Régis and Sylvain La Forêt Loire Chenin Blanc 2021

The earliest estimates place Chenin Blanc’s arrival in the unspoiled fields and river-nourished earth of France’s Loire Valley in the deep annals of the history books, more than a millennium ago. Unmatched in versatility, Chenin is a grape shapeshifter, giving rise to kaleidoscopic expressions ranging from thick and honeyed to sweet and fruity to lean and flinty. La Forêt, crafted by the skilled team of cousins Régis Tuccinardi and Sylvain Grosshans under their namesake project Régis and Sylvain, leans toward the latter, juxtaposing clean lines of mandarin and stone fruit with delightful chalky dryness that points to the hand-harvested fruit’s origin in limestone-infused soil. La Forêt, French for ‘forest’, depicts its titular lush scenery on the label — an abstract illustration of Régis and Sylvain’s commitment to distilling the will and whim of the land into the bottle.