France, Loire

Claude Papin's work at the Château de Pierre Bise has been directed at getting the ripest and most botrytised grapes possible by harvesting non-stop for two months, only taking the rot-affected grapes on each of several passes down each row of vines, and also in the winery, in prolonging the fermentations for as long as possible to achieve the greatest purity and freshness of expression in the wines. (If you ask him he will explain that it is all to do with the correct polymerisation of the polyphenols). In doing this he completely avoids the wet-sheep smell that dogs many Chenin wines in the Loire, and produces a range of wines from different terroirs which are among the great sweet wines of the world at some of the lowest prices for this style.