of all this production philosophy is natural wine, a non-standardized wine that best expresses its identity, its terroir and its most intrinsic characteristics. Natural wines are much more difficult to produce than wines to which we are traditionally accustomed, because when there is no type of help from the use of balancing substances and support for winemaking, wine cannot be a way of putting: or is it good or bad. Natural wine was born as the commitment of the natural artisan winemakers to raise their product to the standardization of the taste and identity of the wine and the vineyard which, thanks to the widespread use of chemistry and new technologies, now leads to products with always the same flavors, regardless of the production area or the type of cultivation used. Biodynamic wine or natural wine, on the other hand, tends to enhance its identity, its essence, diversifying itself thanks to the exclusive organoleptic qualities that the precise terroir of belonging provides to the host grapes and which can only be expressed thanks to activities that do not intervene on the cultivation and winemaking processes.