Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
If, like Salieri, you object to too many notes in Mozart, then you probably won’t like this wine. But if you appreciate classical Vouvray, the ornate explosiveness of silex and chenin, this one is grand and smoky. Substantial in its weight and roundness, there’s enough tart acidity to keep it in line. Carême farms this organically on two steep, adjacent parcels of 40- to 50-year-old vines, fermenting it without added yeast in 400-liter barrels (only 10 percent new). It’s an impressive 2013 and a wine to drink over the next several years with roast monkfish and morels.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Made from old vines and vinified in oak, this beautifully rich, very dry wine has both rounded apricots and quince plus a touch of toast. It is still young, fresh and needs to age. Drink from 2017 and the tense, youthful minerality will disappear and become richer and full.
Cellar Selection
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
An important white wine appellation in the Touraine and one of the top in all of the Loire, Vouvray uniquely specializes in a wide range of styles from dry to sweet, and still to sparkling, each with its own definitive character. Vouvray is almost always 100% Chenin blanc (however up to 5% Menu Pineau is theoretically allowed but not often used).
Vouvray is also the name of a pretty little town just east of Tours on the northern bank of the Loire—its vineyards surround it to the northeast. Houses and cellars are carved out of the local tuffeau, a chalky or sandy, fine-grained limestone. Vineyards inhabit clay and gravel topsoil over tuffeau on the plateau, the best of which have a slight slope with a southerly aspect.
Chenin blanc’s high acidity and natural adaptability allow it to produce a wide range of styles with enormous success. Styles under the Vouvray name include sparkling, both Brut and Demi-Sec and still: Sec (dry) and Tendre (off-dry) as well as Demi-Sec (noticeably sweet), Moelleux (very sweet) and Liquoreaux (botrytized). Most can age about five years but the best quality versions will continue to improve over decades.