2021 Folium Sauvignon Blanc Val De Loire 750 ml

When harvest finally arrived in 2021, the winemakers of the Loire Valley got the good news they’d been begging for.

After a season of gloom, it was all smiles around at the sorting tables. Vignerons were popping grapes in their mouths just to revel in the crisp acidity and fresh-fruit liveliness of what was unquestionably the most classic Loire vintage in years.

The grapes were so good that winemakers could almost—almost—forget 2021’s final sting: yields were down as much as 70% in places, and 40% across the board. They wondered: How many people would get to taste the vintage that tested their wills like few before yet encapsulated quintessential, chiseled, Loire nervosité to perfection?

The 2021 Folium Sauvignon Blanc Val de Loire, drawn from growers around Tours, Blois, and Vierzon, is our solution to that quandary. Assembled by leading Loire winemaker Lionel Gosseaume in collaboration with Domaine des Carlines, it’s the closest thing you’ll find to a textbook statement of the racy, generous spirit of 2021 Loire.

In April 2021, the most severe freeze in the last 30 years locked vines in a frosty vise. In some places, winemakers camped out among vineyard rows to respond to whatever Mother Nature dealt out next: first, negative temperatures and snow, then a soggy May. Finally, vine growth exploded in June. Labor shortages, mildew, and hail posed challenges in the summer but led into a sunny, bone-dry autumn. For all the pain the season caused them, winemakers loved the taut, clean Sauvignon Blanc grapes they brought in.

Gosseaume’s connections enabled him to tap some of the best growers across the Loire Valley, masterfully harmonizing a mix of terroirs and exposures.