The Wine Classics / Gold Standards

[DougS]

I get that. For me, Chidaine’s wines have been more consistently impressive in recent vintages than Huet. The reason I would put Chidaine ahead of Foreau in terms of benchmark expression is that Chidaine does all of those different bottlings, really illustrating Loire Chenin’s potential for expression of terroir. I can understand thinking differently because of track record.

[Dennis_Kanagie]

@J Diven

@Doug Schulman

Chenin: Chidaine

As much as I really do enjoy Chidaine, it is hard to name him here with both Huet and Foreau having a history back to the 1920s and still producing extraordinary wines at very affordable prices. So for me, Huet and Foreau as tier 1, and Chidaine and Pinon a strong tier 2. Of course this is a US perspective and we are giving short shrift to Savennieres, Samur, et al But I suppose that is unavoidable in this sort of thing.

@Doug Schulman

I get that. For me, Chidaine’s wines have been more consistently impressive in recent vintages than Huet. The reason I would put Chidaine ahead of Foreau in terms of benchmark expression is that Chidaine does all of those different bottlings, really illustrating Loire Chenin’s potential for expression of terroir. I can understand thinking differently because of track record.

No love for JC Pichot?

[DougS]

I’ve only ever had their entry level, which is nice but nothing special. I’ve never known them to be put in the same class as Huet, Foreau, or Chidaine, but without personal experience, I don’t have an opinion on that.

[Chuck_Anderson]

@Doug Schulman

If we’re looking for the best and most classic example of Loire SB (and I do think Loire produces the best examples), that’s Pur Sang rather than Silex, and must be '07 or before, when Didier was making the wines.

Interesting - a Pur Sang which must’ve been within ~1998-2002 vintages was perhaps my most epiphanic wine experience, years before I took an active, geeky interest in wines. Until that bottle (which I can’t imagine having paid more than $60 for at NYC’s Aquagrill at the somm’s rec) I had absolutely no idea that a white wine might have a comparable degree & depth of character to a red. It floored me, and the whole table.

These days the best SB in my pile are the Boulay’s Sancerres. They gotta be a least a solid silver-plus standard!