More about Isabelle Suire

Saumur-based vigneronne Isabelle Suire isn’t reinventing the wheel — rather, she’s making absolutely delicious Chenin Blanc at absurdly fair prices.

It comes from a few small parcels planted between the ‘80s and 2012, on clay and limestone soils, the same limestone from which the Loire Valley’s famous châteaux are constructed. These ancient marine fossils imbue the wine with salinity and a mineral backbone that perfectly complements the delicate tropical and citrus fruit melange. It’s fermented and aged in stainless steel to preserve freshness and fruit purity.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s buddies with some of the Loire’s best winemakers. She was elected president of Saumur’s white wine association a few years back, and naturally spent a lot of time with her red wine counterpart, Romain Guiberteau. Guiberteau’s wines are some of France’s most sought-after (and typically fetch prices at least 50% higher than Isabelle’s Saumur Blanc).

It was her friendship with Romain that sparked her conversion to organic farming, and since then, she’s enlisted Michel Chevré, the ‘biodynamic guru’ of Clos de L’Ecotard as an advisor. They employ cover crops between the rows and source fertilizer from a nearby farm. Everything is harvested by hand and fermentations are with ambient yeast.

It’s hard to resist Chenin Blanc like this: salty, crisp, lemony, and linear, with all the vibrant acidity of the vintage.