From our importer: The rather small area of ​​the Coteaux-du-Layon, famous for its sweet wines, has proven to be fertile terrain for winemakers with strong personalities willing to flip the script. Since the original wave of Patrick Baudouin, Philippe Delesvaux, Jo Pithon and Mark Angeli in the late 1980's, to this very day the area continues to attract many brilliant and eccentric personalities, often newcomers to the area and profession. Many of the most captivating dry white wines of the Loire Valley now come from this sector, and Mark Angeli's tireless efforts to promote the alternative potentials of the region are largely responsible for this.

Mark, a chemistry student turned stonemason who embraced viticultureas a form of environmental protection, is a firm believer in " biodynamic" and in the wines that can be made from this method of culture. He bought his estatein 1990, with seven hectaresof Anjou, Coteaux-du-Layonand, Bonnezeaux.

These last two designations, planted by law entirely in Chenin Blanc, are supposed to yield richly sweet soft or syrupy wines every year. The rules do not admit any off-dry or dry wine, as it does in Vouvray and Montlouis. Anything below a soft loses the names Coteaux-du-Layonor Bonnezeaux, has to be entirely dry and becomes an Anjoublanc, the lowest of categories in the area and the least remunerative too. So, every year early in the picking season, winemakers have to gamble that the weather in September and October is going to concentrate the grapes' sugar through noble burp or raisining, and that they'll be able to make sweet wines.

After years of making celebrated Bonnezeaux, Angéli decided several vintage ago to reverse course, and make great dry (or semi dry) wines from most of his studs,
even in Bonnezeaux. Thus was created his blanc “La Lune”, which has the deep gold color of a sweet Chenin, and notes of dried, candied fruit on the nose; the mouth is rich, despite its minerality and lively acidity; the wine is totally dry, but with the weight and flavors of a soft:in all, quite an astonishing feat of vinegrowing and winemaking.

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