Bertin-Delatte ‘l’Echalier’ Blanc 2020

Location: France, Loire, Rablay-Sur-Layon

Winemaker: Geneviève Delatte & Nicolas Bertin

Grapes: Chenin Blanc

Soil: Schist

Winemaking: Hand-harvested fruit, direct pressing without destemming after harvest. Fermented half in tank, half in barrel with full malolactic. Aged in tanks over the winter, bottled in early spring. No SO2.

From us at M&L: ‘L’Echalier’ is sourced from parcels around Rablay-sur-Layon. Racy and cut like layers of shale coated in fresh paint and sour orange candies—savagely pure with a delicate trace of paper-thin tannins. Fresh thyme and chamomile also. Drink now with a decant and with anything autumnal—French lentils, roasted haricots verts, white fishes in butter. Age for the next 5 to even 10 years.

From the Importer MFW: In the past decade or so, the town of Rablay-sur-Layon has become a small hub for dedicated, young winemakers in the Loire Valley. While the village was traditionally known for sweet wines made from Chenin Blanc, Geneviève Delatte and Nicolas Bertin of Bertin-Delatte have chosen a different path, expressing their terroir through precise, textured, and age-worthy dry wines. In 2008, Geneviève and Nicolas were able to purchase their own, small vineyard, a 3ha lieu-dit named "Echalier". Having worked with Mark Angeli and inspired by their neighbor, Richard Leroy, it was evident from the start that they would farm organically. In the cellar, the winemaking philosophy is very simple: intervene as little as possible and let nature take its course. Fermentations are with native yeast, there is minimal use of SO2, and some oak is used, but only in small proportions to provide texture and balance the powerful acidity of Chenin grown in the schist soils of Rablay. The result is a set of distinctive and pure wines that are true to Geneviève and Nicolas' vision and terroir.