Andrew Guard

2022 Bulles de Schiste, Terra Vita Vinum

This was a beautiful way to start the day's tasting in Anjou in January; it was a brisk and cold winter's morning and with heightened senses this shone brightly. It is produced using nearly all Chardonnay, where, grown on the schist soils here it has a mouthwatering tension. This is a very elegant sparkling wine that is super fresh, delicate and stimulating. Juicy apple and citrus fruits melt into delicate brioche and envelop your palate. The bead is very fine - Once you start, there's no turning back!

Some of their parcel-based white cuvées, already on allocation, are sold out even before bottling, even the best tasters struggle to distinguish from Richard Leroy's iconic and highly speculative cuvées in blind tastings. And the duo confess that ‘in no way do we want to produce the same wines as Richard’. But this grand chenin has a remarkable aromatic complexity, marked by a slight autolysis and smoky notes typical of Richard Leroy's wines, which extend to floral notes, honeysuckle and white-fleshed fruit, with a strong mineral undertone. It also affirms their identity, that of a top-class estate.

One drawback, though? It would seem that, like Richard Leroy's wines, their cuvées are gradually going down the road of speculation... But their ambition lies elsewhere: to pass on their passion, tenacity and pugnacity to new generations of winegrowers, so that these exceptional Anjou terroirs, which today produce some of the finest wines in the Loire region, can grow even further.
La Revue du Vin de France, March 2025 (Goulvern Le Polles)