I. et S. Bernaudeau Les Nourrissons 2023

If Les Coqueries is Bernaudeau's laser-sharp expression, Les Nourrissons is his most profound statement — a wine that regularly provokes comparisons with the very greatest dry Chenin Blancs on earth. Les Nourrissons comes from a 0.7 hectare parcel of Chenin Blanc planted in 1910 on a flat west-facing plateau in Anjou, on schist and clay-limestone soils — one of the most stunning and singular Chenin Blanc vineyards in the Loire Valley. The vines, now well over a century old, produce yields of extraordinary concentration and complexity that newer plantings cannot replicate. Stéphane Bernaudeau, who spent fifteen years working under Marc Angeli before establishing his own tiny domaine, farms biodynamically and makes the wine with the most absolute minimal intervention: wild fermentation, long lees ageing, bottled without fining or filtration. 

Apple, golden pear and white flower laced with really stony mineral and a waft of lanolin on the nose — the palate deep, flinty and saline at the wine's very soul, with bright, mouthwatering green acidity wrapped beautifully around a pure core of apple and pear, the finish bone dry and full of character with a long lick of spice and mineral gripping the back-palate wonderfully. Pear, rhubarb and custard with layered honey — amazing minerality and texture that kept it lingering on the palate. One taster called it the best Chenin Blanc they had ever drunk; another blind, called Condrieu from the florality — both reactions speak to a wine that exists in a category of one.