Chenin Blanc from Saumur, Loire valley
Vintage: 2018
Volume:750ml
 
🐞Organic Wine🐞
🐝Natural Wine🐝
 
Only 0.8 hectares of the vineyard (producing 30 hl/ha) are used for the Clos de Carmes bottling, with the remainder declassified (for now) into the Saumur Blanc and the Brézé bottlings. The élevage is the same as for the latter cuvée: whole-cluster pressing; indigenous yeast fermentation in barrel (new, one- and two-year-old oak); and 24 months aging on fine lees in cask. Despite the similar upbringing, this wine is typically more tightly wound than Guiberteau’s classic Brézé bottling, and for this reason, the cuvée is rested for a further year in bottle before release.
 
That extra year means a lot. There is marked strength, yet every molecule of the wine is tightly bound together by the significant structure and ample dry extract. As Rajat Parr points out, Clos des Carmes is Guiberteau’s “standout white” yet, veering deep into Burgundian territory, the wine’s saturating intensity and energetic force also make it the domaine’s most brooding white. 

Jancis Robinson: 18 point