La Franchaie Seraphin Anjou Blanc 2021
La Franchaie Seraphin Anjou Blanc 2021 – alternate view 2
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La Franchaie Seraphin Anjou Blanc 2021

La Franchaine
$35.00

Grape: Chenin Blanc
Vintage: 2021
Type: White

This dry white wine is a pure varietal expression of chenin blanc sourced from a twenty-five-year-old vineyard in Anjou. Winemaker Eric Dubois manages the site organically and biodynamically, utilizing a horse to plow rows over schist and loamy-sandy soils. Following a direct press, the juice ferments spontaneously with native wild yeasts inside unique ceramic barrels and sandstone amphorae without added sulfur. It undergoes a natural aging process in these vessels, allowing a controlled, slight oxidation to develop.

It displays a bright yellow-straw color, releasing refined aromatics of yellow orchard fruit, beeswax, fresh pastry, and wet limestone. On the palate, the medium-bodied framework balances a rich, slightly textured mouthfeel with a sharp line of mineral acidity. Concentrated flavors of yellow pear and lemon oil blend smoothly across a dense, clay-influenced mouthfeel. A strong vein of maritime salinity cuts right through the center, keeping the profile fresh and focused. It concludes bone-dry.

Winery

La Franchaie is the Anjou project of Eric Dubois and his partner Alex, whose first harvest took place in 2018. Eric had previously spent twenty-one years at the historic Clos Cristal in Saumur and later worked at La Coulée de Serrant. When searching for vineyards of their own, the couple wanted land with space for horses and a surrounding landscape broader than vines alone. The parcels they acquired sit beside pasture, oak trees and cereal fields, with shallow alluvial sands and silts over schist.

That agricultural diversity is part of how Eric understands the vineyard’s health. In the cellar, tanks, barrels, amphorae and glass dame-jeannes offer different ways to raise the wines. Grapes are destemmed by hand, and the work avoids pumpovers, punchdowns and stirring. The approach is methodical and unhurried, using observation and gentle movement rather than forceful extraction. Wines such as Séraphin, Volatiles and La Distraite give different views of the Anjou landscape, connected by an experienced grower’s curiosity about the whole path from soil and plant to the finished bottle.