Nicolas Joly 'Les Vieux Clos' 2015

In 1977, former investment banker Nicolas Joly was drawn back to his family’s iconic property in Savennières’ Coulée de Serrant – one of the only monopole appellations in France – by an innate desire to make wine. 

Visited by an official from the board of agriculture, Joly was told that if he started using weedkillers, he’d save 14,000 Francs – but seeing his vineyards rendered lifeless as a result, he knew there must be another way. Seduced by Steiner’s holistic approach to agriculture, Joly painstakingly turned his domaine into a beacon of biodynamics. 

From 7ha of vines on steep schist slopes on the banks of the Loire, Joly crafts mesmerising dry Chenin Blancs using a high proportion of botrytised and late-harvested fruit. Taking over winemaking in recent years, his daughter Virginie’s wines retain their signature slaty minerality and enormous cellaring potential, but with added freshness and delineation.

Celebrated by the great 20th-century gastronome Curnonsky as one of the world’s five best white wines, Coulée de Serrant is worthy of any wino’s bucket list. It gives us great pleasure to present this small parcel – the result of painstaking sourcing and patient cellaring.

From numerous parcels just outside the Coulée, ‘Les Vieux Clos’ is a fresher, more sinewy take on Chenin Blanc and often more approachable in youth.

Bright and complex: yellow apple, beeswax, pineapple, smoky flint. Quite electric.