Cheverny is an impressive French Chateau, in the big fancy house sense rather than the wine corporation way. There’s an absurd quantity of Chateau along the Loire as it heads east to west, and cycling through the neighbourhood it’s easy for them to blur together. This one is probably easiest to recognise from its appearance in TinTin books.
I had a bottle of 2005 Cheverny, Le Vieux Clos from Domaine Delaille to remind me. It smells lovely with oodles of gooseberry and some scented tropical fruits. It’s dry with good acidity, but not a rip roaring amount. It tastes fruity, with a strong dash of minerality and some grassy herbiness. What more could a person want.
It’s not a pure sauvignon blanc, it also includes chardonnay which seems to soften off the acidity and add softer tropical fruits to the more traditional zippy Loire flavours, making it a happy compromise between the two rather than a bizarre and ugly love child.
At under £6 a bottle from Majestic it’s a steal, perfect with seafood, even crab, whether you love TinTin or not.