2020 Dm Guiberteau Saumur Blanc Brézé, Loire Valley

Lemon oil, crushed mint, white flowers and hazelnuts introduce Guiberteau’s 2020 Brézé, a medium to full-bodied, satiny and rich white that’s broad and enveloping with a fleshy core of fruit. Long, ethereal and mineral, the finish is underlined by delicate notes of spices and caramel. Crafted from vines planted on three different plots, it matured for two years in half new/half used barrels.

93 points Yohan Costaing robertparker.com

100% Chenin Blanc. The modern renaissance of Chenin de Brézé (as it was once known) owes a great deal to the Foucault brothers’ Brézé bottling and, more recently, to a new generation of growers like Guiberteau. This striking wine comes from two small parcels of mature vines (planted in 1933 and 1952) within the fabled Brézé climat, a terroir that once produced wines as revered as those of the greatest vineyards of Burgundy and Bordeaux. The lion’s share of the fruit comes from an important lieu-dit called Bourguenne, while one-quarter of the fruit is also drawn from the historic Clos de Carmes terroir.

Guiberteau now uses larger-format barrels from different coopers. He prefers Atelier Centre France’s thick-staved demi-muids for this wine, and he’s also engaged Clos Rougeard’s local artisan cooper Dussiaux, whose barrels bring smoky/cedary complexity to this wine in its youth. Furthermore, Brézé now spends two years in barrel (50% new) and six months in tank, recognising its potency and coiled energy.

Year in and year out, this reminds us of the force of this incredible terroir. This place can simultaneously deliver the texture and savoury reduction of great white Burgundy and the raciness of great German Riesling. If the Clos de Guichaux calls to mind excellent Chablis, the Brézé style leans towards the textural richness of fine Meursault (at a fraction of the price). From a powerful year, 2020 is still a babe in arms, bristling with dry extract, smoky reductive notes, nutty complexity and vinous intensity. The distinction of the Brézé terroir shines through in the wine’s supercharged minerality; full of chalky intensity, salinity and tension, it is reminiscent of the historic Coche-Dury style of white and unbelievably impressive and seductive.