Vin de France Les Rouliers Richard Leroy 2015

Lot presentation

Vin de France Les Rouliers Richard Leroy 2015

The wine

Richard Leroy is an iconoclastic Loire grower who decided in 2008 to part ways with the Anjou AOP. Since then, his production has been classified as vin de France, and is one of the Loire's most sought-after Chenins. Les Rouliers opens into attractive notes of ripe yellow fruit, and other, lightly toasted notes. In the mouth, the cuvée has a very refined texture and great tautness.

Aside from his passion, there was nothing to predispose Richard Leroy to become a winegrower (no wine producers in his family and a student of Economics) but in the middle of the 1990s he took on 2.7 hectares of vines in Rablay-sur-Layon. He used to produce sweet white wines under the Rablay-sur-Layon appellation and dry wines under the Anjou appellation but following serious disagreements with the INAO his cuvées have been reclassified under the Vin de France label. Yields are very low and only the best grapes are selected. The viticulture is, of course, organic and harvesting is done by hand. Sulphur levels have been reduced dramatically year after year. These wines are perhaps one of the finest expressions of the Chenin grape. They have also become an open secret, sought-after by connoisseurs all over the world. Unfortunately, production levels are negligible.