Terres de ROA 'Solaire' Saint-Pourçain AOC 2021

Raisins (or grapes, to us Americans), Organics, Attitude: These are the hallmarks of Terres de ROA, a small-yet-mighty family-run winery in France’s Saint-Pourçain, one of the few in the neighborhood to rely on homeopathic doses, natural preparations and composts in lieu of pesticides and other synthetic products, and the only Certified Organic producer in appellation. Founded in 2006 by parents Claudine and Luc Tisserand, things are today managed primarily by their daughter Loren, who returned home after establishing a career in fashion then cutting her teeth alongside Burgundy legend Sylvain Pataille (no big deal or anything). Though vines criss-cross through a handful of soils and situtes in the communes of Monétay sur Allier and Bresnay, just four grapes—chardonnay, gamay, pinot noir and tressallier, a variety grown exclusively in Saint-Pourçain—are cultivated. Since taking the reins, Loren has extended the domaine’s pioneering minimal interventionist perspective to the cellar, relying on native yeasts, avoiding additions throughout vinification and using vanishingly small amounts of sulfur at bottling. Made from a mix of 15-50-year-old chardonnay vines planted in granite soils, this is a crispy wine of ringing clarity, offering earthy floral aromatics and a gentle, polished palate of sun-kissed golden apples. Certified organic, low-intervention/natural wine, vegan.