Pierre Menard Le Clos Des Mailles Chenin Blanc 2020

Pierre Menard Le Clos Des Mailles Chenin Blanc 2020

Pierre Menard
$38.00

Grape: Chenin Blanc
Vintage: 2020
Type: White

Sourced from the highest point of the Clos de Mailles hillside, this white wine highlights chenin blanc grown on phthalite and schist soils. Winemaker Pierre Menard manages the vines biodynamically, employing an early manual harvest to protect a sharp natural acidity baseline during a warm growing season. Spontaneous fermentation relies on native vineyard wild yeasts in a combination of used French oak barrels and concrete tanks.

It displays a bright gold-straw hue with a slightly flinty, reductive character, releasing aromas of yellow apple, quince, and chamomile. On the palate, the medium-to-full-bodied frame is incredibly sleek and slatey, balancing a juicy mid-palate of stone fruit with exotic hints of baked pineapple. A vertical wave of natural acidity runs through the core, preventing any heavy volume. A pithy citrus bitterness structures the mouthfeel cleanly, leading into a long finish marked by sea salt.

Pierre Menard grew up in a winemaking family in Anjou. He went on to study winemaking in Angers and to work stints in Pauillac at Chateau Latour, in the Duoro, Canada, New Zealand and in Tokaj, Hungary.

When he returned home to Anjou, he began farming a few rows of his family’s old vine Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc. Traditionally his parents sold the grapes from all 13 hectares of their vines to a cooperative, but they agreed to let him keep some for his own project. In 2013, while still in his twenties, he bottled a miniscule number of bottles in a garage turned wine cellar. This inaugural vintage was received with great critical acclaim and a rising star of Anjou was born. Since then, Pierre has expanded his holdings to more than 1.5 hectares, all farmed biodynamically. He makes several bottlings of Chenin Blanc from these old vines, all dry.

Hand harvesting, gentle pneumatic pressing, fermentation, and aging in a combination of used barrels, sandstone amphora, and tank.