One Loire red–and a very inexpensive one–that gets little mention on this board is Guion. I hesitate to mention it here since it already tends to sell out with lightning speed. But I have a question about the cuvee names. If you look on the domaine’s wine site, they have three cuvees: Authentique, Candide and Deux Monts. I see the Deux Monts in the US, but the two other cuvees I mostly see are the Cuvee Domaine and the Cuvee Prestige. I would guess these correspond Candide and Authentique, but I don’t know. Does anyone have information?
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Guion has been mentioned in the big Loire Cab Franc threads. I have found the Cuvee Domaine to generally be an excellent value. I like it better than certain other more lauded producers basic bottlings. Its just a great value even without comparisons.
I do not know about the names. Maybe there has been a recent renaming of the bottlings?
My wife and visited the domaine in May last year and had an amazing tasting and tour with Stephane. He explained that prior to 2009 he had two wines: Domaine and Prestige. Thereafter the Domaine became the Candide and the Prestige was split into two different wines, Authentique and Deux Monts. Candide includes vines less than 30 years old and is stainless steel for 6 months. Authentique comes from 30 to 70 year old vines and is in stainless steel for 11 months and barrel for 2 months. Deux Monts represents the best selection and comes from 70 to 80 year old vines. It spends 12-18 months in barrel, depending on vintage. My notes indicate one new barrel and one older 400 liter barrel, for an estimated 25% new oak exposure.
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Interesting. I saw Guion last summer at a couple of natural wine bars out here in SF, and I remember them labeled as Domaine and Prestige (they are imported by Percy Selections out here).
It could be in the U.S. market, they are still using the old names for Candide and Authentique.
Funny side note Jonathan: my buddy, who is a self-proclaimed, unironic fan of “Parkerized, heavily oaked Napa fruit bombs” (his words), had a taste of the Prestige at the wine bar near me and loved it so much he bought a couple of bottles to bring home with him.
I’m slowly converting him away from the dark side (granted, I think he had the '18, so probably a good vintage for his palate).
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I have 2019 Domaine and 2018 Prestige in my cellar. I’m guessing the name change may have been in 2019 or so.
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That could be re. the US market. The other possibility is that our notes were slightly off. Stephane speaks primarily French, so our visit was in French. I don’t speak more than a few words, so my wife was both translating for me and taking copious notes…it’s possible he said 2019 or something.
I was writing as you posted…sounds like a translation error on our part 
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Indeed, The Prestige became Authentique in 2019
A staple of the garagiste offerings, as you may know.
I’ve really loved these wines in the past. Really soulful, character-driven wines with a lot of quality for not a lot of cash. It’s been a little bit since I’ve had them, so thanks for the reminder to check back in on them!
FWIW, the local distributor in Portland is on the 2020 Candide.
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We’ve been talking about it for years on this forum! Probably one of the best QPRs in the world of wine. An utterly classic Cabernet Franc. And it ages unbelievably well.
Just out of curiosity, I did a search term of this domain with my name, and I have over 50 posts on it, here is my last one:
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Assuming one appreciates Cab Franc, Guion’s QPR is so far off the charts as to be silly. Not well distributed in my home markets, so I’m thankful for Garagiste. Despite Rimmerman’s antics, he brings in a shit-ton of this gem. Aging curve for these, at sub 20 per bottle, is glacial. Love them!
Michael
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How does this work? Isn’t this 50% new oak exposure? Or was the new barrel just noticeably smaller?
If by barrel, he means barrique, then, since a barrique holds only about 225 liters, would be decidely smaller than a barrel that held 400 liters. That’s an odd amount. A foudre holds more like a thousand liters. Even a demi-muid holds 600 liters (at least that’s the info I get off the web). But the key to what James Guthrie is saying is the statement that the 400 liter barrel is older. So, if there were 225 liters in a new barrique and 400 in an older something, for a total of 625 liters, it would be about 1/3 new oak exposure. This assumes, though, that there isn’t more in other cuves.
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Typically a demi-muid holds 600-liters, but it isn’t a fixed-volume term like barrique (225 liters) or pièce (228 liters). A demi-muid usually can hold anything from 400 to 650 liters, so a 400-liter demi-muid is definitely possible.
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Shhhh. Love this producer.
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Another web search tells me that a barrel that holds 400-500 liters is called a puncheon. But I’ve never heard of that before, so the idea that demi-muids hold differing amounts works for me.
Puncheon is something you see used in English-speaking countries. I’m pretty sure you’d never catch a French person using such a term!
But you do see lots of producers their wines are aged for “12 months in 400-liter demi-muids” etc.
Being that the wines are quite easily available locally, thanks to Chambers, I tend to drink them as soon as I buy them, especially as the Domaine and Prestige ones don’t seem to have that long an aging potential to my taste, and also admitting that I haven’t had any substantially-aged Guion.
Stashed a few late 2000s Deux Mont to, hopefully, check on when there’s some age in them.
Try to find Guion at Chambers. They sell out pretty damn fast. It’s my main source too and I’ve missed out a few times by not moving fast enough.