Intriguing Sauvignon Blanc with a degree of opulence that pulls off a fine balance between rich, barrel-y influence and fresh, invigorating citrus fruits. Big aromas that meld some of those buttery notes with lemon and lime leap from the glass and on the palate the wine is impressively soft, rounded and concentrated. Pithy white grapefruit and a certain creaminess entwine with the racy acids in its very long finish. In short, not your typical Loire Sauvignon; in some ways there are elements you could liken to a Bourgogne Aligoté. A fascinating wine of contrast and balance.
From vines around 40 years old planted in a single parcel over clay and limestone, dotted with flint, harvest was at the end of September. The grapes were directly-pressed into cuve to start fermentation then transferred to 400-litre old oak barrels for one year of rest before bottling.
Since starting to make wine in 2001, Noëlla has trained with and worked alongside some of the great names of the Loire. A couple of years with Agnès and René Mosse in Anjou led to her becoming the vineyard manager at Les Bois Lucas after becoming friends with Junko Ara, then on to renting parcels of the feted Clos Roche Blanche estate in Touraine from Catherine Roussel and Didier Barrouillet. She now makes wine with fruit from a mixture of owned and rented parcels at her beautiful cellar carved out of the hillside in Thésée; a testament to her hard work and determination over the last 20 years. Noëlla chooses to work under the more general VDF denomination rather than AOC and her wines stand apart from the perceived notion of Touraine. “If it doesn’t smell like cat piss, you don’t get the appellation” she quips - but only half-jokingly. She refers to early picking and the prevalence of industrial yeasts used in the area to enhance supposedly typical flavours in the wine. Noella ferments with native yeasts and seeks a longer maturation period in old barrels than is usual, meaning her wines are released much later than many other producers nearby. This patience is rewarded with sublime depth and texture in the wine; her unique and varied expressions of Sauvignon Blanc range from the zippy to the tropical and often confound expectations of the grape. Her red wines, made with Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Côt are deep-fruited and velvet smooth.
