It sometimes feels a bit paradoxical, this craving of mine for wines that defy place. Location is obviously necessary in the process of making wine, but at the same time, there is a universal through line to all of the wines that touch, or move me, that bring out any sorts of emotions beyond the purely sensoral. I haven’t figured out exactly what that is, and perhaps that’s the point. This sometimes feeling, a perception beyond words, starts with a winemaker’s connection to their land, and to their origins. Thierry Hesnault, a native of Touraine, is capable of making wines with this awareness. A casually discreet and quiet vigneron who originally came from a winemaking family, and has also worked for luminaries such as Jean Pierre Robinot, Hesnault makes wines, that at their best, contain this illuminating and sublime touch, and belie their Touraine origins, tapping into a flickering ether. Thierry’s expressions of Pineau d’Aunis, and his even rarer Pinot Noir from 100+ year old vines are at once hallmark expressions of the grapes, but are also always something else, some thing a bit more intangible, begging the drinker to take another sip.

Dix Boisselées 2020
Pinot Noir
$65



La Centenaire du Vauperroux 2020
Pineau d’Aunis
$65