Pineau d’Aunis is making a comeback in the Loire Valley. This enigmatic variety almost vanished in the early 1970s before starting a slow but steady renaissance. Today, nearly 500 hectares of Pineau d’Aunis are planted (so we’re told), chiefly in the lesser-known Loire regions such as the Touraine appellation and Coteaux du Loire. Loved by the natural people–not to mention a favourite of the thirsty fruit fly Drosophila suzukii–we’ve not had too much experience with Pineau d’Aunis outside of some lovely, fragrant reds from Eric Nicolas Domaine de Bellivière. Regardless, the finest wines for this variety seem to combine beautiful perfumes of wild strawberry, red flower and market-fresh berries with engaging peppery spice and rippling silky fruit—at least, that’s what you get at Les Quatre Piliers.

Low yields are key to the purity and quality on offer here, as is the sensitive winemaking ethos that includes just a little hand plunging and only a pinch of sulphur at bottling. Aging occurs in Valentin’s bespoke oak barrels, whose staves are personally selected and dried in-house before being coopered in Burgundy. The juice ages on lees for 12 months before being bottled, again, without filtration.