Clos Naudin

This great Vouvray estate was founded in 1923 (5 years before the Huet family) and is now run by Vincent Foreau who took over from his father Philippe in 2016. Their cellar master Hubert Vacher has been working with the Foreau’s since the 1970’s and this small and beautiful domaine has remained at just 11.5 hectares in size (less than 1/3 the size of Huet who are their neighbours across the little street. Clos Naudin does not relate to a single ‘clos’ owned by the estate rather the family have numerous holdings that have remained the same for generations with 3/4’s of the family holdings sitting above the village on the famed Premiere cote centred on the vineyard called ‘Les Perruches’ located beside Le Mont.

Work in the vineyards is all done with minimal inputs and vines replaced using massale selection. Hand harvesting and fermentation in mostly aged 300 litre barrels using only natural yeasts with no malo and minimal SO2 results in wines of crystalline purity. Younger vines are mostly used for their excellent sparkling Vouvrays.

100% Chenin blanc for all wines

2017 Vouvray Sec - SOLD OUT
2017 is a classic cooler vintage for dry Vouvray yielding wines of perfume, finesse and lip-smacking freshness. Aromas of pear candied fruit and spice with hints of honey and that distinctive chalkiness that is so typical of great Vouvray. Fine, brilliantly focused flavours with exceptional texture and length. A bare 5g of residual sugar, so technically considered dry.
”In this vintage Philippe made almost the full range of wines, up to and including Moelleux, but not the Moelleux Réserve. The sec cuvée has just 5 g/l residual sugar. The aromatics are smoky and polished, with notes of mirabelle fruit. There then comes a quite lovely palate, rich and polished, minerally and correct. It maintains an energetic presence, carrying both minerality, texture and acidity, through to the finish which displays tension and a saline twist. A very good style.” 93 points, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, June 2019.

2017 Vouvray Demi-Sec - SOLD OUT
About 20 gms residual sugar for this finely balanced yet richly expressive off-dry Vouvray. Taught fine crunchy acidity underpins the fresh pear-skin flavours which finish with delicately honeyed orchard fruits. This is a big step up in intensity and character from their dry wines. Malo is deliberately stopped for this wine to ensure ample acidity helping this cuvee to age for 30 years or more with careful cellaring. This is a great Vouvray in the making - and also provides great pleasure now.
’I don’t have exact data for this release from Philippe and Vincent Foreau, but I believe it is about 20 g/l residual sugar. This has astonishing expression and yet great purity on the nose, with enticing scents of orchard fruit, especially sweet pear and dessert apple, all dusted with a fine notes of honeysuckle, liquorice and white pepper. It possesses such beauty, and happily this translates directly onto the palate, which carries the purity of the fruit wrapped up with texture, fine acidity and a demi-sec sweetness. There are little complicating nuances alongside the fruit, with threads of chalk dust, orange zest, white pepper, apricot skin and thyme. This is a superb demi-sec, with energy, persistence and length, and it gives fabulous joy right now. There is no doubt in my mind it will age brilliantly though. The declared alcohol is 13.5%. 95/100.’ 95 points, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, July 2020.

2008 Vouvray Demi-Sec - last bottles
”A pretty wine in its middle age, with 23 grams per liter residual sugar. Nose of dried flowers, cumin and turmeric spices, and a bit of clay and earth. The acidity has muted a little, but there’s still some freshness here. On the palate there’s fleshy tropical fruit and candied orange peel. Finishes on a pleasant mineral note.” 92 points, Vinous Media, July 2020
’I don't have any figures for this cuvée to hand, but in terms of residual sugar and balance it feels very similar to the wines from Domaine Huet and Vincent Carême, tasted alongside, putting it in the mid-twenties. It has a pale golden hue in the glass, and simply enchanting aromatics, starting off with autumnal scents of crushed apples, then developing more caramelised notes, going into tarte tatin, along with nuances of sweet oranges, chalk dust, lemon balm and barley sugar. This is followed by a wonderfully tense palate, with more apples, lemon zest and chalk dust, along with a huge grip and energy. This is a demi-sec of fine balance and poise, energy and texture, especially in the finish which is brimming with character. A beautifully balanced but seductive style. Drink now or hold.’ 96 points, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, September 2018.

2017 Vouvray Moelleux
For this ‘entry level’ moelleux no botrytised fruit is selected only late harvest with some passerillage. In this wine 60 gms residual sugar with no botrytis and ample  acidity giving a seemingly endless finish which finishes very cleanly. Beautiful fine aromatics with ripe pear flavours and hints of spice and saffron. With age notes of truffle and honey and spice evolve beautifully in this beautifully structured wines with exceptional ageing capacity.
‘This cuvée, built on fruit concentrated by passerillagerather than botrytis, always registers a modest (for a moelleux cuvée) residual sugar, coming in at 60 g/l in this vintage. It feels mildly reticent, with some minerally citrus veins to the fore on the nose. This is countered by a charming and supple substance on the palate, filled with polished citrus fruits, white peach and peach stone, with a touch of quince. It feels so very elegant, tense and bright, with fabulous acidity. So long and correct in the finish.’ 95 points, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, June 2019.

2016 Vouvray Moelleux Reserve
The “Reserve” label of moelleux appears only occasionally in vintages that have the perfect conditions for making great sweet wines. This label is solely for botrytis affected fruit with this wine sporting 130 gms residual sugar. A big step up in intensity and weight and richness with flavours of confit apple and pear with little hints of caramelization with delicate hints of hazelnut all the while underpinned with a very fine vein of acidity and a hint of salinity on the very long finish.
”Stands in contrast to the 2018 lighter and lithe, and much more seamlessness. Light golden in color. Pineapple, candied grapefruit, and a touch of smoke. Lively acidity, and so much energy and tension. This is a thrilling sweet wine. 130 grams per liter residual sugar.” 95 points, Vinous Media, July 2020

1989 Vouvray Moelleux Reserve - SOLD OUT
‘Usually Philippe Foreau’s top cuvée (although usurped in this vintage by the Première Trie and Quatrième Trie cuvées), this Vouvray focuses the spotlight on fruit with botrytis-induced concentration rather than passerillage. Now at thirty years of age it displays a brilliant orange-gold hue in the glass, richly pigmented, but still bright and crystal clear. Aromatically it is captivating from start to finish, beginning with the nose which presents aromas of grilled oranges, black truffle, perfumed Kalamata olive, black tea leaf and pepper. The palate builds on this early promise, showing a fabulously complete style, sinewy and broad, but with a silky composure and wonderfully integrated texture and composition. And yet, it remains very tense, vivacious and lifted, and with time it is apparent that the palate is no less brilliantly complex than the nose, the middle brimming with flavours of truffle and intensely desiccated fruits, backed up by a deliciously tingling acidity. Brilliant, long, ethereal in its balance, and yet substantial in its presence. A stunning wine.’ 99 points, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, April 2020.

’A shimmering orange-gold hue, a long way from the usual pale straw or lemon-gold hue you would see in most youthful sec and demi-sec cuvées. Aromatically it is striking, with scents of preserved oranges, minerals, chalk dust, verbena and truffle, showing a lovely citrus vivacity, wrapped within a grey-smoke purity. It maintains this wonderful confidence on the palate where it shows concentrated yet energetic character, rich and yet vivacious, full of intense acid freshness. The flavours and textural weight dance around one another, the midpalate brimming with notes of preserved oranges, truffles, white pepper and vanilla macaroons, this intense flavour profile and evident sweetness wrapped in a sorbet-like purity and energy, tied off with great acidity. These various textures and flavours come together to suggest on occasion iced mango and ginger with the faintest touch of caramel, harmonious and precise, with no flattening out or dulling of the impact as the palate progresses, the wine staying upright and lifted, dancing along right to the finish. It is as you might expect very long, with an almost bitter-pithy vibrancy, but it is that midpalate drive and vivacity that really defines the style. This is a superb, light-footed yet substantial wine that lingers forever. While brilliant now, this clearly has a very long future ahead of it yet.’ 99 points, Chris Kissack, The Wine Doctor, May 2017.