"Like Chardonnay Without All the Stuff"
2023 Alain & Christophe Le Capitaine Vouvray Sec $19.99
“Oh, you are Samantha? You’re famous” me meeting a woman at a friend’s house for the first time. Me? Famous?! After assuring her I was anything but, I did confirm that I was the Samantha from The Wine Country that she had heard stories from her friends about. Such a weird feeling that, people knowing who you are when all you do is show up for work and try to make people happy with great wine, but I guess being an over….giver with information and the occasional slips with, colorful, “language” and I guess a reputation might be made in a small circle but famous? Me thinks not.
“As Samantha has always said, Chenin Blanc has the texture and fullness of Chardonnay, without all the junk” Randy quoting me, in print I believe, and there I was, feeling famous and junk. Spent nearly half of my life in this shop, trying to please and impress, him above all others as he was the one that strapped me into this whole world of wine in the first place. A place where a shy high school drop out found her passion, a slightly unique voice and ability to roar. A voice that would have me invited to join importers in France, sampling the new releases for the shop, and sourcing some thrilling new estates as well. It was on one of those trips that introduced us to the focused, mineral tinged wines of Alain & Christophe Le Capitaine in Loire Valley’s Vouvray.
Brothers Alain and Christophe Le Capitaine farm and make their family wines in Vouvray which is in the northern part of the Touraine district in the Loire Valley. They grow exclusively Chenin Blanc, (all that is permitted in Vouvray) and have been farming organically since 2008. My first visit to the domaine I was in awe of their caves, once used to grow mushrooms, the cool, damp conditions ideal for spongy little fungi, as well as long term aging of their Chenin Blanc. These caves not only housed their wines, they had tunnels that ran underground that the people once used to travel during harsh weather. They had the caves open until a few years ago when they noticed that some of their bottles were being pinched by local teenagers, so they had to close them to the public, but the caves still run for miles under the city. I was truly impressed with the cellar and caves but, it was the wines that truly dazzled me.
I’ve been back at least three times now, always sitting in Alain’s family kitchen table, plates of local sausages and cone shaped salamis, piles of goat cheese in various stages of aging, a quiet man in a knit beanie, three or four wines and a couple buyers at the table tasting, giving each other knowing glances as we scribble notes and comment on how inexpensive the wines are for the incredible layering, curved fruit and taste of place. Add that to the fact that they make only 1,250 cases, total annual production, and it shows just how damn lucky we are to have access to wines like this. If I have to fake a little famous to keep getting them for us, sign me up.
We tasted this current vintage of Le Capitaine’s Vouvray Sec as a team this time. We all sat around the table in the tasting room with importer Aline Thiebaut and one by one, by one we all behaved like those buyers at the Alain’s kitchen table, taking deep sniffs, muttering to ourselves and emoting over just how much power and flavor there is here. How richly textured and brimming with ripe stone fruit, how the tuffeau soils, (porous limestone) add a beautifully balanced minerality, and how there is a faint note of white button mushroom way in the back, a reminder of the history of that place coming through in the wines. A crave inducing dry white wine from France, with all of this going on and we get to share it with you for $20? We ordered ten cases on the spot and Randy is already asking if there is more to get. As we start thinking about spring this dry Chenin Blanc is a glorious segue from full red into brighter flavored whites, but ones with some weight and stain on the palate. As always, first come first served and I promise, at this price, these won’t last long.