Visiting the Loire's Saumur for the first time, the idyllic, undulating hills perfectly matched my notion of pastoral France, but I didn't have a clue where to spot the grand terroir. Since the middle ages, the hill of Brézé was esteemed as any white wine terroir in France, but the secret was in the bedrock of this unassuming, gentle slope.

The famed tuffeau limestone is the backbone of France's single most celebrated Chenin Blanc, Clos Rougeard's Brézé bottling, which often surpasses $400 per bottle. However, Romain Guiberteau's wines offer the ultimate intersection between this appellation's brilliance and value. Having mentored under the Foucault family, he's learned the secrets to capturing Chenin at its most crystalline and pure!

The Guiberteau family has farmed Saumur's hill of Brézé for more than a century, but it was when Romain began implementing critical changes in farming that quality began to soar. Unlike neighboring appellations, where Chenin Blanc's rounded, overt orchard fruit dominates, the alkaline limestone soils in Saumur bring cut and lacy minerality, sharing more in common with Chablis and Champagne.

Shop Domaine Guiberteau