2016 François Chidaine Moelleux Vin de France, Loire Valley

“The nose is all polished golden fruits, with toasted pears, a little touch of praline and a smoky freshness. The palate maintains a very supple and polished style, fresh, with a rich phenolic bed filled with dried yellow plum, apricot and peach skin, intertwined with a light bitterness. A confident finish, appropriately sweet, energetic and long. Well done, although it is more rich demi-sec than moelleux.” 

95 points, Chris Kissack, thewinedoctor.com

It has a very similar style to the dry Clos Baudouin from across the river, starting off fresh and primary, with some leafy fruit, although here the backdrop is more pear, peach and confit apples, richer and more evidently concentrated. This is followed by a softly polished palate, fresh and pure, with convincing substance and fresh acidity, as well as a fizzing minerality.

92-94 points Chris Kissack The Wine Doctor

Manuela Chidaine described 2016 as a “vintage from hell”. Stemming from the severe frost that blanketed the central Loire on 27th April, this domaine lost an astonishing 90% of its forthcoming crop. By harvest time, this translated to an average yield of 5 hl/ha. As such, the domaine could only realise four cuvées from their Montlouis/Vouvray vineyards. This delicious moelleux is one wine that made the cut.

 The wine is a blend of strictly sorted, late-harvested and botrytised grapes culled from parcels in Montlouis and Vouvray (hence the Vin de France appellation). It was raised for 11 months in used 600-litre barrels and bottled unfiltered. Ending up with just 35 g/L residual sugar, it is a glorious riot of quince, citrus oils and roasted pineapple bound by scintillating freshness and fabulous length of flavour. There’s also some serious complexity on the crunchy finish by way of grapefruit, smoke and spice nuances. It’s a wine to excite a top Mosel producer!