Domaine des Baumard Coteaux du Layon Clos St Catherine / 2019 / 500mL

Description:

The Domaine des Baumard Coteaux du Layon Clos St Catherine 2019 is a sweet Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley, built on tension as much as sugar. In a 500mL half bottle, it is honeyed and bright rather than heavy, and the warm, dry 2019 season shows in its depth of ripe stone fruit without dulling the acidity.

Aromas run to quince, dried apricot and yellow peach, with orange blossom, beeswax and a lick of ginger behind them. The palate carries mango and candied citrus peel, then turns drier and more mineral through the middle, so the sweetness reads as fruit concentration rather than syrup.

Texture is the point here: silky and unctuous at first, then cut clean by the lively acid line Chenin Blanc gives in Coteaux du Layon. The finish is long, faintly saline and leaves the mouth fresh rather than cloying, which is what separates this from sweeter, softer wines of the region.

Pour it with blue cheese, a slab of aged comté, or a tarte tatin. It also handles savoury food better than most dessert wines — seared foie gras, pork rillettes, or a spiced duck curry. A half bottle suits a table of two or three at the end of a meal, or a single cheese course without the guilt of leaving most of a 750mL open.

Drinking beautifully now and good through to about 2035, though bear in mind a 500mL matures faster than a full bottle, so this will show its honeyed, mature side earlier.