94 Wine & Spirits

Bravo, Nicolas! Joly, who tends one of the greatest vineyards in the Loire, takes a rigorously biodynamic approach to his farming and winemaking that some see as a little imprecise, or unreliable. So it’s exciting to taste the wine when it hits. Joly and his daughter, Virginie, oversee the viticulture and winemaking at the estate, where the oldest vines date to 1935, and the average vine age is 35 to 40 years. They harvest in four or five passes over the course of several weeks; the wines ferment in tanks and barrels without any additions and without temperature control, then age in 500-liter casks for six to eight months; the oak is neutral, with five percent replaced each year. The result is a wine that doesn’t accommodate ratings, or fit on any scale. It takes its time to wake up, offering an intoxicating mineral spice in the aroma and saturated mineral length but no fruit and no satisfaction until you forget about it for a day or two. Return and you’ll find a powerful Savennières, fresh, brisk, spicy chenin from rock, with a gravitational energy that doesn’t blast out of the wine, but continues to draw you in. David Bowler Wines, NY