Winemaker Notes
A pale yellow color with shiny golden highlights. The nose is powerful and complex, with immediate floral notes: linden, chamomile, elderberry and typical citrus notes. The wine then opens up with flavors of dried fruit, almond and Corinthian raisins. The attack on the palate is frank and lively, balanced by a touch of sweetness that keeps on going, finishing on a light vanilla impression.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
A top selection from an estate near the village of Vouvray, this wine is opulent and suffused with floral aromas—it reminded me of viognier before the acidity slapped me in the face and made me call it chenin. It weaves pear-blossom florals and spiced, poached pear richness together in a shifting tapestry. Concentrated and ripe as a young wine, this could use more time in bottle to firm up the stitch. When it comes to dinner, treat it like a fully dry chenin, a match for a floral, washed-rind cheese.
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.