It’s not every day you get to introduce a brand new, honest-to-god future Loire superstar, but today we’re lucky to be in this position with Felix Celard. Hailing from Saint Melanie sur Aubance, solidly in the Schist-dominant Anjou Noir terroir, Felix is a quiet, serious and young winemaker with unbelievable drive and the goal of “communicating the truth of my place by creating local, frank and gourmet wines. This is, perhaps a, “don’t just take our word for it,” moment, as the ace in his sleeve is his association with one of the absolute Anjou GOATS, Thibaud Boudignon, who knows a thing about Chenin. Felix counts Thibaud both as a mentor and a friend and has learned a lot via their association and his time working under him. The wines, we’re thrilled to report, are delicious, crackling with potential but also ready to go right now and cause a scene.

Felix farms nearly 6ha surrounding the Aubance river, the majority of which is a single vineyard named Grand Pierre, which should give one a clue about the minerality of the soils. In addition, Felix has just finished planting a smaller parcel to Chenin, named La Gaterie, directly underneath the old vines of Grand Pierre. In the vineyard, Felix works organically and has been incorporating biodynamic treatments, herbal work and regenerative eco-grazing techniques while still trying to avoid becoming dogmatic, saying “I’m at the beginning of my adventure.” Of far more importance than any label to Felix is to respect the biodiversity of his site, which is set back surrounded by woods and not just endless rows of grapes. “It’s a privileged setting,” he reports, “I am very fortunate to be here.”

Felix’s cellar work should come as no surprise to those followers of Boudignon - clean, modern winemaking with a classicist’s bent and a cult-like devotion to good fruit and to preserving the identity of his terroir. All the winemaking at the estate toes the line between non-interventionalist and classicist – all fermentation is spontaneous, for example, but the wines do see so2. With only one vintage in bottle, it’s hard to read where Felix’s winemaking will be in five, ten years from now – but of more importance, perhaps, is the talent and ambition shining out of each cuvee – these are absolutely wines of someone with something to prove and the means to do it.