Jean Colin, Meneton Salon, 2025

This is a MUST try if you have any interest in the also-ran villages of French wine making history. The quality is divine and full of Sauvignon-like flavours, but with warmth and generosity that you just don't see on a regular basis in the Loire. This is a real treat and is one of our favourite ways to show why it can be such a rewarding thing to search outside the box!

The village of Menetou Salon is to the south and west of Sancerre and has often been over-looked on account of its position (it's frther away from the river too) and possibly the fact that it's a bit of a mouthful to pronounce. 

Nevertheless, the wines from this place are delicious and act as a wonderful foil to those of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé on account of slightly different climate and the very different soils. No flint here, instead the vines are grown chalky limestone soils that are full of ancient fossilised oyster shells; this content gives a breadth that few other Sauvignons have (on account of the limestone), while facilitating a balance that is fine and refined (because of the mineral content).

It's really good gear!

Jean Colin was the maternal grandfather of Eric Louis, who I met in a wine fair about ten years ago. His winemaking partner is Sophie, who has much better English than Eric (and far better English than my French) so it was from her that I first bought these wines. As it turns out, she has a fine knack of making wines for Irish palates (her own name is on the O'Brien's Loire wines!) and was able to understand exactly what I was looking to achieve for my customers: really great quality across a range of appellations. Now, that's a high bar for most parts of France, but in the Loire, there's a good deal of scope and space for pretty much anything you fancy: all colours, all sweetness levels, still, sparkling and fortified to boot. 

In this regard Sophie and Eric are outstanding custodians of the region's many subzones and grape varieties, making really excellent representations of each of the styles that they know and love themselves. Being a regular kind of chap, I wanted to get some regular sort of options and bought Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé at first, but then moved to their Vin de France offerings (declassified village-level wines often made from younger vines) and was both reassured and revitalised! Here was French wine that is vibrant and approachable and affordable, I thought. and since then, I have bought from as many villages as they produce, in red, white and rosé.

The estate itself, from where the Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Menetou Salon wines are sourced, is the same set of vineyards that were planted by Jean Colin and his wife Pauline before the Second World War. One of the things that I love about the story here is that after the war, access to resources and equipment was scarce, meaning that compromises were often the order of the day and when it came to finding vessels to ferment and age the wines, there was little to no oak available to them for anything like a reasonable price. They used acacia wood instead and they still do to this day! Funnily enough, it is because of this wood that their wines retain their elegance, fruit characteristics and finesse (sure, imagine big oaky Sauvignon... no thanks!).

So do join us with friends and say santé to Eric and cheers to Sophie as we continue to seek out the wonders of this very wonderful region: I really hope you enjoy them as much as I do, and even half as much as they have enjoyed making them!