Across the Loire, Montlouis is Vouvray’s little brother, smaller in size and reputation. With only 400 hectares, and half of those producing Touraine wines, red, white and rosé, the production of Montlouis AOC is nearly confidential.

In the village of Husseau, François Chidaine has worked alongside his father Yves for many years on two independent estates. François has strong feelings about viticulture, and works his vines the old-fashioned way, but does not want any mention of organic viticulture on his bottles although he is certified organic. He writes: “Wine is born from the vine, not from artificial skills of re-creation in the winery. It is sufficient to start modestly by working the soil.”

His estate of 16 hectares is made up of eight distinct plots: Clos du Breuil, Clos Habert, le Volagray and les Landes have soil of clay with flint (silex) locally called Perruches; Clos Renard and les Epinais are clay and limestone with flint called Aubuis; les Bournais, recently planted and overlooking the Loire, consists of clay and a type of limestone called Bournais.

The Méthode Traditionnelle, or pétillant, is made with a mix from the youngest vines. Chidaine likes to pick even these grapes at a good degree of ripeness, to avoid any dosage: the wine’s natural residual sugar starts the second fermentation and creates the bubbles. This is a refreshing, dry wine with muscaté notes.

Clos du Breuil is always vinified separately as a Montlouis sec; it is mineral, with lively acidity and notes of honeysuckle and fruit confits. Les Tuffeaux is usually a vin tendre made with grapes from all his vineyards and selected by ripeness level. It can be round and aromatic, or rich and powerful, according to the style of the vintage. Clos Habert’s grapes, from 60 year-old vines, are picked in two to four passes at a potential degree of 14 to 14.5% alcohol, and yield a single-plot demi-sec cuvée. The wine is intensely mineral, rich and long. Vintage permitting, the Moëlleux cuvée is made from the grapes of Clos Renard and les Epinais’ 90-year-old vines (in lesser years, these grapes go into les Tuffeaux or are vinified as sec under the label les Choisilles).

Les Lys is a moëlleux SGN made in exceptional vintages only, when the potential alcohol goes above 18.5.