The mother-daughter team of Monique and Tessa Laroche keeps to a time-honored (and until the last 10-15 years, still widespread) Loire tradition of releasing wines only after some bottle age, as well as of offering selected older vintages. Their 2004 Savennieres - Roche Aux Moines delivers a pungent opening salvo of radish, lime zest, quarry dust, and white pepper, then saturates the palate with a palpably dense, creamy, yet bracingly high-acid matrix of quince paste and salty, stony mineral dust, then leaves the palate utterly stained with walnut, peach kernel, salt, and stone. Follow this for a decade or more: the 1994 is still available and its truffly, nutty, minerally-intense performance is riveting. Importer: WineWise, Oakland, CA 94618; tel. (510) 848-6879

Green vegetable aromas mingle with fresh kiwi and lime and a touch of pepper and salt. The wine is going through the sort of closed-up phase common with Chenin Blanc, the fruits just a hint, the texture smooth. Give it another 3–4 years, and the fruits will come together with mature almond flavors.——R.V.(9/1/2009)—— 91