The 2021 Saumur L'Échelier offers up an exotic, ripe bouquet of lemon oil, spices and ripe orchard fruits intertwined with a flinty-driven character. Medium to full-bodied, tense and straight, it’s satiny and ample with a rich crystalline core of fruit and an ethereal, vertical finish with chalky dry extracts. pH: 3.02; no malolactic fermentation. - Yohan Castaing

Don't mess with the 2021 Saumur Blanc L’Échelier: it's got attitude—flirty, floral and transparent, with the purity of a glacier. The Germains didn't do any malolactic despite the natural acidity of this vintage. This is an acid fiend's wine, but it's ripe phenolics give real firmness, like a fierce girl. Melon and apple flavors linger on the very pure and strict conclusion. -- Rebecca Gibb MW