You’ve probably gotten used to the fact that at the beginning of the year we hit the road… and report back about it. The timing isn’t accidental: this is when the Loire Valley salons take place - the most important annual gatherings for natural wine in France.
The Salons de la Loire attract importers, sommeliers, cavistes, and wine journalists from all over the world. They come to discover new producers, reconnect with old partners, and get a comprehensive look at the new vintages - all in just a few days.
This year, we thought we’d share our experiences with you: where we went, who we met, what we tasted, and the impressions we brought home from France.
We left Budapest at dawn, catching the first flight to Paris. Even from there, the Loire Valley isn’t exactly around the corner - it was nearly a four-hour drive. After picking up our rental car, we headed straight for Angers.
Partly because our accommodation was nearby - the area is full of charming Airbnbs, known as gîtes, small independent guesthouses. We chose a cozy, countryside house as our base for the next few days. But mostly we were hurrying to Angers because a busy week awaited us: each day had 2–3 salons scheduled, so we jumped straight into our first tasting as soon as we arrived.
Les Pénitentes focuses on natural, biodynamic, and low-intervention wines, catering primarily to a professional audience. The event is held at L'Hôtel des Pénitents, a beautiful, centuries-old building that was once the center of a religious community and now serves as an event space with a unique, atmospheric charm.
Every year, we look forward to tasting the wines of Domaine Labet, which are otherwise hard to find, and to exchanging a few words with Julien, who always speaks passionately about the latest vintages and developments. Recent years, however, have been challenging: since 2018, the vineyards have been nearly continuously affected by frost, leading to very small harvests, and the Jura region has faced a series of difficult, extreme vintages.
Even so, the wines we tasted were impressive. Our personal favorite was the 2022 Lias (Chardonnay), a blend of four vineyards, remarkable for its salinity and precision. We also have to mention the 2020 En Chalasse Chardonnay: a truly deep, complex oxidative masterpiece.
Perhaps the calmest days of the week came at the very start of the trip, when the program included “only” a few tastings.
If there’s a village that truly captures the charm of the region, it’s Rablay-sur-Layon. Over the past decade, this tiny town has become a grassroots hub for the natural wine movement in Anjou and the Loire.
For a place of its size, it’s remarkable how many pioneering winemakers practicing low-intervention methods live and work here. Rablay’s name is now synonymous with independent thinking, experimentation, and lively, characterful Loire wines. We spent the first part of our second and third days here, attending three separate events.
One of our favorites was the Salon Salle à Manger, which holds a special place in our hearts. One of its main organizers is Les Errances (Maïté and Warren), whom you may already know from our portfolio. In addition to the permanent exhibitors, each year the salon hosts invited guests—this year Bencze Birtok was among them, which made us particularly proud.
Of course, we weren’t just there for local producers. Thibaud Capellaro brought his new 2024 wines, and they were simply stunning: the Zé-Ro, a Syrah–Viognier, and the Côtes du Rhône Syrah–Grenache blend completely blew us away.
Warren had a few surprises in store for us as well. Their new cuvée, Castille 2022 (100% Chenin Blanc), quickly became one of our favorites, along with the latest vintage of Kinhoyé. The 2024 batch is made entirely from Pineau d'Aunis, a local Loire variety, and it was a true fruit bomb - light, spicy, and vibrant, with fermentation and aging in fiberglass tanks.
The evening wrapped up with dinner, accompanied by the Parisian band Les Résistants, who treated us to a feast of goodies. The DJ that followed left us a bit underwhelmed - well, we are spoiled by Ádám Csordás’ sets and Marci Bodó’s artistic mixes - but we still enjoyed dancing and letting loose.
The next morning we started fresh and surprisingly ready for action, even knowing three tastings awaited us. We began in Rablay at the cozy Les Clandestines, then made our way to Angers for Grenier Saint-Jean.
We closed the day in a truly memorable setting: the Il Était Une Fois took place within the walls of the historic Château du Plessis-Macé. It was a perfect ending to an intense day - surrounded by centuries of history and tasting exciting wines along the way.
The day’s most memorable encounter was with Olivier Lejeune at Les Clandestines. We quickly discussed what our allocation would include this year. Recent years have been harsh on him: hard frosts sometimes wiped out entire crops, and rainy springs and summers brought fungal challenges. Yet despite these difficulties, what ends up in the bottle remains remarkable. We are already eagerly awaiting the arrival of the 2023 Poiésis.
We also had the chance to taste wines from true legends, such as Domaine de l'Anglore. Eric Pfifferling has been making natural wine for 26 years - an iconic figure from whom there’s always something to learn.
Pauline (Petite Nature, Ardèche) stole our hearts once again. Even after a challenging 2025, she welcomed us with a hopeful smile. We tasted both the 2024 Sorcière and Amour à la Plage, each bursting with character.
The Il Était Une Fois stood out not only for its stunning location, but also for the sheer number and quality of exhibitors. Around 70 winemakers filled the rooms and cellars of the former castle. Jean-Marc Dreyer and Claudine were present, along with Gérald from Le Mazel and Yann Durieux. This gave us the chance to taste incredible wines spanning Alsace, Burgundy, and all the way to the South of France. The 2024 Le Mazel Raoul still lingers in our memories, and we’ve decided it’s time to showcase some of Yann’s older vintages -maybe at a future pop-up…?
By the fourth day, there was still no slowing down. Three tastings were packed into a single day: Salon Les Anonymes, Rue des Belles Caves, and L'Autre Rendez-Vous. Each had its own atmosphere and environment, but all shared the same intensity: exciting wines, old friends, new discoveries, and the kind of energy that keeps us coming back to the Loire year after year.
We started at Salon Les Anonymes, where a line had already formed at the oyster counter by 10 a.m.—just a reminder of where we were. :-)
Our first stop was Christine, attending the event for the first time this year. We’ve been proud to bring Piri Naturel wines to Hungary for years, and it was impossible not to be captivated by both Christine’s warmth and the purity of her wines, which perfectly reflect the character of the Nahe region. Two of our favorites were the 2023 Weissburgunder and the new Aurora vintage, which features both local classics and Christine’s newly planted PIWI varieties.
We also made a quick detour to Grenier Saint-Jean, one of the city’s iconic locations, part of the Angers Textile Museum. We were still in awe of the medieval tapestries stretching 10–20 meters long. Here we met Valentin Morel, who presented his wines with his usual energy and enthusiasm. A true Jura powerhouse - we can’t recommend him highly enough.
Next, we made our way to Rue des Belles Caves.
François Saint-Lô, one of the region’s most recognized figures, settled in Berrie in 2018, where he discovered an extensive limestone cave system. He painstakingly restored the multi-room cellar, which had been abandoned for years, and moved in his old basket press and tanks. Today, François lives and works here as part of an almost entirely self-sufficient, mutually supportive community.
We also ran into Morgane Turlier, who shared samples of her 2025 reds and some whites - wines you’ll be able to taste soon via the Lees webshop!
We wrapped up the day at L'Autre Rendez-Vous, a tasting dedicated to young talents, held for only the second time this year. Last year, Étienne Seignovert invited us, and it was thanks to him that we returned this year—a decision we certainly didn’t regret.
Étienne’s entire lineup was outstanding: the 2024 Murmure de l’eau flowed as effortlessly as the Gentil Monstre. There’s a natural ease and lightheartedness to his style that shines not only in conversation with him, but also in every sip of his wines.
We also explored many other exciting newcomers—just the headlines, in case you spot them: Hors Ciel (Languedoc), Moritz Prado (Alsace), L'Oiseau Rodeur (Jura), and Coteau Libre (Auvergne).
Day five - tired, but still carried forward by momentum.
We deliberately planned only one tasting for the day: the event that inspired all the other “off-salons” in France: La Dive Bouteille.
Held for the 26th time at the iconic Saumur venue of Les Caves Ackerman, this is far more than a simple tasting. It’s a celebration of joy - a gathering of old friends and new faces around natural wine. Hundreds of winemakers, thousands of visitors, three days wandering the seemingly endless labyrinth of cellars, where the outside world feels completely absent.
Down there, nothing exists but the person making the wine and the person tasting it - passing it on, loving it, and sharing it.
It’s hard to capture in words a day spent wandering through the halls and corridors, each marked with a different wine region. It’s a day when you constantly bump into someone you know, slow down to taste from a familiar barrel, or get completely seduced by a label you hadn’t noticed before.
Our approach was simple: we first visited our dear producers we hadn’t yet met the days before, then those recommended by others, stopping whenever something caught our eye. The day passed this way, and we only realized how much time had flown when winemakers were already carrying empty bottles out toward the exit doors.
We stopped by Pierre and Jenny to taste the 2023 vintage of Clair Obscur. Then we visited Hugo Vercasson’s stand to taste the 2024 Face à Pierre Blanche, the new vintage of Saint-You, and a 2025 sample of Les Travers, which will be bottled in spring.
Later, we stumbled upon a huge crowd under the Jura sign - none other than Julien Maréchal, who had drawn a small village of people. We joined the queue, exchanged a few words with him, and tasted the wine. My pen could barely keep up as he spoke at full speed about soils, vintages, and vinification.
On our way out, we couldn’t resist stopping by the Austria section. We visited Ewald Tscheppe, asking about the 2025 resettlement, and then stopped by Claus Preisinger to catch up on everything that had happened since our meeting in November.
This day was all about the joy of wine and conversation, and despite the packed schedule, we left Saumur brimming with energy and unforgettable experiences.
Only three visits remained on our list for the final day.
After the salons, it was refreshing to meet winemakers in a more relaxed setting and experience their wines directly in the cellar.
Kaya invited us to join himfor a tasting and lunch. It was a wonderfully informal and friendly start to the day, and a special pleasure - rarely do you get the chance to taste his long-aged, rare wines. Kaya’s work is remarkable not only for its quality, but also because he is part of a small but growing group of Japanese winemakers making a meaningful impact on the natural wine scene in France. His approach blends Japanese precision with the characteristics of the place and the strength of old vines, while maintaining a strong focus on sustainable viticulture.
The estate has around 5 hectares of vineyards in the Coutures area near Saumur, primarily cultivating Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc, with wines typically aged 5+ years. We were lucky enough to taste the 2016 and 2018 vintages at the dining table, surrounded by the warmth of the 17th-century manoir.
From there, we headed straight to Jérôme Saurigny in Rochefort-sur-Loire for a quick cellar check to see what this year had in store. The 2024 vintage proved adventurous, resulting in a wine that brings together all the estate’s varieties. Like the 2023 Biclir, the 2024 Siamo is a “Blouge” (Blanc and Rouge), but with a higher proportion of Chenin Blanc than its predecessor. We can already say: this wine is going to sweep everyone off their feet.
Finally, we visited Thomas and Marie-Lise Batardière to take a look around the estate. It was the perfect way to close a long and exciting journey. We tasted a 2017 Les Cocus alongside the 2024 cuvées, and it was incredible to see how time shapes these wines. It’s no coincidence that we always highlight Thomas’ precision - this meticulous approach ensures that the wines will continue to be a joy for many years to come.
THE END
As you can see, these six days in France were action-packed. At first glance, it might seem like a vacation full of fun, but we’ve shared it in detail so you can see just how much work is packed into a single week. This period is always a time of learning, and the meetings here largely shape which producers and wines we collaborate with each year.
We hope you’ll follow our adventures in 2026. We’ll see you at tastings - sooner or later, the wines from all the producers mentioned above will make their way to your glass.
