Explorer Loire Whites 6-Bottle Set (Greater Portland delivery included*)
Explorer Loire Whites 6-Bottle Set (Greater Portland delivery included*)
At Wine Wise, we’ve made it easy and compelling to buy local—and now you can enjoy our sommelier-curated wine selections delivered to your door in Greater Portland. *
Explore France’s most famous river and varied wine region with this set of Loire Valley whites that takes you on a journey from end-to-end of this vast west-to-east river, beginning 100 miles from the Atlantic in the region of Muscadet Sevre et Maine. Then journey west to experience three delicious expressions of Chenin Blanc (anyone else’s favorite grape variety?) from Savennieres, a single vineyard plot in Anjou, and dreamy Vouvray. We round out this set with a fantastic duo of Sauvignon Blancs from the regions of Sancerre and Quincy. We love these wines! We know you will, too. They’re fantastic and pair beautifully with Maine shellfish and seafood dishes, salads, young cheeses, poultry, etc.
Our Explorer level delivers sommelier-curated wines that will introduce you to different grape varieties, styles, and/or regions from around the World. Each bottle of wine we offer is hand-selected for taste and quality. These wines deliver incredible value and do not need to be further aged to taste their best. Hurry—the wines we select are only available in small quantities, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. That’s the whole point of the explorer set—to keep trying new wines to expand one’s tasting experiences.
Wines included in this set:
2021 Nicolas Girard, Quincy, France
100% Sauvignon Blanc
Quincy is a rather unknown region in the Upper Loire Valley, specializing in racy Sauvignon Blancs, usually at an excellent value, compared to neighboring Sancerre. Nicolas Girard is one of the region's rising stars after taking over his family farm in 2007. His 2021 Quincy is a medium straw, bright, and terroir-focused with notes of fresh-squeezed lemon, grapefruit pith, and underripe pineapple with herbaceous and bountiful minerality. It’s dry, fresh, and tangy with medium body, medium+ acidity, and exposing layers of complexity as it opens in the glass. It is gorgeous! Try it with Veal Scallopini with Piccata Sauce (recipe).
2021 Champalou, Vouvray Sec, France
100% Chenin Blanc
I wonder if everyone recalls the first time they tasted Champalou, like I do. It was love at first sip—enamored with how voluptuous and slightly-off dry it was, but with such tension on the palate from glorious high-acidity that kept everything in exquisite balance. It’s pale yellow with green tones and notes of green apples, pears, peach, ginger, honey, with full-body, high acidity, and complex crisp finish. A benchmark Vouvray from a husband-and-wife team in heart of the Loire.
2020 Domaine Des Deux Vallées, Savennieres, France
100% Chenin Blanc
Chenin from Savennières often falls under the radar. This wine from Domaine des Deux Vallées is a reason to discover its quality, vivacity, and elegance. The Domaine was created in 2001 by the Socheleau family with the intention of being a Chenin Blanc specialist. Their vineyards lie on two main terroirs with an average vine age of 15 years. These grapes are handpicked picked without botrytis and aged on fine lees in barrel for six months. Its star bright and light lemon-green in color with notes of apples, apples, and more apples + citrus, honeysuckle, beeswax, and subtle baking spice, smoke, and vibrant minerality intertwined with the wine’s richness and piercing acidity. I love this dry Chenin Blanc!
2021 Château Soucherie, Cuvée Les Rangs de Long, Anjou Blanc, France
100% Chenin Blanc
The chateau itself is an architectural gem that sits on a rise overlooking the vineyards that snake down toward the Layon River. An area that is intensely “green” no matter the season. In the early 2000s, Roger Beguinot acquired the estate, renovated the buildings and the vineyards, and hired the young Thibaud Boudignon as winemaker. Fom the vineyard site “Les Rangs de Longue,” the wine is medium straw in color with notes of ripe, and zesty fruits—yellow apples, green pears, honeydew melon, lemon curd, and apricot, with stony minerality. On the palate, it is dry and medium-bodied with high acidity that’s balanced with plentiful fruit and vibrant minerality. Delicious!
2021 Domaine Cherrier, Sancerre Blanc, France
100% Sauvignon Blanc
The Cherrier family has been a proprietor in Sancerre for four generations since 1930. Today, it is run by father, Fernand, his son, Sylvain, and daughter-in-law, Monique. They are also among the best producers of the famous goat cheese, Crottins de Chavignol. The wine is pale straw with tones of green and vibrantly aromatic with notes of fresh grapefruit, lemon, pineapple, apricots, caperberries, bell pepper, and chalky minerality. On the palate, it’s dry and refreshing with a medium body and high acidity rounded by rich citrus fruits and a persistent mineral finish.
2020 Domaine de la Fessardiere, Muscadet Sevre et Maine Estelle Sauvion, France
100% Melon de Bourgogne
About 1 hour from the Atlantic, along the Loire River, in the region of Muscadet the Sèvre Nantaise and Petite Maine rivers border this more specific region within that requires sur lie (on the yeast) aging of the wines for an extended period, providing texture and complexity to an otherwise neural grape variety. Jérôme and Emeline age their 100% organic wines in large ‘foudres’ (oak barrels), making a fuller-styled Muscadet from 30-year-old vines that delivers layers of texture. The wine is pale straw with notes of lemon, grapefruit, brine, and cream with medium-body, texture, and medium-plus acidity.
PLEASE NOTE
Purchasers must be 21 years of age or older and be present with an ID upon delivery.
Price includes 5.50% Maine State sales tax and Maine’s fifteen-cents redemption deposit per bottle.
If your billing address is different from your delivery address, please include your delivery address in the comments section at checkout.
*Delivery is by Wine Wise—not third-party carriers. Our delivery area is Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland Foreside, Falmouth, Old Orchard Beach, Portland, Saco, Scarborough, South Portland, and Westbrook. We have a larger delivery area for Wine Club deliveries.
