A new cuvée for Thomas that eschews barrel completely, the intention being to offer youthful drinkability, with a focus on varietal purity. Also from the younger vines of the domaine, harvested a few days after Turbulents, it is a wine built on the bright acidity that less ripe Chenin gives in abundance, but not to the loss of fruit profile.
Given time to open up, a nuanced meld of gently honeyed crisp green apple, lemon sorbet and matchstick reduction float from the glass. Less high-definition-angular than his longer-lived wines, again there is an appealing softness to the structure, with everything hanging in place with casual poise. Salty minerals underpin, and the acidity cuts neatly, with a faint twang of ginger in the long finish.
After pressing directly into fibreglass cuve, the wine was left to rest for 9 months, racked only once in this time and bottled directly from tank, lending an inviting pale gold haze. Now having been in the bottle for over a year it is in an excellent place for drinking now and over the next few years.
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!
