For quality and value, Abbesse Sauvignon Blanc is hard to beat and an all-time customer favourite. It's from our friends, the Bougrier family, with whom we've worked for the last 20 years. Every year, they search out the best parcels of grapes from Touraine, the Pays Nantais (home to Muscadet) and other regions where the grape shines to get the perfect balance of bright fruit and elegant, citrus zip. They've named the wine in honour of the original Abbesse of the famous Abbaye de Fontevraud nearby, Louise de Bourbon, a major figure in Loire history. This delicious expression of the region’s reigning grape is a fitting tribute to her. Delicious chilled as a glass on its own, it's also a classic with goat’s cheese and all sorts of seafood.

You couldn’t hope to find Sauvignon of this quality for the price in any of the Loire’s more famous regions, like Sancerre or Pouilly. Blended from the year’s tastiest vats, this wine is as subtle and complex as it is refreshing and zingy. It’s made exclusively for us by our trusted friend Franck Chatelain at Noël Bougrier’s renowned cellar in the Touraine. The original Abbesse was one Louise de Bourbon of the nearby Abbaye de Fontevraud and a major figure in Loire history. This delicious expression of the region’s reigning grape, Sauvignon Blanc, is a fitting tribute to her. With its appealing, crisp, lemony fruit and zippy freshness, it’s delicious on its own any time and goes ever so well with goat’s cheese and lighter fish dishes.

Champion the small grower with this terrifically fresh and grassy white. It’s from Marlborough, which enjoys a worldwide reputation for herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc. Duck ’n’ Pheasant is from a cellar that works with individual growers who lack the facilities to produce their own wine, but don’t want to see their precious harvest become an anonymous component of a big brand.

The grapes were all sourced from vineyards which, thanks to free draining, gravelly soils (and the odd duck or pheasant), give excellent flavour intensity. Quality in 2021 was exceptional, with lovely concentration, all captured in bottle and sealed in under screwcap for guaranteed freshness. A crisp glass on its own, and a tasty partner to salmon, chicken or Thai curry.