Edmond Vatan Sancerre “Clos la Néore” 2020 – Magnum (1500ml)

Since the 2018 vintage Clos la Néore has been bottled only in magnum; the reasoning relayed by its Japanese trade is that this wine shows its worth only with age.

Clos la Néore is a single hectare in the middle of the Monts Damnés slope at Chavignol, the village west of Sancerre, carved out of the 4.5 hectares the Vatan family farms. According to the French merchant La Route des Blancs, Edmond Vatan pulled out the old vines on this south-facing plot in 1959, rested the ground for some fifteen years under a few goats, and replanted it from a massal selection in the mid-1970s; the subsoil is Kimmeridgian marl and limestone thick with marine fossils. Edmond retired after 2007 and his younger daughter Anne, married to Nady Foucault of Clos Rougeard, made her first vintage here in 2008, as the Japanese importer Nomura Unison records. iDealwine puts the estate's output at around 4,000 bottles a year.

The 2020 season at Chavignol, as La Route des Blancs describes it, began with a mild, wet winter and budburst in mid-March; flowering passed at the end of May, dry weather from the second half of June kept disease at bay, and a hot August was tempered by cool nights that held tartaric acidity. Picking started at the end of August at yields a little below 2019, with sugars near 14 degrees of potential alcohol; the finished wine is listed at 15% by Berry Bros. & Rudd and Rue Pinard. In the cellar Anne Vatan fermented on indigenous yeasts, raised the wine in small enamelled tanks without stirring the lees, racked once after three months and again at six, and bottled at the end of spring before the summer heat.

In the glass

Nomura Unison describes the opening as fine citrus and white-fruit scents, then a palate where generous fruit, refined acidity and mineral weight carry a force unlike the usual idea of Sauvignon Blanc, turning honeyed after two or three years. For this 2020, La Route des Blancs notes lime, white peach and pineapple with eucalyptus, star anise and liquorice, then a chalky, spiced palate closing on sea salt and bitter-orange zest; Anne Vatan and Nady Foucault expect it to follow the path of their 2009. Berry Bros. & Rudd lists it as dry and medium-bodied.

When to open

Nomura Unison asks for at least five years, ideally more than ten. La Route des Blancs suggests 2027 to at least 2042, served at 12°C and opened one to two hours ahead; Berry Bros. & Rudd gives 2023 to 2033.

At the table

La Route des Blancs pairs it with lobster roasted in the shell with a tarragon jus, or veal sweetbreads under a hazelnut crumble.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from the Japanese importer.

Sources: Label (Edmond et Anne Vatan); Nomura Unison (Japanese importer); La Route des Blancs; Berry Bros. & Rudd; iDealwine; Rue Pinard; Sakemorita (Japanese retailer)