Joël Gigou is credited with saving Jasnières, a minuscule appellation (barely 100 hectares) on the Loir (no "e"), a tributary between Tours and Le Mans. The whites are a product of that magical symbiosis between Chenin Blanc and tuffeau, and arguably the most singular expression of either in all the Loire. Gigou is a conscious archaist, and the wines hold their own against all that modern wine-wizardry can throw forth: a thrilling fusion of fruit and mineral which only the greatest Rieslings, white Burgundies, and Savennières can offer. Joël's son Ludovic and daughter Dorothée now run the estate, certified organic and farmed with biodynamic leanings, its wines fermented with native yeasts. Ludovic has proved as attuned as his father to the qualities that are Jasnières' hallmark: in comparative tastings, Gigou wines are as palpably dominant as any we have encountered. The Oxford Companion names Gigou in its Jasnières entry, a distinction he shares in our portfolio with López de Heredia, Mouchão, and Tissot. With only 10 to 15 percent of production exported, the wines remain a genuinely rare find outside France.