Stéphane Cossais Le Volagré Montlouis-sur-Loire Chenin Blanc 2008

With the help of the Foucaults and Francois Chidaine, Standeacute;phane was able to obtain about 3 hectares of Chenin vines in Montlouis to begin his quest. After a series of backbreaking vintages, he finally made a wine he was proud of in 2004, and he was off and running. Though he started out making several cuvandeacute;es, he finally settled on just one, Le Volagrandeacute;. His strict farming principles and exacting care in the cellar allowed him to produce wines of immense purity, transparency and definition. He was a man in pursuit of perfection and by all accounts was on the path to make a wine that would rival his mentors' when his life was cut tragically short in 2009 at the young age of 42. His friend and colleague Frantz Saumon took care of wrapping up theandnbsp;andeacute;landeacute;vage and bottling of his final vintage, 2008. Despite his incredibly premature departure,andnbsp;Standeacute;phaneand#39;sandnbsp;final wine is absolutely full of life and joy. It is a fitting culmination of many years of sweat and stress and a fantastic testament to the progress and emergence of his great talent. Given Standeacute;phane's unparelled lineage and the sheer class of this wine, we were surprised and thrilled when we were offered some recently, and we grabbed as much as possible. It's a little disheartening to imagine the heights that Cossais might have reached as he continued to mature as a vigneron, but it's also a pleasure to see that his final work was exactly what he set out to achieve andndash; a breathtaking Chenin to match the great Brandeacute;zandeacute;.

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