Vinified and matured for eight months in large barrels (demi-muids), the 2022 Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Choisilles is particularly flamboyant in this vintage. It opens with a vivid bouquet of exotic fruits, ripe pear, flowers, spices and a subtle touch of reduction. Medium- to full-bodied, it is concentrated and fleshy, framed by a delicate thread of gastronomic bitterness that lends tension and complexity. The finish is long, deep and layered. More structured and dense than the Clos du Breuil, its 2.6 grams of residual sugar contribute to its balance and promise graceful evolution over the next 15 years.
94 points, Yohan Castaing, Wine Advocate (Oct 2025)
Weighty and serious, with quinine bitterness and mineral density the foundation for quince, tangerine and earthy lilac. Turns stern and chiseled on the racy palate, with lime oil, pickled ginger and cardamom chiming in. White grapefruit–laced acidity and tannins drive the finish, which is concentrated, straight-laced and long. Drink now through 2032. 2,500 cases made, 110 cases imported.
93 points, Kristen Bieler, Wine Spectator (Apr 2025)
The 2022 Montlouis “les Choisilles” Sec from François Chidaine is a superb wine, but it is already starting to enter into its closed down period of adolescence and will soon demand an extended period of cellaring before it comes out again from behind its structure. The bouquet is deep, ripe and complex, offering up scents of quince, pear, lanolin, chalky soil tones, paraffin, white flowers and a touch of orange peel in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and well balanced, with a superb core of fruit, fine soil undertow, zesty acids and a long, nascently complex and very promising finish. There is just the first touch of chalk dust on the backend that is the sign of a dry chenin blanc getting ready to settle in for its period of hibernation. The wine is 13.5 percent octane in this vintage and has a great future ahead of it. I would suspect that there is still a window of a year to eighteen months where it will still drink well, after which it will demand some cellaring time before it reemerges from its cocoon and takes flight for the long haul.
92+ points, John Gilman, View From The Cellar (Aug 2025)
The wine has a golden colour and citrusy nose with perfumed lemon sherbet. The palate is rich and round, only just dry with 3g/L residual sugar and an almost pineapple sweetness to the bright fruit. Clean and crisp, with a delicious freshness and chalky minerality. Wonderful balance and elegance, with the lightness of texture that Chenin achieves in Montlouis. The finish is savoury and saline. Highly drinkable. The wine undergoes long fermentation in 600L old oak before resting on the lees in the same vessels, for around six months more.
92 points, Beverley Blanning, Decanter (May 2024)
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