Produced from some 25 hectares of vines owned by Gérard and Daniel Vinet, located in the village of La Haye-Fouassière near Nantes, within the département of the Loire-Atlantique and within the region known as Sèvre et Maine, an area that lies between these two tributaries that flow northward to the river Loire. The wine is produced entirely from the Mélon de Bourgogne grape, also known as Muscadet. The fruit is hand-harvested, generally beginning in early September. The wine is kept on its lees and bottled in the spring following harvest. Ultra fresh, cool aromas suggest fresh green grapes grown on the mineral soils of schists, mica schists, gneiss and metamorphic amphibolites and under the influence of the nearby Atlantic Ocean; lively, almost pétillant on the tongue, with a most refreshing crisp almost crunchy saline mineral intensity of flavor. A brilliant foil for our summer heat; an ideal companion to shellfish and most lighter summer fare.

Jean THOMAS crafts among the finest of the wines of Sancerre. Lovely, limpid, pale straw in color; fresh Sauvignon Blanc aromas that suggest perfectly ripe fruit harvested at its apogee of flavor and potency with hints of ripe melon, citrus and fine wildflower honey on a backdrop of cool rainwater on crumbled limestone; crisp and compelling on the tongue, with an almost palpable vibrant interplay of fruit and acidity; lots and lots of clean, delicious Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc flavor that just lasts and lasts and refreshes and refreshes...

For our money, the 2009 vintage in the Loire Valley, like much of the rest of the European vineyard, offers a veritable embarassment of riches wine-wise. A quick whiff of this superb 2009 Sancerre Gérard Fiou and you can just smell the refreshment in store: inviting aromas that would remind this Texan taster of a perfectly ripe ruby-red grapegfruit and, perhaps, yes, gooseberry, on a backdrop of fresh spring rain-drenched stone; plump and round and ripe on the tongue with ample brisk and uplifting fruity acidity in a supporting role and classic flavors of perfectly ripe Sauvignon Blanc grown in one of its happiest of places.