Domaine Pierre Marchand, Pouilly Fumé, 'Les Loges' 2024

From the famed, flinty soils to the south of the Loire as it meanders south-east, comes this complex and structured Pouilly Fumé, made by this wonderful independent, quality-driven producer.

Minerally vibrant and mouth engaging in texture, this has delicious apple and blackcurrant-leaf flavours with a citrus and malic finish. The wine cries-out for food, and because it's a Sauvignon Blanc of serious quality, the food matching options are wide and varied.

If you want to keep it local and French, you simply have to have crottin de chavignol, the wonderful goat's cheese, unique to the Loire Valley. Delicious.

A family estate established in the village of Loges, just a stone's throw from Pouilly itself and only three blocks from Ladoucette, this is an estate that is very firmly rooted in tradition and excellence. Even though there is huge demand for Loire whites and Pouilly Fumé in particular, the brothers Éric and Pascal are committed to slow methods in the vineyard and winery. It means that they produce a good deal less than legally permitted, but that the potential quality is as high as can be from one vintage to the next. Green harvesting in the vineyards reduces potential crop size, but increases flavour concentration in the berries. It's a manual pruning during the growing season that physically focusses each plants resources. The limited temperature controlled fermentation and use of spontaneous yeast is a slower and less predictable method of winemaking, yet gives more complex and structured wines.

This is hard work, but the pay-off is that their reputation will last long after they do; it's a way of safeguarding the future, even for such a relatively small operation, and the resultant wines for us are delicious and outstanding value for money.