INSIDER'S PICK: 2021 THOMAS-LABAILLE SANCERRE 'l'AUTHENTIQUE' $29.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

A lot of the Loire wine region is going through some dire struggles. Along with the worldwide difficulties that have impacted all our lives over the last 2+ years, the Loire has suffered back to back vintages where the vineyard yields have been cut in half or worse. Early frost damage, hail storms while grapes are on the vines, and plant damage from both those events has left many with little to sell. The quality of what has survived is still lovely, especially in the hands of quality producers, there just isn't much of it. Thomas-Labaille is a long standing and well regarded producer that owns about 20 acres of Sauvignon Blanc vineyards in and around the legendary commune of Chavignol, including a part of the steeply sloping and iconic Mont Damnes vineyard. The yield from Mont Damnes was so small this vintage for them that the winery decided it was not feasible to make a separate bottling, and was better used to bolster their regular l'Authentique. The quality of the wine that made it to the bottle is still deliciously classic Sancerre, so if you weren't in the market for any higher end Sancerre wines anyway this addition is actually in your favor. Clean, pure and zesty with lots of mineral driven white fruits and definite notes of chalk and seashell so classic in the from wines around Chavignol, indeed enhanced by being 'touched by greatness' and the small percentage of Mont Damnes in the mix. A bit tight being so newly bottled, the fruit definitely gets fuller and juicier the longer it's open, and can even use with a good decant if possible. Even in a tough year there's a lot to enjoy here.

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