Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
Bravo, Nicolas! Joly, who tends one of the greatest vineyards in the Loire, takes a rigorously biodynamic approach to his farming and winemaking that some see as a little imprecise, or unreliable. So it’s exciting to taste the wine when it hits. Joly and his daughter, Virginie, oversee the viticulture and winemaking at the estate, where the oldest vines date to 1935, and the average vine age is 35 to 40 years. They harvest in four or five passes over the course of several weeks; the wines ferment in tanks and barrels without any additions and without temperature control, then age in 500-liter casks for six to eight months; the oak is neutral, with five percent replaced each year. The result is a wine that doesn’t accommodate ratings, or fit on any scale. It takes its time to wake up, offering an intoxicating mineral spice in the aroma and saturated mineral length but no fruit and no satisfaction until you forget about it for a day or two. Return and you’ll find a powerful Savennières, fresh, brisk, spicy chenin from rock, with a gravitational energy that doesn’t blast out of the wine, but continues to draw you in.
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.
Known for its delightful whites and sparkling Pétillant and Mousseux, made predominantly of Chenin blanc, Anjou has a temperate and dry maritime climate. The region's limited temperature variations are admiringly referred to locally as the “douceur angevine,” or “Anjou sweetness.” Fruit forward rosé and red wines from Cabernet Franc and Gamay merit Anjou its success within the Loire subregions.