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Like Riesling on the Mosel, Chenin Blanc announces its precise vineyard origins with joyful clarity, especially when vinified completely dry, like this Chinon Blanc Clos de la Cure. The grapes grow on a biodynamically farmed parcel of pebbly clay over limestone and flint, and are hand harvested and directly pressed into a stainless steel tank. The wine ferments spontaneously on the native yeast, and matures for eight months on the lees. In the glass, this beautiful Chinon Blanc has a radiant, green-golden straw color. Aromas of Comice pears, mandarin zest, quince, and fresh cream move in and out of the foreground, sometimes alternating with suggestions of green tea, wildflower honey, and cardamom pods as the nose evolves in the glass. On the palate, the wine is dry and multi-layered, with a rich vibrant core of spicy ripe orchard fruit and crystallized honey that puts on weight over time, and is buttressed by palpable saline minerality and refreshing orchard fruit acidity. This is another reminder that fine Chenin Blanc from the weathered tuffeau of the middle Loire Valley can be a worthy peer of Riesling, Nebbiolo, and Pinot Noir, in the pantheon of the noblest grape varieties of all.
About this wine producer: When we last visited Fabrice Gasnier at his home in Cravant-les-Coteaux, he had long completed the transformation of his 24-hectare estate to biodynamics, the agricultural discipline based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner, who is best known today as the founder of the Waldorf Schools. “Biodynamics, according to Fabrice, “seeks to strengthen the vitality and resistance of plants, by improving natural exchanges. It also makes the vine receptive in the cosmos, to the lunar effect. Thus, the expression of the terroir in the grapes is optimized and is found in the wines. Biodynamic wines guarantee a good expression of the terroir.” The entire domaine received both “Ecocert” and “Demeter” certification in 2008.
$28.00