Domaine du Closel Savennières ‘Les Caillardières’ Chenin Blanc 2016

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Domaine du Closel

Entrancing, thirst-quenching, divine wines. When the aromas lifting from a freshly poured set of wines are enough to convince that good things await the next decision is simple!

Château des Vaults in Savennières dates back to 1495, and was inherited by Michèle de Jessey in 1962 from her childless aunt Madame du Closel. Michèle and Jacques de Jessey turned the small family estate into Domaine du Closel. The entire vineyard is located on the most western hill of Savennières and includes some of the best parcels in the AOC: Les Caillardières and Clos du Papillon. The topsoil is shallow, very warm and consists of purple/green schist and sandstone, enriched with volcanic rocks  (quartz, phtanites, ryolites and spilites) in the best areas.

Evelyne de Pontbriand, Michèle and Jacques’ daughter, took over the estate in 2001 after a first career of teaching French literature to adults all over the world. As a lover of botanics and nature, she quickly adopted organic viticulture, which continues to be an experimental learning process. She is constantly searching for cultural practices best adapted to the austere terroirs of Savennières, and has deeply changed vinification practices in the cellar.

When not making delicious wines, Evelyne enjoys pairing them with her friend’s cheeses, cooking the garden’s vegetables with Loire fishes, reading, travelling to visit other vineyards, and promoting the Savennières AOC (of which she is president).

“When I was first elected, I wasn’t too sure what I was supposed to do. So I decided to gather all the vignerons get them drunk, and asked what they expected of me. it worked out great.”

Evelyn de Pontibriand

In the Vineyard

Savennières is a plateau of schist with steep slopes called coteaux, facing the Loire and a flat surface covered by aeolian sands. Small valleys or ravines called Coulées that are perpendicular to the Loire cut this plateau. Coulée de Serrant is the best known, but there is also the Roche aux Moines and Clos du Papillon and more: these Coulées each have a south-south west side which is an exceptional exposure for a vineyard that benefits from the highest amount of daylight and the heat of the day and the evening.

At Domaine du Closel Evelyn de Pontibriand follows the principles of Natural Agriculture – producing certified organic wines with biodynamic practices (certified since 2015). Biodynamic agriculture takes nature as a whole to produce food without damaging the ability for the next generations to achieve the same objective even trying to improve this capacity. The soil is the most important component in this type of agriculture. As a matter of fact, in life it depends upon the soil on earth, in fact even only from the first meter of soil. The plant is accompanied in its growth and production in harmony with the rhythms of nature. Preparations made from plants and minerals are used as in homeopathy.

With the help of a Belgian geologist Valerie Closset, all of her parcels have been inventoried and analysed to understand them better (which ultimately led to each cuvée sharing the name of the parcel it came from). A lot of energy has recently been focused on understanding and dealing with fungal illness in the vines. For esca, replacements are done in two phases: the first consists of planting the rootstock. About two years later, a selection massale of Chenin is grafted from a healthy vine. New plantations are done with material from Lilian Berillon, the first and only organic pépinieriste in the world.

There are three types of terroirs (Soil, exposure, light and water) in Savennières: schist hills (coteaux), schist and sandstone plateau (with sand) and the shale and volcanic rocks coulées (little valleys or ravines). At Domaine du Closel we have these three types of terroirs in our estate: the coteaux constitute a group of parcels that we harvest for our Savennières la Jalousie. Our plateau is called the Caillardières and our coulée is the Clos du Papillon (which we share with Florent Baumard). There is a long tradition of sweet wines in Savennières – a tradition that has almost disappeared in favor of dry wines. Harvests were therefore late enough for the famous botrytis. We continued with relatively late harvesting with botrytis but to produce dry wines so they have a fairly high alcohol content. This style (dry with botrytis) is unusual in dry white wines.

The other experiments have focused on pruning: new plantations are pruned in the ancient style of gobelet, allowing the vine to grow bunches all around and have more exposure to sun and wind. Instead of being cut, the growing branches are now gently wrapped around the top wire. Evelyne believes that foliage thinning is traumatic to the vines, as leaves are the plant’s vital organs. She has quickly noticed a change in the aromatic palate of the wines. Much focus has also been dedicated to soil work. Different plants, such as cereals and cloves, have been used as green fertilizers; the idea is to let indigenous vegetation grow in order to reestablish an authentic biodiversity in order to help fight insects and pests.

In the Winery

There is a long tradition of sweet wines in Savennières – a tradition that has almost disappeared in favor of dry wines. Harvests were therefore late enough for the famous botrytis. We continued with relatively late harvesting with botrytis but to produce dry wines so they have a fairly high alcohol content. This style (dry with botrytis) is unusual in dry white wines.

Vinification is done very naturally and with indigenous yeasts; sulfites are only added in tiny doses when needed. The wines are raised on lees from 12 to 26 months. The rhythm of fermentation is always respected.

“We don’t do anything in the cellar! I just tasted wines that we haven’t touched in four months: they taste much better now! We bring in the grapes and everything’s already on them so the fermentation process happens naturally (in barriques) and doesn’t need me around! We still taste them every once in a while just to make sure everything’s ok. The fermentations are rather long: the “Clos du Papillon” for example ferments in its barriques for almost a year. This freaked out my my mother when I first started doing this. But now that she realizes it works just fine, she doesn’t care anymore!”

Evelyn de Pontibriand

La Jalousie

In recent years we have harvested earlier our Cuvée La Jalousie when the berries are pale yellow and crisp, we obtain that way wines with fresh fruit aromas. In the winery, we interfere very little, respecting the grape: the wine remains in tanks for 9 months on the lees in absence of oxygen. This way it keeps its fruitiness and freshness. It is a wine of “conversation” that can be served as an aperitif or with fish, white meat. A fairly new style for Savennières.

Les Caillardières

The Caillardières grapes are harvested later; the berries are golden, producing wines with aromas of baked apple, exotic fruits, raisins and toasted almonds. That terroir gives the wine a very silky texture characteristic of these sandstone schist parcels. This wine is vinified and aged in barrels (French oak, 12 months) and reveals through natural micro-oxygenation this slightly bitter aftertaste that will give an interesting body to the wine. This wine is rather smooth on the palate and has character. It pairs very well with artichokes or asparagus, other vegetables difficult to pair with wine. It is also popular with sweet and savory dishes such as veal stew with orange, anglerfish with honey and cider vinegar, roasted pork with pineapple.

Le Clos du Papillon

The Clos du Papillon is a small valley at mid slope, beautifully southwest exposed to the Loire light. There are schists, rhyolites but also quartz. The topsoil layer is very shallow (60 cm) which provides excellent drainage for rainwater. The vines growing conditions are difficult forcing it to develop its roots deep in the rock cracks to draw nutrients. The climate in that parcel allows waiting for a level of highly advanced maturity. With grapes that concentrate aromas under the action of Botrytis. The Clos du Papillon is harvested in two sortings: the first sorting during the Fresh Fruit aroma period and the second one later with some botrytis during the cooked fruit, quince and smoked aromas period. Both sortings are put in barrels and assembled 16 months later. The wine remains a few months in vats.

This assemblage of the two style of grapes results in a full body wine, with a citrus finish on very first attack, followed by sensations of ripe and exotic fruit with a very distinguished touch of bitterness or toasted almonds on the finish. The long aging on the lees gives it a nice smoothness. The tension and the very long finish make the Clos du Papillon a gastronomy wine for lobster, scallops, smoked fish, Turbots, Saint Peter. It is also interesting with delicate white meats such as veal or capon, along with truffles or mushrooms. True mountain cheeses like old Salers or 5 or 6 years Comté are equally delicious with this great Savennières.

Where in the World is Domaine du Closel?

Domaine du Cosel is located in the Middle Loire Valley in the Savennières appellation next to Anjou.  Savennières is a Grand Cru of the Loire Valley, located 15km south-west of Angers. It is a small appellation comprising 130 hectares and 36 winemakers.