Chenin Blanc, Loire valley, France

An off-dry and twinkling chenin with age - oh hello 2019, what a simpler time you were! We snapped at first chance to grab the teeny-tiny allocation that made its way to Ontario this year #gwonthehunt. Fabled winemakers Catherine and Pierre Breton and their organic, biodynamically tended vineyards in Bourgueil have been on the lips of wine lovers for over thirty years, and counting! More recently, the next generation of Bretons, aka their son Paul, has been fermenting out of his own small cave upriver from his parents in Vouvray. Working to do justice on behalf of a particular parcel his grandparents used to farm called Bois Guyon, this land had been left to overgrow and get back to itself since 1989 and was replanted in 2016, with this being the first vintage from the land since 1989! Demi-sec and demonstrably delectable, licking a honey dipper, wet and frothing minerality, caramelized apricot halves, flickering bubbles & striking a wet flint over, and over, and over. Pour alongside sweet and spicy chicken wings and the worst ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ jokes you can muster, or tolerate.