2024 Domaine Francois Cazin Cheverny Le Petit Chambord

Fresh, sleek, and vibrantly precise — lime zest, green apple, gooseberry, chalk dust, and a saline finish with a soft roundness that sets Cheverny apart from its more austere neighbor Sancerre. The 2024 François Cazin "Le Petit Chambord" is organically farmed 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Chardonnay from siliceous clay soils in one of the Loire's most quietly excellent appellations — old vines, yields well below average, hand-harvested, native yeast, fermented and aged in stainless steel and older oak foudres, bottled unfiltered by gravity since 1997. Four generations of the Cazin family at Le Petit Chambord — the same estate that sits in the shadow of Château Chambord, built by François I in 1519, who reportedly brought the Romorantin grape to this region himself. Joe Dressner of Louis/Dressner discovered Cazin at a Loire salon in the early 1990s after tasting through every producer in the appellation — his were the only wines both he and David Lillie independently circled. Nearly 30 years later, still the right call.