Vallée Moray

Like many winemakers in the small world of natural wine, Herve Grenier had a busy life before in 2014 taking over the estate Les Loges de la Folie in Montlouis-sur-Loire to create his own - Vallée Moray. An engineer by training, he had lived in the United States working on climate models, leading him to become aware of the climate upheaval that was taking place. 

When I asked him if it wasn't a rather curious idea to launch himself into wine production knowing that it would be increasingly difficult to make wine through the evolving climate, he answered with a little smile that it was precisely to find practical solutions that he had done such a thing. Once an engineer, always an engineer.

In fact, in the very beginning, obsessed with making wine, he overlooked the commerce side of the business - his winegrower neighbours amused to see him accumulating his first vintages with little experience or knowledge in sales.

Even today, Hervé is a very discreet winemaker, allowing for him to work at his own pace, to take his time without having to suffer the pressures of the market. He practices long maturation in barrels and then in bottles, and each vintage is vinified in a different way. 

Hervé experiments a lot, sometimes even trying two types of vinification on grapes from the same plot.

For all Chenin lovers, Hervé is a blessing, but one should not miss his very elegant red wines.