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Thierry Hesnault

Thierry Hesnault La Centenaire du Vauperroux 2023

Name: Thierry Hesnault La Centenaire du Vauperroux 2023
Brand: Thierry Hesnault
SKU: HESNAULT-CENTENAIRE
Price: 60.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

$60.00

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Style: Dry, medium-bodied red of striking linear precision; Pineau d'Aunis at its most concentrated — the five-week maceration on ungrafted 120-year-old vines on sandy iron-rich soils produces a wine of genuine density and structure without losing the variety's defining freshness and peppery spice
Grapes & terroir: 100% Pineau d'Aunis ("à rameaux rouges" sub-variety), ungrafted vines planted in 1902 on a 0.60-hectare parcel of sandy soil with silex and iron in a forested lieu-dit in Chahaignes, Sarthe, northern Touraine; organically farmed with minimal treatments
Winemaking: Hand-harvested; destemmed; five-week skin maceration; 15 months aging in old oak barrels in a tuffeau cave cellar without electricity or running water; gravity flow throughout; fermentation at naturally low cave temperatures with indigenous yeasts; unfined, unfiltered; no added sulfites at any stage
Serving temperature & decanting: Serve at 60–63°F; decant 45–60 minutes — the wine is structured and benefits from air
Pairing: Rillettes du Mans (the traditional potted pork from the Sarthe — the very region where the vines grow)
Similar to: Coteaux du Loir from Jean-Pierre Robinot in its Pineau d'Aunis spice and Loire mineral character

Thierry Hesnault La Centenaire du Vauperroux 2023 is a dry red wine made from 100% Pineau d'Aunis — the red-branch sub-variety ("à rameaux rouges") — grown on ungrafted vines planted in 1902 in the lieu-dit Vauperroux, near Chahaignes in the Sarthe, northern Touraine, Loire Valley. The 0.60-hectare parcel grows on sandy soils with silex and iron, on its own roots, in the middle of a forest. Thierry Hesnault destemmed the grapes and fermented them on the skins for five weeks, then aged the wine 15 months in old barrels in his tuffeau cave cellar. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, and without any added sulfites. Vin de France.

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Important Compliance Requirements

FedEx and other carriers we might occasionally use can only deliver wine to customers who are 21 years or older. Someone must be at the address to receive the package, carriers don't just drop a package and leave. They must ensure the person receiving the wine is 21 or older.

Re-shipping a Package

If a package is returned to us after three failed delivery attempts, we can only re-ship the wine upon payment of a re-shipping fee, to be determined based on the shipping address and number of bottles. Shipping wine is extremely expensive. We are sorry about this, but we have no other choice. Please make sure there's always someone at the address you enter as your shipping address.

If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.

Re-routing a Package

If you'd like to reroute a package after it's been shipped, we can do so for a $20 re-routing fee. We cannot re-route a package across state borders. For any change of address, please contact us as soon as possible, ideally within 1-2 days from placing the order or we cannot guarantee we'll be able to reroute or change your order's shipping address.

Canceling an Order

If you'd like to cancel an order after it's been shipped, we can do so upon payment of a small cancellation fee – the amount depends on the size of the order. Carriers charge us a lot of money to recall a package en-route.

Heat/Frost damage

We are not responsible for heat- or frost-related issues. We offer ice-packs upon request. Please let us know if you think that there could be heat-related issues. If we don't hear anything from you regarding weather issues before an order is shipped, or if you don't request a hold due to the weather, we are not responsible for heat/frost damage.

Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

3. Please track your package using the tracking service.

4. The carrier will attempt delivery a maximum of 3 times. After 3 delivery attempts, your package will be sent back to our warehouse.**

*Please ensure your email address is correct; otherwise, you will not receive the order and shipping confirmation emails.

**If delivery is attempted 3 times without success, or if you fail to retrieve your package from the carrier depot by the stated deadline, the shipping fee will not be refunded to the customer.

Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Thierry Hesnault

Thierry Hesnault farms 2.68 hectares of old vines in the Sarthe, near the village of Chahaignes in northern Touraine, from a tuffeau cave cellar without electricity or running water. He was born near Amboise into a family of winemakers, and grew up with the vineyards as a constant presence. After traveling extensively and working in vineyards across France and beyond — including time in Bordeaux, Champagne, and Vouvray — he returned to the Loire, where he collaborated with two of the region's most important natural wine figures: Jean-Pierre Robinot, the Coteaux du Loir producer whose work with Pineau d'Aunis and Chenin Blanc shaped a generation of Loire winemakers, and Eric Nicolas of Bellivière, another leading Jasnières and Coteaux du Loir producer. Thierry also taught at the Lycée Viticole in Amboise, the Loire's viticultural school.

He spent years quietly searching for old vine parcels before starting his own production in 2009. The parcels he found are genuinely rare: La Centenaire du Vauperroux (0.60 ha of ungrafted Pineau d'Aunis planted in 1902), La Fosse Vineuse (0.30 ha of Chenin Blanc planted in 1910, growing in a forest clearing), hybrid vines from the 1960s and 70s, and old Gamay parcels in Touraine. Each parcel is worked individually, and all vineyard treatments are kept to an absolute minimum — no herbicides, no synthetic inputs, barely any copper or sulfur.

In the cave, Thierry works without modern infrastructure. Fermentations proceed naturally at the cool, stable temperature the tuffeau provides, driven entirely by indigenous yeasts. All wines move by gravity. Reds are macerated for weeks in old vessels, whites are pressed directly and aged without topping up. Nothing is added: no commercial yeasts, no sulfites, no fining agents, no filtration. The wines are rare, made in tiny quantities, and are sought by importers and wine enthusiasts across Europe and the United States.

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Wine region

Loire Valley, France

The Sarthe is a departement in the northern reaches of Touraine, in the Loire Valley, where viticulture has existed since at least the medieval period. It sits immediately north of Loir-et-Cher and borders the Coteaux du Loir and Jasnières appellations — two of the Loire's smallest and most historically significant wine zones. The River Loir (distinct from the Loire) flows through this territory and has shaped a landscape of tuffeau limestone cliffs, forested hillsides, and small farming hamlets where Pineau d'Aunis has been the dominant red variety for centuries.

Pineau d'Aunis — also written Pinot d'Aunis — is one of the oldest documented grape varieties in France. Its name connects it to the priory of d'Aunis, near Touraine, where monastic records mention it in the Middle Ages. It fell out of favor during the 20th century as easier-to-sell international varieties encroached on the Loire's small-producer culture, and plantings declined sharply. What remains today is largely in the hands of a small number of committed vignerons in the Coteaux du Loir, Jasnières, and the Sarthe, of whom Thierry Hesnault is among the most serious and least commercially oriented.

The specific soils of the Vauperroux lieu-dit in Chahaignes are a departure from the more typical clay and tuffeau of much of the Sarthe. The parcel sits on sandy subsoil with seams of iron and silex — a combination that drains freely, prevents waterlogging, and contributes a distinctive iron-mineral note to the wines grown on it. The forested surroundings moderate temperature and humidity, and the ungrafted vines — survivors of phylloxera through the free-draining sand that the pest cannot penetrate — root directly into this ancient terroir without the buffer of a grafted rootstock.

Frequently asked question

When is my order shipping?

We are doing your best to ship your order in 2-3 business days.

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Do I have to sign upon delivery?

Yes, someone 21 years or older must sign for the package.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

What if I miss a delivery?

Worry not, we have options, but please read carefully.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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What is natural wine?

Natural wine is a type of wine made in small batches from organic or biodynamic grapes with minimal intervention.

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Biodynamic wine is wine made from grapes farmed biodynamically. Biodynamic farming is a holistic approach.

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