2016 Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray Moelleux Reserve

Founded in Vouvray in 1923, Domaine du Clos Naudin produces some of the most celebrated and remarkably long-lived Chenin Blancs in the Loire Valley. Run today by Vincent Foreau alongside longtime cellar master Hubert Vacher, the estate spans just 11.5 hectares, with three-quarters of its holdings positioned on the prized Première Côte in vineyards like Les Perruches. Long a quiet staple on the wine lists of France's top restaurants, the estate practices minimal-input viticulture, fermenting with natural yeasts in mostly aged 300-liter barrels with roughly 5% new oak. Blocking malolactic fermentation entirely, Foreau crafts dry, demi-sec, sweet, and sparkling cuvées defined by crystalline purity, chalky precision, and extraordinary ageability.

Produced only in exceptional years when botrytis takes hold in the vineyards, the Réserve is one of the most celebrated sweet wines in France. Sporting 130 grams of residual sugar, this 2016 balances immense concentration and structural weight against a firm vein of acidity, phenolic energy, and a subtle saline finish. It is a classic collector's bottling built for multi-decade cellaring before reaching its peak.

Other Reviews...
It is infanticide to broach one of these right now, of course, but if I can’t open one to take an early look, then who can? This displays a polished straw-coloured hue, youthful and pale, not yet showing the deeper hue or intensity that will come with time. There follows beautiful purity on the nose, with concentrated fruit, peach, tangerine and quince with a lemony freshness, dressed with chalk dust, all wrapped up in a sweetly focused intensity. This sense of purity translates onto the palate, with a concentrated and intense style, very textural with grained and bitter concentration, the midpalate swimming with flavours of dried peach, quince, mango and citrus pith. A substantially built wine, concentrated and with a bitter botrytis-driven and phenolic energy, nascent complexity and great length. It is too early to drink now though; if you have any leave for a decade or two before returning by which time this wine’s true potential will be made real. Hold. From a Loire 2016 tasting at three years.
97 points
Chris Kissack - The Wine Doctor

Stands in contrast to the 2018 lighter and lithe, and much more seamlessness. Light golden in color. Pineapple, candied grapefruit, and a touch of smoke. Lively acidity, and so much energy and tension. This is a thrilling sweet wine. 130 grams per liter residual sugar. Drink 2020-2036.
95 points
Jason Wilson - Vinous