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The lieu-dit bottling hails from the site’s oldest and most unproductive vines. Les Chapaudaises has been farmed organically since 2010 and is a site Stater-West explains is finely tuned for “the style of Chenin that I am crazy for; elegant, pure, vertical, with salinity from the limestone.”
The vineyard is picked slightly earlier than Guiberteau’s Clos de Guichaux, and Stater-West works with fewer lees than his colleague, giving a Chenin of radiant succulence, cut-glass precision and sappy length. The 2020 was fermented naturally in stainless steel and then aged in used, large-format barrels (sourced from Louis-Benjamin Dagueneau) for 14 months.
On a par with the 2019 release, it’s rocky, overtly mineral and flush with flavours of citrus, iodine and a touch of fennel. Lithe and full of engaging clarity, the palate balances its fleshy, citrus-noted fruit and limpid succulence with chiselled freshness, a mass of energy and a lovely phenolic bite. The finish ripples to a long, salty close. Pure class.