The Joly family makes 3 wines, all dry whites made exclusively from the Chenin Blanc variety.
First, there is Les Vieux Clos in AOC Savennières, a beautiful assortment of old walled vineyards on the top of the slope. The schist here is topped with roughly one metre of clay soil. The wines are packed with ripe fruit flavours of melon and orchard fruit, and the finish is classic Savennières – powerful and long. Next, Le Clos de la Bergerie in AOC Savennières “La Roche aux Moines”, a single vineyard mid slope, where there is about half as much soil on top of the schist. These wines tend to get riper, and can often finish with a touch of residual fruit sweetness. They are the most forthright of the wines. But none equals the flourish, Le Clos de la Coulée de Serrant, which holds its own Appellation. The most powerful, long, intense of them all. In youth, it smells of fresh rain on stones, with hints of melon, stone fruit and pear skin. With age, it becomes a tea chest of bergamot, dried fruits, honey and dried flowers. The wines need a long spell in the decanter, a day is best if you can wait, and enjoy the wine over the course of a full week if you can resist !
|