ON THE ROAD | Eric Li at La Dive Bouteille
14 April 2026
Eric Li, Sommelier at the London Club, reports back from a trip to the Loire Valley and its renowned natural wine fair – something of a bucket-list trip
When I moved to London from Hong Kong for a finance job a few years ago, wine wasn’t meant to become the centre of my life. But evenings spent in the unpretentious natural wine bars of East London slowly changed that trajectory. Places in Hackney became my informal classroom: chalkboard wine lists, unfamiliar grape varieties, and bottles poured with stories attached.
What fascinated me most wasn’t just the flavours, but the people behind the wines – growers farming small plots, experimenting, and sometimes stepping outside appellation rules to make wines they wanted to drink with friends. Eventually I left finance and joined a small, French-focused wine shop in Bermondsey, where tastings and meeting visiting vignerons brought the stories behind the bottles even closer. Later, as a sommelier at Noble Rot, my education broadened, and one event kept resurfacing in conversation: La Dive Bouteille in Saumur. By the time I joined 67 in November 2025, I was determined to visit.
For anyone drawn to the world of low-intervention wine, La Dive has a certain reputation – a gathering of growers and trade held inside Caves Ackerman, the cellar of the longest standing sparkling wine producer in the Loire Valley. This year’s edition fell close to my birthday, which felt like the perfect excuse to finally see it for myself.
The night before heading to the Loire, I was invited to dinner in Paris by Peter Honegger, founder of Newcomer Wines – a valued supplier to 67 and a tireless champion of Central European growers. A small group of Austrian winemakers gathered with their importers to dine at Septime, a simple place gently animated by the hum of conversation and the rhythm of service, where bottles are opened with intent rather than ceremony. Christian Tschida, Herbert König and Elias Muster were all there – producers I had admired since the beginning of my wine journey.
The evening unfolded around a simple idea: each of us would choose a bottle from the list, to be served blind to our fellow diners, and we’d see where the conversation took us. Burgundy, Jura and the Loire appeared alongside Austrian bottles, and the table quickly became a lively exchange of views on farming, climate and the delicate balance between experimentation and tradition. As with many memorable wine moments, the discussion drifted easily between the technical and the personal — proof that wine culture is often as much about conversation as it is about what’s in the glass.
The following morning we drove south into the Loire Valley, through the picturesque vineyards of Savennières, to visit Pierre Ménard in Anjou – a young vigneron whose Chenin Blancs have earned a devoted following. Pierre’s cellar began life in a garage, and although it has gradually expanded, it retains a sense of modest scale and careful precision. Barrels and concrete tanks sit neatly alongside one another, glass globes resting atop the barrels, while the entire space is strikingly clean – hygiene being one of the quiet but essential foundations of low-intervention winemaking. The wines themselves captured that focus beautifully. Textural yet precise, they carried a purity and sensuality that felt unmistakably rooted in place. It was a fitting prelude to the main event.
Having heard so much about it, arriving at La Dive Bouteille felt slightly surreal. First established in 1999 by Catherine and Pierre Breton, La Dive is one of the earliest dedicated natural wine salons, and remains among the most influential. It is now run by Sylvie Augereau, who has guided it through several iterations — from Deauville to the Château de Brézé — before settling at its current home in the Caves Ackerman.
The event draws a global crowd of importers, sommeliers and dedicated followers of the category, mostly trade but also consumers. Held over two days in Saumur, it brings together around 250 producers for a two-day salon – informal in format, but serious in intent – with tastings that feel closer to conversation than convention. Thirsty visitors descend into the cool limestone caves, the air noticeably colder, the light dimmer. Posters from past editions line the stone walls, giving the impression of walking through a small geological museum before the space opens into a vast underground hall filled with growers and bottles.
It’s a walkaround tasting and I started out with Champagne from two remarkable female-led houses, Ruppert-Leroy and Elise Bougy, whose wines are striking for their clarity and energy. Nearby, Loire stalwarts Alexandre Bain and Jean-Pierre Robinot poured with easy familiarity, Jean-Pierre equipped with a head torch and a broad smile. When I mentioned a conversation we’d had at Noble Rot about Didier Dagueneau and climate-resistant grape varieties, Alex gave me a hug and a quick update on his latest plantings.
Further along the cave, Burgundy appeared in the form of Sylvain Pataille’s range — from old-vine Aligoté to the silky Marsannay wines that have become benchmarks for the appellation. His Fleur de Pinot rosé was particularly captivating: delicate, lightly smoky and weightless enough to make you pause and savour the moment.
Then came a personal highlight: tasting with Jean-François Ganevat of the Jura. Widely respected among growers, Ganevat has influenced an entire generation of winemakers while remaining disarmingly humble. His wines, balancing richness with tension, have helped redefine how the Jura’s traditional styles can co-exist with a more experimental generation.
Not far away stood another Jura character, Tony Bornard (see lead photo). Nattily dressed, he greeted me with a bottle of mousy Poulsard that he insisted was the perfect palate-awakener. And scattered among the crowd were familiar faces from the previous evening. Christian Tschida and Claus Preisinger were pouring elegant, finely etched wines that would give many Burgundies a run for their money, while Styria’s Ewald Tscheppe, Elias Muster and Herbert König showed how Sauvignon Blanc can take on remarkable texture and depth on their steep Alpine slopes.
Walking through the caves, it was hard not to feel a sense of gratitude. These growers had left their vineyards for a few days to pour their wines and share their stories — a reminder that wine is never just a drink. It is the product of land, patience, and people working closely with nature. For anyone curious about this corner of the wine world, La Dive offers a rare chance to see that spirit gathered in one place. I suspect my first visit won’t be my last.
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TWO
MINUTES
WITH
Federico Radi, Biondi-Santi
WHAT
I’VE
LEARNED
Bo Barrett, Chateau Montelena
UNDER
THE
SURFACE
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