Brendan Stater-West, Saumur, Les Chapaudaises 2021 - 75cl

If the Brezé bottling is Brendan Stater-West's grand statement, Les Chapaudaises is where he shows his hand more openly. It is still Saumur Chenin Blanc, still worked with the restraint he absorbed under Romain Guiberteau, but this cuvee wears its brightness on its sleeve. Stater-West is the rare outsider, an American who talked his way into the Loire and now farms limestone parcels most locals would kill for.

The 2021 was a cool, testing vintage in the Loire, and it suits this wine. Picked off clay-over-limestone soils, fermented and raised with a light hand and bottled with minimal fuss, it comes in at a modest 12% alcohol. Everything here is about line and freshness rather than power.

Expect yellow apple, pear and white peach on the nose, lifted by lemon and a note of honey and beeswax that hints at Chenin's other side. The palate is dry and taut, fleshy citrus and pulpy weight cut clean by electric acidity and a jab of crushed wet stone. There's a flicker of bitterness on the mid-palate, a touch of honey, then a long saline finish. It is unmistakably a food wine, and it drinks well now through the next five or six years.

How to Serve

Serve at 10-11 degrees in a white wine glass with a decent bowl. No decant required, though it firms up and gains detail with twenty minutes of air. Keep it cool, not icy.

Where to Drink It

Bright in London Fields, whose menu is built for wines like this. Sabor off Regent Street for its briny, seafood-led plates. Jolene in Newington Green for a relaxed, low-intervention list.

Food Pairings

This wants shellfish. I would drink it with a plate of raw oysters or grilled langoustines with garlic butter, the salinity in the wine meeting the salinity on the plate. It is also very good with a simple goat's cheese and herb tart.