Philippe Foreau Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray Moelleux, Loire, France

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Candied grapefruit and lime peel in the nose of Foreau’s 2009 Vouvray Moelleux – a wine from largely over-ripe but not botrytized fruit – anticipate a tactile sense of palate attack that he thinks is too often lacking in wines of this vintage. A hint of white raisin woven into the candied citrus rind- and quince preserve-dominated palate here points to a level of ripeness that in Foreau vintages of an earlier era might have signaled a special reserve moelleux. Peppermint, white pepper, and citrus zest deliver piquant contrast to the candied sweetness in a finish of hugely impressive, sustained grip. Foreau thinks this ultimately superior to the corresponding 2008 (just as he agrees that 2008 has the edge in sec and demi-sec) but I am not prepared to go that far. Certainly, though, it is early days for this 2009 moelleux, a wine likely to reveal many additional facets over the next quarter-century. Considering that few white wine growers anywhere can boast the track record of Philippe Foreau, his Vouvrays are priced to continue offering wonderful value. This becomes especially (at times depressingly) evident when one compares the much higher prices asked for Chenin from certain appellations further West that have traditionally been treated as superior according to the still rather hide-bound French pecking order, even when they deliver questionable or even dismal results. Buy these wines now, before the market for Loire wine at last becomes a meritocracy! Foreau thinks the high flint content in his sites helped convey minerality even in a vintage as rich (to the point where rendering balanced sec was tricky) as is 2009, but as in other very warm vintages of the past two decades the excitement chez Foreau is at the top end of the must weight spectrum. “I have never in my career had such acidity with this degree of richness,” opines Foreau of his two top 2009s. Alluding to 2008’s record-breaking rains and consequent flooding in certain sectors of Vouvray – which for a critical while rendered it impossible to get into one’s vineyards to treat the vines, other than on foot and with tanks strapped to one’s back – Foreau remarked matter-of-factly: “this vintage stared out badly, but finished well, while 2007 started out well and finished badly” – and just how well 2008 was capable of finishing, there is no better place to witness than in Foreau’s cellar. Foreau opines that working the lees – fashionable anyway now with Loire Chenin and a younger generation – was a mistake in 2008 as it ameliorated the acidity, if at all, at the expense of clarity and focus.Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Pine Plains, NY; tel. (800) 910-1990