Savennières Les Caillardières
100% Chenin Blanc. From certified-biodynamic estate vines in the Les Caillardières vineyard, which lies on the plateau of Savennières on silky-textured, very poor soils of sand and schist. These 45-year-old vines are harvested by hand 10 days after the earliest-picked wine, La Jalousie, when the grapes are a little past just-ripe, having taken on deeper, riper, richer flavor tones (and still no botrytis, never a part of any Closel wine). The bunches are gently direct-pressed, followed by a spontaneous fermentation to dryness with native yeasts and without sulfur in 420-liter demi-muids, which are around 10% new. The wine generally goes through malo and is aged in the same barrels on the fine lees for 18 months without bâtonnage. Bottled unfiltered with a modest amount--its first dose--of sulfur.