Terra Vita Vinum, 2023 Update
My visit to meet Luc Briand and Bénédicte Petit of Terra Vita Vinum back in 2022 was one of the highlights of the year. Not just because it was good to finally get back into the swing of calling in on the many vignerons of the Loire Valley, very different to the handful of tentative and stuttering visits I made during the Covid-19 pandemic (during which I learnt just how difficult it is understanding French when everybody’s wearing masks). And not because, having just spent several weeks bashing out my Bordeaux 2021 primeurs report, I was simply desperate for a dose of Loire ‘medicine’.
No, it was a highlight because at the end I came away with another strong data-point concerning the ‘New Anjou’. This new style of dry Anjou Chenin, tense, reductive and minerally, with not a trace of oaky texture nor a drop of botrytis in sight, had swept across the region in just a few years. The days of golden and oxidised Anjou Blanc (or Savennières for that matter), were surely over; the region now had a valid challenger to the sec supremacy of Vouvray or Montlouis. Or South Africa for that matter.
I spent a day making visits, calling in on Cédric Bourez at Le Clos Galerne, Vanessa Cherruau at Château de Plaisance and Luc and Bénédicte at Terra Vita Vinum, the domaine which they had acquired from the Richou family, and which was previously Domaine Richou. All three have something to offer. And it says something that I have returned to taste with all three vignerons again since those visits. So while I continue scribbling down my latest thoughts on the wines of Le Clos Galerne and Château de Plaisance, here is my latest Anjou update, on Terra Vita Vinum, looking at the most recent releases from Luc and Bénédicte.
