2023 Château Tour des Gendres Périgord Blanc ‘Cantalouette’

40% Sauvignon Blanc, 40% Chenin Blanc, 20% Savagnin. All farming is organic. The vines grow on loamy and clayey limestone soil, which gives the wines a fine minerality, and on a mixture of sand and loam that supports the fruitiness and creaminess. Native yeast fermentation and four days of skin contact. The wine ages on the fine lees for eight months and is only minimally filtered.

Pours a lightly gold color and gives off aromas of zesty citrus, fresh peach, grapefruit pith, green apple, almond and just a hint of reduction.   Medium bodied, with some oiliness to the texture from the skin contact. Beautiful, lifted acidity keeps everything very fresh.  Flinty minerality and a long, saline finish make this a complex and enjoyable drink. 

Château Tour des Gendres is a 75 acre wine estate located in Ribagnac in the heart of the Bergerac appellation and managed today by Gilles and Margaux de Conti. Its story begins with Primo de Conti, farmer and son of Italian immigrants, who planted a few vines in Ribagnac. By taking over his father’s vines, Luc de Conti created Château Tour des Gendres in 1981 and developed it to become one of the flagship estates of Bergerac. When their father retired and after wandering their separate ways, siblings Gilles and Margaux de Conti finally took over the family torch in 2022, to give new impetus to the estate with lots of new ideas! A precursor of his time and despite opposition, Luc de Conti began working in organic farming in 1996 and was finally certified in 2009. Gilles and Margaux planted Savagnin in 2017, a grape variety that still does not exist in Bergerac.