One of the new super-stars of the Loire Valley, Damien Laureau now has nearly 20 vintages of experience behind him. Starting in the mid 90’s working with his uncle in the Anjou near St Gemmes, he has since bought and rented several prime parcels in the small Savennieres appellation including a tiny parcel of the prime Roche aux Moines vineyard. Today his with very small family holdings Damien farms a total of just 8.5 hectares ensuring he can grow the best possible quality from these vineyards.

Working organically in the vineyards he harvests by hand making successive tries throughout each vineyard ending with yields that are much lower than the AOC rules. He vinifies with natural yeasts and with very low levels of sulfites in the cellar also lets the wines pass through malolactic fermentation giving stability to the wines without compromising the freshness and minerality so typical of this appellation. Ageing is done in both tanks and barrel for some wines and this is adapted to each wine as it needs (there is no new oak used and the goal is never to have oak showing in the wines). This results in wines of striking purity with terrific depth and intensity with each wine showing clearly the soil origins of each parcel of grapes. These are wines that give great pleasure now and also have the capacity to age well.