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2023 Vouvray
Champalou
Céline Champalou’s Vouvray is always a joy to drink. The wine seems so pure, as if it bubbled up out of the limestone into a cool, limpid pool tended by nymphs and satyrs who pour it into the mouths of weary souls. That’s what I feel, anyway, when I grab a bottle from the fridge.
—Dustin Soiseth
Wine Type: | white |
Vintage: | 2023 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | Chenin Blanc |
Appellation: | Vouvray |
Country: | France |
Region: | Loire |
Producer: | Champalou |
Vineyard: | 35 years average, 13.5 ha |
Soil: | Clay, Limestone |
Farming: | Sustainable |
Alcohol: | 12.5% |
More from this Producer or Region

2020 Saumur Blanc “L’Échelier”
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This dry Chenin Blanc is etched from the white limestone beneath—crystalline, pure, and chiseled.

2024 Coteaux du Loir Rouge “Cuvée du Rosier”
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This red is 100% Pineau d’Aunis, an indigenous red grape we hold dear to our collective hearts because of its mystifying aromatics and bright, juicy texture.

2021 Bourgueil “La Dilettante”
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A delicate, aromatic red in the “drink now!” vein.

2019 Bourgueil “Les Perrières”
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The family’s grandest wine, a brooding elixir of satiny fruit, cedar, and graphite.

2020 Saumur Champigny “Clos de l’Échelier”
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Fine, with bright acid, sleek silkiness, and great length, it is the most elegant of all of Thierry’s red wines.

2020 Sancerre Rouge "Champs d’Alligny"
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Previously blended into the domaine’s Sancerre rouge, the Champs d’Alligny is now its own bottling, a successful experiment if there ever was one.

2023 Chinon “Les Petites Roches” Blanc
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A delightfully lean and bright blanc from Charles Joguet that leaves me yearning to exclaim, “This smells like a green apple picked fresh from a lemon tree!”

2016 Jasnières “Chant de Vigne”
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A single-vineyard bottling whose age lends a soft, drawn butter richness to its bright, tart citrus palate.

Vouvray Brut
France | Loire
From clay and limestone vineyards, they are able to obtain remarkable complexity in their Brut, while the texture shows both a creamy richness and an austere minerality.

2021 Vin de France Blanche
France | Loire
This skin-contact wine is redolent of blood orange and hyssop—a perfect apéritif for olives and anchovies.
About The Producer
Champalou
About The Region
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 Kimmeridgian 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
Touraine “Fines Bulles”
Domaine de la Chanteleuserie France | Loire
2020 Chinon “Clos du Chêne Vert”
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2021 Chinon “La Croix Boissée”
Bernard Baudry France | Loire
2023 Chinon “Beaux Monts”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2024 Jasnières
Pascal Janvier France | Loire
2021 Bourgueil “Clos Sénéchal”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2020 Chinon “Les Varennes du Grand Clos”
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2022 Quincy “Vieilles Vignes”
Domaine Trotereau France | Loire
2023 Chinon “Les Petites Roches” Blanc
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2023 Muscadet Côtes de Grand Lieu sur lie “La Nöe”
Eric Chevalier France | Loire
2022 Bourgueil “Franc de Pied”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2023 Menetou-Salon Blanc “Le Prieuré”
Prieuré de Saint Céols France | Loire
Touraine “Fines Bulles”
Domaine de la Chanteleuserie France | Loire
2020 Chinon “Clos du Chêne Vert”
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2021 Chinon “La Croix Boissée”
Bernard Baudry France | Loire
2023 Chinon “Beaux Monts”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2024 Jasnières
Pascal Janvier France | Loire
2021 Bourgueil “Clos Sénéchal”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2020 Chinon “Les Varennes du Grand Clos”
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2022 Quincy “Vieilles Vignes”
Domaine Trotereau France | Loire
2023 Chinon “Les Petites Roches” Blanc
Charles Joguet France | Loire
2023 Muscadet Côtes de Grand Lieu sur lie “La Nöe”
Eric Chevalier France | Loire
2022 Bourgueil “Franc de Pied”
Catherine & Pierre Breton France | Loire
2023 Menetou-Salon Blanc “Le Prieuré”
Prieuré de Saint Céols France | Loire
Where the newsletter started

Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch