Desiree White 2007

Désirée Blanc 2007,

La Grapperie

La Désirée, classified as a Vin de France, is a dry white wine made from 100% organic and natural Chenin, cultivated and vinified by Renaud Guettier of the La Grapperie estate in the Coteaux du Loir region (Loire Valley).

Cultivation and Vinification

The Chenin grapes, aged between fifty and one hundred and fifteen years, grow on flint-clay soils on a limestone base at an altitude of 100 m. The grapes are pressed directly, and all the liquids are processed by gravity. The wine is aged for twenty-four months on lees in barrels in cellars dug out of the tuffeau stone.

Tasting and pairings

La Désirée is a wine that lives up to its name: you undress it with your eyes, it seduces with its nose of bitter almond, prolonged in the mouth by tenderly buttery notes, touches of white fruits and nuts, counterbalanced by a very clear acidity. This charming wine needs charming pairings: smoked fish, caviar, fresh or smoked scallops, or even fine oysters.

Learn more about Renaud Guettier and La Grapperie

In the Coteaux du Loir appellation, La Grapperie is the name of the estate of Renaud Guettier, who can be described as a master of Chenin, but also of Pineau d'Aunis, which is one of the oldest grape varieties in the Loire Valley.

The estate

Renaud's 60 hectares of vines, on the hillside, are protected from the north winds by the Bercé forest. Depending on the altitude, the terroirs are predominantly clay, flint, or sand. The grape varieties are the two traditionally authorized in the appellation: Chenin for the whites and Pineau d'Aunis for 90% of the reds, the rest consisting of a few ares of Côt, Gamay and Grolleau. Some vines are more than a hundred years old.

Methods in the vineyard and in the winery

The entire estate is cultivated organically. The soils are worked and all viticultural interventions are manual, including the harvest, carried out at full maturity, which is reflected in the fullness and smoothness of the wines. For the reds, the Pineau d'Aunis is partially destemmed (depending on the plot) and the macerations are quite long, three to four weeks, with punching down, to promote aging potential. The wines are aged in barrels for between twelve and twenty-four months, then racked, blended and bottled without filtration. For the whites, the Chenins are pressed directly at low pressure then put into barrels with complete malolactic fermentation, for at least eighteen months, malolactic included, and sometimes up to thirty-six months.