Savennières Roche Aux Moines is a true terroir wine—with all guns blazing. Climbing out of the glass, the delightfully fleshy Chenin fruit is complemented by flecks of the flinty, dark-hued minerality that helps make this vineyard so distinctive. Wonderful wine.
Savennières Roche Aux Moines comes from Tessa’s Chenin blanc grown around the estate, in a clos on hillsides along the Loire River. The soil consists of schist with sandstone and clay. Yields are kept extremely low, usually around 30 h/h, sometimes much lower (2023 was 19hl/ha) and all work is done by hand including the harvest which occurs slowly over a few weeks (5-6 "tries" or pickings).
In the cellar, the grapes ferment through indigenous yeasts and the wines age for 18 months on lees in a mixture of used barrels (220 and 400-litre) and 20-hectolitre foudre. It undergoes full malolactic conversion every year, and the only sulphur addition takes place at bottling.
The resulting wine is, to quote Jon Bonné (The New French Wine), “a case study in Chenin Blanc intensity”.
DOMAINES-AUX-MOINES, Tessa Laroche, Savennières
Organic - certified Ecocert
Savennières is a tiny but justifiably celebrated appellation just south west of Angers where white wines of immense nerve, concentration and longevity are made from the Chenin Blanc grape – locally called Pineau de la Loire. The AOC lies south-southwest of Angers on the right bank of the Loire on sandy schist soils.
The lieu-dit and sub-appellation of Roche-aux-Moines occupies a mere 22 hectares within it. It gained its own appellation in 2011, thanks to the leadership and determination of Tessa Laroche.
At Domaine aux Moines, vineyard practices are designed to protect the environment, yields are low, organic fertilisers are used. Thermoregulated stainless steel vats and a pneumatic press ensure that pure fruit quality and gentle extraction are the order of the day. There is also a “petit chai” with twenty-five oak barrels in which the best selections of each vintage are either fermented or aged, although the object is not to acquire a woody flavour in the wine.
‘Tessa represents the fastest progression in quality of the last 5 years in France’ Thierry Germain, Roches Neuves (2025)