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Thierry Hesnault

Thierry Hesnault Les Maluseaux 2023

Name: Thierry Hesnault Les Maluseaux 2023
Brand: Thierry Hesnault
SKU: HESNAULT-MALUSEAUX
Price: 50.00 USD
Availability: OutOfStock

$50.00

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Style: Dry, medium-bodied red with the depth and concentration that comes from two months of whole-bunch maceration on old vines — a different Gamay to the fresh, light Beaujolais-style that dominates the variety's reputation
Grapes & terroir: 100% Gamay Noir from two tiny parcels of 70-to-90-year-old massale-selected vines on deep gravel and sand near Amboise, Touraine, Loire Valley; sandy and gravelly soils; organically farmed with minimal treatments
Winemaking: Hand-harvested; two months whole-bunch maceration with gentle remontage in the tuffeau cave cellar; fermented with indigenous yeasts at naturally low cave temperatures; pressed to old barrels; 15 months aging in old oak; no electricity or running water in the cellar; gravity flow throughout; unfined, unfiltered; no added sulfites
Serving temperature & decanting: Serve at 60–63°F; decant for 15 minutes
Pairing: Rillons de Touraine (the traditional braised pork belly pieces from Touraine — a regional specialty eaten warm or cold)
Similar to: Old-vine Moulin-à-Vent from Beaujolais in its structured Gamay character

Thierry Hesnault Les Maluseaux 2023 is a dry red wine made from 100% Gamay Noir sourced from two tiny old-vine parcels near Thierry Hesnault's childhood home in the Touraine, in the Loire Valley. The vines, 70 to 90 years old and planted by massale selection on deep gravel and sand, grow close to Amboise. Two months of whole-bunch maceration in Thierry Hesnault's tuffeau cave cellar build genuine depth before pressing to old barrels for 15 months of aging. Les Maluseaux 2023 is bottled unfined, unfiltered, and without any added sulfites. Vin de France. Approximately 12% ABV.

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 is one of the Loire Valley's most discreet vignerons, farming 2.68 hectares of old-vine parcels across the Sarthe and Touraine from a tuffeau cave cellar in the village of Chahaignes — a cellar with no electricity and no running water. Born near Amboise into a winemaking family, he grew up surrounded by the vines and the culture of Touraine winemaking before traveling widely to work in vineyards across France. He spent time in Bordeaux, Champagne, and Vouvray, then returned to the Loire to work alongside two of the region's most influential natural wine producers: Jean-Pierre Robinot of Coteaux du Loir and Eric Nicolas of Bellivière. He also taught at the Lycée Viticole in Amboise for a period, bringing both the theoretical and the deeply practical sides of viticulture together.

He spent years quietly tracking down old-vine parcels before starting his own production in 2009. The Gamay parcels that supply Les Maluseaux lie near his childhood home outside Amboise — two small plots of 70-to-90-year-old massale-selected vines on deep gravel and sand that he has farmed back toward health after their earlier exposure to chemical fertilizers. His approach to pruning is careful and deliberate: he concentrates on developing the vines' deeper root systems at the expense of the shallow surface roots, believing this is fundamental to wine quality and vine longevity.

In the cellar, Thierry relies entirely on the natural conditions his tuffeau cave provides. Fermentations proceed at the cool, stable temperature of the rock, driven by indigenous yeasts, with all movement of wine done by gravity. For Les Maluseaux, the Gamay spends two months as whole bunches before pressing and a further 15 months in old barrels — a total commitment of well over a year from harvest to bottling, all without any additions. No sulfites, no fining, no filtration.

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Wine region

Loire Valley, France

Touraine is the central sub-region of the Loire Valley, stretching across the Indre-et-Loire departement and parts of its neighbors, with the city of Tours at its heart and the town of Amboise — a royal residence in the Renaissance era — to the east. The Loire and its tributaries, including the Cher, Indre, and Vienne, shape the landscape of rolling hills, tuffeau limestone escarpments, and sandy alluvial terraces that define the most important vineyard land here.

Gamay is not the variety most people associate with Touraine — that distinction goes to Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc — but it has been grown in the region for centuries. Most Touraine Gamay is made in a light, carbonic style for early drinking, but the tradition of working old-vine Gamay with longer macerations and serious cellar aging is maintained by a small number of producers who understand the grape's potential when yields are low and the soils are well-drained. The deep gravel and sand terraces near Amboise, where Thierry Hesnault farms his Gamay parcels, are especially suited to this kind of viticulture: they drain quickly, warm early in the season, and naturally limit vine vigor, pushing old vines to concentrate their energy into small bunches of intensely flavored fruit.

Touraine's tuffeau limestone is as significant below ground as above it. The soft, porous rock — the material from which the Loire's famous châteaux were built — is also what Thierry and others dig their cave cellars into. Tuffeau maintains a constant cool temperature year-round, making it ideal for slow, low-temperature fermentation and long, patient aging without modern temperature control. This tradition of cave cellaring is one of the Loire's oldest winemaking continuities, used today not as an affectation but as a genuinely functional advantage for producers who work without electricity.

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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