Champalou Les Fondraux Vouvray (75cl, 12.5%)

A demi-sec Chenin Blanc from Domaine Champalou in Vouvray, bottled at 12.5% ABV. It comes from 50-year-old vines on argilo-silicieux slopes, with grapes harvested in the cool morning hours and fermented at low temperatures in 500-litre barrels. The wine rests on its lees for approximately eighteen months and has around 30 grams per litre of residual sugar. The nose opens with lavender honey and marzipan, then ripe pear and sweet grape, with wet stone and white flowers underneath. The palate is succulent and honeyed, with baked apple and pit fruit, pineapple and melon at the peak, pronounced flinty minerality and lemon verbena. The finish is medium-long and textured, with lingering wet stone and honeyed citrus and a mineral backbone leaving a clean, slightly saline impression.