2022 Val de Loire Chenin

Full bottle 1,347 g. 100% Chenin, planted in 2012. Hand-picked. Whole bunches, cold settling, then long fermentation with indigenous yeasts in fifth-use, 228-litre burgundy casks. 12 months on fine lees in the same barrels followed by six months in vats. Bottled on a “fruit day”. Certified organic (Ecocert) and biodynamic (Biodyvin, Demeter). Both honeyed seduction and alabaster minerality. Acacia blossom, deepening and intensifying through crab apple, quince and marmalade – although the wine holds its bone-dry power in the cathedral-like buttresses of its structure. Chenille grip and chiselled contour. Sumptuous and stony. Long, broad, muscled and quietly flamboyant, like the lovechild of Swartland and Anjou. (TC)