Les Quatre Piliers Grande Première Cuvée Cabernet Franc 2021 (12 Bottles) Loire Valley

$906.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

There is a real finesse to Valentin’s red wines, as you might expect, given that he has worked with Thierry Pillot and Rafael Coche in Burgundy. The first of two Cabernet Franc wines, this larger cuvée stems from a parcel of 45- to 50-year-old (on average) mass-selection vines in the red clay and silex soils of Saint-Aignan.

Desloges crops at half the permitted yield for this region, and this wine ferments (with 5% bunches) in stainless steel without sulphur for two weeks. It is then transferred to used barrels from Cheval Blanc to complete its year-long aging.

In terms of style, Desloges’ lithe and pulpy Cabernet Franc wines resemble more the elegant shape and slender tannins of Thierry Germain’s Saumur-Champigny than, say, the Chinon or Bourgueil archetype. The wines are silky and vividly fresh, with the sensation of biting into a firm, juicy redcurrant (what the French would call croquant).

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About Les Quatre Piliers Wines

Son of a winemaker from Touraine, originally from the Cher Valley, Valentin Desloges, 28, learned his trade with inspiring winemakers: Vincent Sipp in Alsace, the Todeschini family at Château Mangot in Saint-Émilion, Thierry and Paul Pillot in Chassagne-Montrachet and Raphaël Coche at Coche-Dury in Meursault. Mentors from varied terroirs, who allowed him to understand work in the vineyard as well as in the cellar.

Today at the head of the Domaine des Quatre Piliers (in Noyers-sur-Cher in Touraine), the young man returns to his native land to begin his new story starting from a blank page, but seasoned by his varied experiences and nourished by influences. The fruit of passionate and ultra-meticulous work, Valentin makes local wines, precise and fine while being marked by generosity.

The 10 ha vineyard, in the beating heart of the AOC Touraine valley, is divided into nearly 25 plots (the largest is barely over a hectare), a succession of small gardens converted to organic upon takeover, where Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Côt (Malbec) grow on predominantly clay-limestone soils.

The Cher never strays more than a kilometer from the vines and divides the estate’s vines into two distinct zones on the right and left banks.

It contributes to the circulation of warm air currents that purify the vineyard and reinforces the oceanic influence coming from the west and the Loire. Beneath the entire surface of the vineyard, it is a white paradise: gigantic quarries of immaculate tuffeau, dug 30 m underground, encourage mineral exchange and pierce the Quatre Piliers vineyard with aeration shafts.

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