Les Athletes du Vin is a négociant project like no other. Started by a group of Loire Valley winemakers as a way to solve two problems at once; what to do with the inevitable leftover grapes at the end of a good harvest and how to produce Saturday night Loire Valley wines at Tuesday night wine prices. The idea was conceived by a group of French winemakers called Vini Be Good who work together to distribute their wines in France. The wines are vinified by various members of the Vini Be Good network using their own grapes or grapes purchased from friends and neighbors in the Loire.

Since its founding in 1999, the group has continued to grow, now with 38 members covering over 40 appellations. Many if not most are amongst our favorite producers in all of the Loire Valley. The group is multigenerational and includes legendary estates as well as some of our favorite young wineries.

The wines of Les Athletes du Vin are forged with the same care and attention as the cuvées from the individual producers. Since the grapes come from their vineyards or from friends’ whose farming philosophies match their own, the sourcing is world class. Almost all of the grapes are organically or biodynamically grown and no additives except for tiny amounts of sulfur are ever used.

The labels for Les Athletes du Vin are drawings by French artist, illustrator, and cartoonist Michel Tolmer who has been the unofficial lead artist of the French natural wine movement since the 1990s. The wines below represent a growing trend in the wide world of wine. A new found focus on producing wines of the highest quality, farmed in a way that respects the long term health of the land and people who work it, that are modestly priced and deliver the sensory experience we expect from top flight wines.

For a myriad of reasons, many of these procedures wish to remain anonymous in regard to which cuvees they produce. The idea here is to focus more on what is in the bottle and less so on who made it. We are proud and happy to have these wines on our shelf. They are pure and delicious examples of truly terroir-driven Loire Valley wines that we can all afford.