Excellent natty cab franc / cab sauvignon with serious structure but a quaffable fruit profile. Red and blue berries, some stewed but most of them fresh, like how donuts are stuffed with jam but topped with fresh fruit. Dry earthy, peppery, barely mentholated finish. One of Ryan's all-time favorites.

JC Garnier

Jean-Christophe was a sommelier before deciding to pack it in and actually make the stuff. He studied winemaking in the Loire and after a stage with Marc Angeli bought a few plots of vines and started making his own wine.

He has some 60-year-old and 40-year-old Chenin vines and a bit of Cabernet Franc, Grolleau, Gamay and Pineau d’Aunis. The vines grow on schist, limestone and marl – the distinctive terroir of the Layon valley. It is not just the vineyards that make JCG’s wines so special; his Chenins spend a long time pressing softly so as to extract the juice gently – there can be a delicate oxidative quality that adds to the complexity of these wines.