Bottles of “Chenin de Brz” lined the royal wine cellars of 18th-century Europe the hill of Brez has always been special. Intensely chalky limestone soils, Mosel-like slopes, and a history that few Loire sites can match. Romain Guiberteau, the leading star of the New Loire movement, owns some of the best parcels here, with vines planted in 1933 and 1952. The wines are organically farmed (AB certified since 2007) and made with minimal intervention Romain works less and less in the cellar each year, which, as he proves, doesn’t mean less skill but more. The result is Chenin of, as one critic put it, “punk rock violence yet Bach-like logic and profoundness.” One of the great Loire whites, full stop.