What's Pressoir Drinking - Les Noëls de Montbenault

by Edouard Bourgeois
April 12, 2024

I tasted my first sip of Chenin from Les Noels de Montbenault during La Tablée 2022. Needless to say, I couldn’t have had a more surprising wine that night, a polar opposite to the heady Grenache and powerful Syrah poured across the room. Pascaline Lepeltier generously shared with me and some others a taste of this mind-blowing Chenin. Her profound love for the grape variety was palpable as her eyes grew wide open while pouring the 2016 elixir from Richard Leroy.

A Chenin among the beasts of the Rhône at La Tablée 2022

Back to my desk, I did some research and found out more about why this wine was so special.

Richard Leroy is one of these prodigy winemakers who follow a vision while understanding all the complications of the journey to get where they want. Initially an amateur of wine tasting, Richard belonged to a Parisian wine club where he was able to taste many wines from around the world. Refining his palate, he decided to make his own wine. He purchased Noels de Montbenault in 1996, a domaine that had been in existence for 25 years and always treated organically. This 3 hectare property, located in Faye d’Anjou, is known for its remarkable sweet Chenins, made from “grains nobles”, these intriguing rotten grapes where the sugar gets concentrated by dehydration of the fruit. So, Richard naturally started making these sweet wines, but in 1998 the rain devastated his production, making it impossible to develop the precious noble rot. Another issue he saw with the production of sweet wines was the inevitable use of sulfur. Inspired by Mike Angeli, a neighbor vigneron known for his superb dry Chenins, Richard decided to gradually produce more dry wines and less sweet wines to eventually focus solely on dry wines from his 2 parcels: Les Noels de Montbenault and Les Rouliers.

Montbenault is 2 hectares and planted with 40 year old vines at the top of the hill overlooking the Layon River. The soil is composed of schist on top of a volcanic bedrock. The vineyard is exposed to the south and benefits from useful windy conditions that help in drying out the vines, which limits the development of diseases.

Richard follows the biodynamic principles and his aversion for sulfur has grown to the point that he now only uses 20mg of SO2/liter compared to the conventional 150 to even 180 mg/liter commonly used by French winemakers on average. Even the barrels he purchases have never been treated with sulfur.

Of course, when a winemaker decides to forgo sulfur in winemaking, the risks of flaws in wine start to emerge. One of them, known as “mouse”, a descriptor for an undesirable dusty aroma, became a center of Richard’s attention and he was able to understand its phenomenon and of the two vintages I was lucky enough to taste, none were affected by mousy aromatics. Instead, the ethereal purity and freshness in both the 2016 and the 2017 were the signature of these magnificent Chenins, reminiscent of almonds and sharp citrus.