How does Thibault Boudignon, a master of Chenin Blanc, craft one of the Loire Valley's most coveted rosés?

It might seem surprising. After all, pink wine and white wine look pretty different at first glance. But Boudignon makes his rosé much like a traditional white wine. While some winemakers “bleed” a little juice off their red wine while it’s still macerating on the skins (which can make a darker, more powerful rosé), Boudignon works more like he’s making a white wine: pressing his red grapes (Cab Franc with 10% Grolleau) and puts the juice directly into tanks to ferment.
 
That brief and gentle skin contact is one of the secrets to Boudignon’s beautiful light color, and pure, precise flavors. Of course, his cellar techniques wouldn’t matter one bit if the fruit wasn’t spectacular. Boudignon’s super-fastidious biodynamic farming makes sure of that. It’s a ton of work for a "simple" rosé, but if you’re a perfectionist like Boudignon, there’s just no other way to do things.
 
That work pays off in spades. The wine isn’t just bright and fresh; it also has a tempting salinity, delicate floral notes and a deep minerality to complement the juicy fruit flavors. This is a real wine from a complex terroir (soils of schist, volcanic rhyolite, and clay) that is both joyfully delicious and unique. It’s a pink wine expression of white-wine genius.
 

Thibaud Boudignon, Rosé de Loire, 2024 $25.99
Beautiful on its own, this is also a natural with any lighter meal: vibrant and refreshing, with precise flavors of wild strawberry, pink grapefruit, and watermelon rind, underscored by a striking mineral core and saline finish.