Minchin

Bertrand Minchin, who works with his wife Albane, farms two estates at the eastern end of the Loire. The first is La Tour Saint-Martin at Morogues, in Menetou-Salon, where he brought his grandfather's vines back into production in 1987; the second is Le Claux Delorme at Selles-sur-Cher, in Valençay, which he bought in 2004.

The Menetou-Salon holding runs to seventeen hectares on Kimmeridgian limestone, the same seam that surfaces at Sancerre and Chablis: about ten hectares of Sauvignon Blanc at Morogues and seven of Pinot Noir at Humbligny, the commune to the north. Selles-sur-Cher adds fifteen hectares of gravel over a flinty clay subsoil, planted to Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Côt, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir. Menetou-Salon is bottled as the village white Morogues and the barrel-aged Cuvée Honorine, and as the red Pommerais; Valençay gives the white Les Mi-Voies and the red Les Saint-Lazare, a blend of Gamay with Côt, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir.

The vineyards hold High Environmental Value certification, and the Menetou-Salon estate has been certified organic since 2022. Picking is by hand and parcels are vinified separately. The whites run to citrus and white flowers over a chalky finish; the Valençay reds are light and gravelly, and take a slight chill. Arcana Cabinet lists five wines: the Menetou-Salon whites Morogues and Cuvée Honorine, the Valençay white Les Mi-Voies and red Les Saint-Lazare, and a Touraine red from Gamay. The range also includes the Menetou-Salon red Pommerais and a Touraine Sauvignon Blanc.