2021 Les Quatre Piliers Touraine Première Cuvée Cabernet Franc Chapitre 1
WINEMAKER: Valentin Desloges
REGION: Loire Valley, FR
VARIETY: Cabernet Franc
VITICULTURE: Organic
There is a real finesse to Valentin’s red wines, as you might expect, given that he has worked with Thierry Pillot and Rafael Coche in Burgundy. The first of two Cabernet franc wines, this larger cuvée stems from a parcel of 45- to 50-year-old (on average) mass-selection vines in the red clay and silex soils of Saint-Aignan. Desloges crops at half the permitted yield for this region, and this wine ferments (with 5% bunches) in stainless steel without sulphur for two weeks. It is then transferred to used barrels from Cheval Blanc to complete its year-long aging. | In terms of style, Desloges’ lithe and pulpy Cabernet Franc wines resemble more the elegant shape and slender tannins of Thierry Germain’s Saumur-Champigny than, say, the Chinon or Bourgueil archetype. The wines are silky and vividly fresh, with the sensation of biting into a firm, juicy redcurrant (what the French would call croquant).
In the pretty riverside village of Noyers-sur-Cher you'll find a young grower described by impeccable sources as one of the Loire’s hottest talents. Valentin Desloges worked with soul brothers Raphaël Coche (Coche-Dury) and Thierry Pillot (Domaine Paul Pillot) before returning home to take control of his father’s vines. His first vintage was 2020. There are currently 10 hectares in play, split evenly between the Cher’s right and left banks.
In some ways, not least the remarkable quality of his Sauvignon wines, Valentin’s story reminds us of Didier Dagueneau, whom we first met not far away 20 years ago. Like Dagueneau when he started, Desloges is a driven young maker—headstrong even—heavily influenced by great growers in other regions, particularly Burgundy. Like Dagueneau, he returned home to an area not known for greatness. And again, like that great man, Desloges proceeded to farm at the highest level and work ultra-precisely in the cellar to produce wines of a quality far surpassing anything seen before in the region.
Valentin’s winemaking style would not look out of place in the more progressive cellars of the Côte d’Or. He micromanages the pressing to obtain the most balanced juices possible. He is experimenting with whole bunches for his Pineau d’Aunis and Pinot Noir, but the reds are mostly destemmed. They ferment slowly with indigenous yeasts in stainless-steel tanks before aging in older casks sourced from Burgundy and Bordeaux. The whites are pressed as whole bunches and ferment and age in the same oak barrels. In the near future, Valentin hopes to use only his own barrels, made from oak staves personally sourced from the nearby Loches forest and aged in-house. All the wines are bottled without filtration.