Skip to main content
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Toggle Navigation Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant Your Cart

2018 Cheverny

Domaine du Salvard
Discount Eligible $18.00
SOLD OUT

After losing half their 2017 crop to frost, Thierry and Emmanuel Delaille of Domaine du Salvard received a sort of divine compensation in 2018. At last, an abundant harvest endowed with excellent ripeness and superb balance! True bon vivants, the brothers seemed especially jovial when we sampled the 2018s in June. Beaming with joy and always quick to pun, they poured me a lineup of wines boasting a comparable liveliness, verve, and lighthearted disposition. Their Cheverny, a festive mélange of frisky Sauvignon with an enriching splash of Chardonnay, remains one of the most quaffable whites we import. Exotic and citrusy with a trademark zingy finish, this wine simply goes down way too easy. Lucky for us, there is twice as much as last year!

Anthony Lynch


Technical Information
Wine Type: white
Vintage: 2018
Bottle Size: 750mL
Blend: 85% Sauvignon Blanc, 15% Chardonnay
Appellation: Cheverny
Country: France
Region: Loire
Producer: Domaine du Salvard
Winemaker: Emmanuel & Thierry Delaille
Vineyard: 10 - 65 years
Soil: Chalk, Limestone, Sand
Aging: Wines age on fine lees in stainless steel tanks and are bottled unfiltered
Farming: Lutte Raisonnée
Alcohol: 12.5%

More from this Producer or Region

About The Region

Loire

map of Loire

The defining feature of the Loire Valley, not surprisingly, is the Loire River. As the longest river in France, spanning more than 600 miles, this river connects seemingly disparate wine regions. Why else would Sancerre, with its Kimmeridgian limestone terroir be connected to Muscadet, an appellation that is 250 miles away?

Secondary in relevance to the historical, climatic, environmental, and cultural importance of the river are the wines and châteaux of the Jardin de la France. The kings and nobility of France built many hundreds of châteaux in the Loire but wine preceded the arrival of the noblesse and has since out-lived them as well.

Diversity abounds in the Loire. The aforementioned Kimmderidgian limestone of Sancerre is also found in Chablis. Chinon, Bourgueil, and Saumur boast the presence of tuffeau, a type of limestone unique to the Loire that has a yellowish tinge and a chalky texture. Savennières has schist, while Muscadet has volcanic, granite, and serpentinite based soils. In addition to geologic diversity, many, grape varieties are grown there too: Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Melon de Bourgogne are most prevalent, but (to name a few) Pinot Gris, Grolleau, Pinot Noir, Pineau d’Aunis, and Folle Blanche are also planted. These myriad of viticultural influences leads to the high quality production of every type of wine: red, white, rosé, sparkling, and dessert.

Like the Rhône and Provence, some of Kermit’s first imports came from the Loire, most notably the wines of Charles Joguet and Château d’Epiré—two producers who are featured in Kermit’s book Adventures on the Wine Route and with whom we still work today.

More from Loire or France

Discount Eligible $26.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $34.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $51.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $40.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $46.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $31.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $51.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $43.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $51.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $38.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $50.00
AT CART MAX
Discount Eligible $27.00
AT CART MAX
Kermit inspecting wine barrels

For the wines that I buy I insist that the winemaker leave them whole, intact. I go into the cellars now and select specific barrels or cuvées, and I request that they be bottled without stripping them with filters or other devices. This means that many of our wines will arrive with a smudge of sediment and will throw a more important deposit as time goes by, It also means the wine will taste better.