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About the Wine
Rayon is tense, multilayered Chenin, with concentrated ripeness, textural depth and a judicious opulence. The nose shows luscious orchard fruits with a softness of apple blossom, honey and the faintest touch of walnut. Perfectly balancing buttery broad-shoulders with a lucid clarity, this finely-tuned wine is bound with a sinew-y coil of acidity that cuts with phenomenal length – the titular white ray.
From the same selection of 25 to 40 year-old vines that yields Turbulents and Les Vrilles, here the selection leans toward riper grapes harvested over multiple passes all the way to the end of September. The grapes were direct-pressed and went into old barrels to rest for one year, before being racked to fibreglass vats for a final six months. This year roughly 20% of the wine was aged completely in steel, to ease the barrel influence ever so slightly. It was finally blended and bottled with no additions in March 2025. Drinking superbly now, but could happily take a long sleep in the cellar too.
About Thomas Puéchavy
Thomas farms his 3 hectares organically and the vines vary in age from 20 to 80 years old. Sitting directly between the estates of Vouvray royalty, Domaine Gaston Huet and Clos Naudin, Thomas is something of the underdog. Fortunately, they too have been practising organic and biodynamic vineyard work for many years now, so they are good neighbours to have. The soils here differ from the majority of the region in that the limestone dominates over clay, contributing to that tightly-wound coil of acid and crystalline orchard fruit that characterises his wine.
In the cellar the grapes are pressed directly into barrels and given as much time as they need before bottling, with no filtration or additions at any stage. The finished wines span the full spectrum, from sparkling, through fresh and dry to oxidative and demi-sec. We have a couple of wonderful cuvées from the 2020 and 2021 vintages to begin, hopefully with more to follow in the future. They are fascinating expressions of the region that have made a big impression on us - we look forward to sharing them with you too, while they last!