Marie Thibault Azay le Rideau Le Grolleau

Winemaker: Marie Thibault

Appellation: Touraine, Loire Valley, France

Grape Varieties: Grolleau

Marie’s Grolleau (as an aside, Azay-le-Rideau is the origin of the Grolleau variety), is airy and low alcohol coming in at 10.5 degrees, and made using carbonic maceration. More so than her Grandes Vignes blend, Marie’s Grolleau is a vin de soif.

Not from a winemaking family, but with degrees in biology and oenology, Marie Thibault began making wine in the early 2000s.  She worked for a time at François Chidaine in Montlouis, where she fell in love with Chenin Blanc.  In 2011, she founded her own 3.5 hectare domaine in Azay-le-Rideau, a lesser known environ of the Touraine appellation.  While in some sense this is a new beginning for Marie, she has over a decade of experience making wine and benefits from strong relationships with many growers in the region such as Noëlla Morantin and Frantz Saumon.  It sounds cliché, but her passion and energy are infectious; she’s also humble, learning one year to the next how to progress and improve.