Wine Down Thursday: A River Runs Through It
February 26, from 6 to 7:30pm
Sampler: $20/person

Join us this Thursday as we explore France’s longest river, the Loire, a region renowned for its remarkable diversity of wines. We’ll taste three classic expressions of Loire terroir, beginning with the limestone-rich soils of Saumur, where vibrant Chenin Blanc shows striking freshness and minerality. Next, we’ll enjoy an elegant Sancerre Rosé, highlighting the appellation’s signature crispness and finesse. Finally, we’ll conclude with a friendly Cabernet Franc from Chinon, offering supple red fruits, lively acidity, and the subtle herbal and mineral nuances that make Loire reds so captivating.

Featured Wines;
2023 Arnaud Lambert Midi Saumur Blanc
Arnaud Lambert has established himself as one of the Loire's most thoughtful producers — a winemaker and soil specialist whose organic and biodynamic work across Brézé and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg has earned serious attention. The domaine farms around 40 hectares on tuffeau limestone, clay, and sand, and that geological mix is exactly what you taste in the glass: pronounced minerality, taut acidity, and a site-specificity that rewards attention. Lambert's philosophy is disciplined restraint — minimal cellar intervention paired with obsessive vineyard management — and his single-site bottlings, including the lieu-dit Midi, are where that approach pays off most clearly.

2024 Domaine Daulny Sancerre Rosé
Domaine Etienne Daulny is a small, family-run estate spanning roughly 15 hectares across fragmented plots in Verdigny and Chaudenay — two villages that sit at the heart of Sancerre's chalky, flint-laced terroir. While the appellation's reputation rests on Sauvignon Blanc, Daulny's 100% Pinot Noir rosé is a reminder that Sancerre's continental climate and limestone-rich soils are equally well-suited to producing Pinot of real precision and freshness. The 2024 vintage opens with wild strawberry, red currant, and a subtle floral lift, then moves onto a citrus-driven palate with bright acidity and a clean mineral thread that carries through to a focused finish. Light on its feet, but with enough structure to hold its own at the table.

2024 Plouzeau Chinon Rive Gauche Rouge
Marc Plouzeau represents another chapter in a multi-generation winemaking story rooted in Chinon, one of the Loire's most historically significant appellations for Cabernet Franc. Farming the left bank of the Vienne — a Loire tributary where clay-limestone, gravel, and flint soils shift meaningfully across short distances — Plouzeau has pursued full organic certification since taking over the estate in 1999, with a hands-off approach that lets those distinct soil types speak for themselves. The Rive Gauche Rouge is Chinon in a classic register: red currant, raspberry, and violet on the nose, followed by a fresh, supple palate with silky tannins, lively acidity, and a quiet peppery finish that's the Franc signature. It's the kind of wine that makes a strong case for Chinon as one of France's great undervalued reds — genuinely complex, but never overwrought.