Benoît Courault ‘Le Petit Chemin’ Blanc NV (2023)
Location: France, Loire, Anjou
Winemaker: Benoît Courault
Grapes: Chenin Blanc
Soil: Ordovicien schistes locally called “schistes gréseux de Saint Georges” with veins of phtanites (a silica-rich sedimentary rock) and quartz
Winemaking: Vinified without temperature control in fiberglass vats, aged in the same vessels and without any sulfur additions. No fining and no filtration.
‘Le Petit Chemin’ is Benoît’s entry-level Chenin cuvée, hand-harvested from 60-year-old vines. Stiff and bracing like a winter breeze, with flecks of lemon oil, celery leaf, white nectarine. Drink now with roasted rutabaga or butter-poached fish; or try and forget about it for a few years and return to a real gem.
From the importer Avant Garde: Benoit Courault is a young and established vigneron in Faye d’Anjou, a little village south of Angers along the Layon river. Not a son of a winemaker, early on, Ben decided to study wine. He went to Beaune. From 2003 until 2006, he worked with the famous vigneron Eric Pfifferling from Domaine L’Anglore in Tavel.
Back to his native Loire, he found 5ha of vineyards and started his estate in 2006. Benoit’s aim is to propose authentic wines of excellent quality produced with a constant concern for the natural balance of life cycles, a statement that you will find on his label “Vignes cultives dans le respect du vivant”.
Location: France, Loire, Anjou
Winemaker: Benoît Courault
Grapes: Chenin Blanc
Soil: Ordovicien schistes locally called “schistes gréseux de Saint Georges” with veins of phtanites (a silica-rich sedimentary rock) and quartz
Winemaking: Vinified without temperature control in fiberglass vats, aged in the same vessels and without any sulfur additions. No fining and no filtration.
‘Le Petit Chemin’ is Benoît’s entry-level Chenin cuvée, hand-harvested from 60-year-old vines. Stiff and bracing like a winter breeze, with flecks of lemon oil, celery leaf, white nectarine. Drink now with roasted rutabaga or butter-poached fish; or try and forget about it for a few years and return to a real gem.
From the importer Avant Garde: Benoit Courault is a young and established vigneron in Faye d’Anjou, a little village south of Angers along the Layon river. Not a son of a winemaker, early on, Ben decided to study wine. He went to Beaune. From 2003 until 2006, he worked with the famous vigneron Eric Pfifferling from Domaine L’Anglore in Tavel.
Back to his native Loire, he found 5ha of vineyards and started his estate in 2006. Benoit’s aim is to propose authentic wines of excellent quality produced with a constant concern for the natural balance of life cycles, a statement that you will find on his label “Vignes cultives dans le respect du vivant”.
Location: France, Loire, Anjou
Winemaker: Benoît Courault
Grapes: Chenin Blanc
Soil: Ordovicien schistes locally called “schistes gréseux de Saint Georges” with veins of phtanites (a silica-rich sedimentary rock) and quartz
Winemaking: Vinified without temperature control in fiberglass vats, aged in the same vessels and without any sulfur additions. No fining and no filtration.
‘Le Petit Chemin’ is Benoît’s entry-level Chenin cuvée, hand-harvested from 60-year-old vines. Stiff and bracing like a winter breeze, with flecks of lemon oil, celery leaf, white nectarine. Drink now with roasted rutabaga or butter-poached fish; or try and forget about it for a few years and return to a real gem.
From the importer Avant Garde: Benoit Courault is a young and established vigneron in Faye d’Anjou, a little village south of Angers along the Layon river. Not a son of a winemaker, early on, Ben decided to study wine. He went to Beaune. From 2003 until 2006, he worked with the famous vigneron Eric Pfifferling from Domaine L’Anglore in Tavel.
Back to his native Loire, he found 5ha of vineyards and started his estate in 2006. Benoit’s aim is to propose authentic wines of excellent quality produced with a constant concern for the natural balance of life cycles, a statement that you will find on his label “Vignes cultives dans le respect du vivant”.