Log in for prices and ordering
Very Limited. Chidaine’s Franc de Pied derives from a tiny parcel (0.2- hectares close to the cliff’s edge) of ungrafted vines in Les Bournais, planted at the same time as the vines that make up the ‘standard’ cuvée. This wine is fascinating to taste alongside its sister wine from grafted vines. It typically offers more depth, more finesse and length. It is also more tightly wound, more mineral and ethereal.
Chidaine often also finds an alluring bitters-like character in the wine, not apparent in the regular cuvée, Les Bournais. Unlike the classic bottling, the Franc de Pied is raised in a second fill 1200-litre Taransaud foudre. We haven’t tasted the new vintage as we have so few bottles. Form suggests a reminder of what phylloxera took away from France’s wine culture; a ‘grand cru’ Loire Chenin of exceptional intensity and length of flavour, humming with energy and chalky, limestone cut.