Chapeau Comte Blanc 2023 | Thomas Frissant

After honing his skills across Burgundy, the Northern Rhône, Bandol, New Zealand, and Australia, Thomas Frissant returned in 2019 to his family’s fourteen hectares in Touraine Amboise. Just east of Tours and a stone’s throw from the Loire, he immediately converted the estate’s clay and silex vineyards—planted from the 1940s to the 1990s with Sauvignon, Chenin, Chardonnay, Gamay, Grolleau, and Côt—to organic farming, achieving certification in 2022. Today, Thomas crafts unpretentious, finely made wines that reflect the quiet, storied terroirs of this historic Loire enclave with clarity and honesty.

Le Chapeau Comte Sauvignon Blanc comes from 20–25-year-old, east-facing vines planted on gentle slopes of flint and clay bedrock, with flint, clay, and sand topsoil at 95 metres altitude. In the cellar, the wine undergoes a two-week fermentation in stainless steel at a maximum of 18°C, followed by three months of ageing in steel. Before bottling, it is filtered and fined with bentonite.