Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray Sec 2024

Variety: Chenin Blanc
Country, Region: France, Loire Valley
Appellation: Vouvray

2024 was a cooler wetter vintage for Vouvray yielding wines of perfume, finesse and lip-smacking freshness. Aromas of pear candied fruit and spice with hints of honey and that distinctive chalkiness that is so typical of great Vouvray. Fine, brilliantly focused flavours with exceptional texture and length. A bare 3.5g of residual sugar, so technically considered dry. 13 % Alc/Vol; 5.8 g/L TA (H2SO4); 3.5 g/L RS. pH: 3.00.

' From a cool vintage, this dry wine, in its youth, displays a pear nose, a sign of maturity. The palate is lively and delicate with lemony notes, lovely acidity, and minerality. The iodine notes of our limestone subsoil are also present. This wine pairs well with raw seafood, such as carpaccio, tartare, or ceviche. Currently, it is ideal with scallop carpaccio.' Vincent Foreau

'Vouvray Sec, generally made using fruit harvested at 12-13.5º. The style of this cuvée is tense and upright, usually with fairly low level of residual sugar compared to the sec cuvées at a number of other Vouvray domaines. A typical figure here would be 3 g/l, certainly less than 5 g/l, whereas you might find 7-9 g/l at other domaines.'  Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor.

'The wines of Philippe Foreau could perhaps be considered the ultimate expression of the Vouvray vineyard. He exhibits great care in tending his vines, has a reasoned approach to his work in the vineyard, and in the cellar there is minimal manipulation and the restrained use of older wood for fermentation ... When he allows a little sugar in the wine, in the demi-sec cuvee in particular, this immediately leads to an electrifying balance of all Vouvray should be, pure, off-dry, fresh and capable of evolving great complexity.' Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor.

' The wines of Clos Naudin are inimitable: ample, concentrated and structured yet crystalline in their aromatics and refined in their balance. Whether dry or sweet, they number among the most compelling expressions of Chenin Blanc in the Loire Valley.' Yohan Castaing, The Wine Advocate

This great Vouvray estate was founded in 1923 (5 years before the Huet family) and is now run by Vincent Foreau who took over from his father Philippe in 2016. Their cellar master Hubert Vacher has been working with the Foreau family since the 1970s and this small and beautiful domaine has remained at just 11.5 hectares in size (less than 1/3 the size of Huet who are their neighbours across the little street). Clos Naudin does not relate to a single "clos"owned by the estate but rather the family have numerous holdings that have remained the same for decades. Three quarters of the family holdings are located above the village on the famed Premier Cote, centred on the Les Perruches vineyard, adjacent to Le Mont.

Work in the vineyards is all done with minimal inputs and vines replaced using massale selection. Hand harvesting and natural-yeast fermentation in mostly aged 300 litre barrels and without malolactic conversion, results in wines of crystalline purity. Younger vines are mostly used for their excellent sparkling Vouvrays.