Deep gold color; orange marmalade, honey, apricot, white peach, honeysuckle, cooked apple on the nose and palate.
Sweet (demi-sec) dessert wine—4.5% residual sugar. Full, creamy body with excellent acidity. Impressive length and complexity. Late harvest chenin blanc from region that sets the standard for chenin blanc. This is recent release and is 21 years old. Late-harvest, bottle-aged Vouvrays are spectacular dessert wines, and this one qualifies. Moelleux is the sweetest chenin blanc wines produced in Vouvray. In French, it translates as “soft,” “smooth,” or “mellow.” This is all three of those descriptors.
Late harvest wine are sometimes called the holy grails of the Vouvray appellation. The key is good weather in late October and November so the grapes can be at their ripest and sweetest best. A full southern exposure for the Les Brûlés vineyard is ideal for ripening. The wine made with estate-grown grapes, fermented and aged in barrel, and aged in bottle before release.
Winery owner Catherine Dhoye Deruet has worked the estate for more than 20 years. The estate has been in the family since 1712. The farm sits along the rolling hills of the Vallée Coquette in Vouvray. Almost 15 acres are planted in vines. They are surrounded by orchards and cellars carved into limestone cliffs beneath her Coteau de la Fontainerie vineyard.
The vineyard’s clay and limestone soils sit on a bedrock of porous limestone—tuffeau—which is classic of Vouvray region. Deruet is a minimalist vintner. She farms sustainably and prunes for low yields to concentrate on flavor and healthy fruit. Grapes are hand-harvested. She makes the range of wines possible with chenin blanc, from crisp dry to late-harvest dessert sweet. She makes dessert wines only with exceptional vintages and never chaptalizes (adds sugar). This wine, grown in the early days of her stewardship of the family estate, reflects her philosophy and attention to quality.
Domaine de la Fontainerie Vouvray Coteau Les Brûlés Moelleux 2003 is lush, balanced dessert wine iteration of chenin blanc. Excellent marriage of sweetness and acidity. Complex and delicious. An impressive example of chenin blanc’s versatility and potential for quality. Pair with fruity desserts or sip solo as a complete dessert. Cheese—mature and hard cheeses, blue cheese. $55
Domaine de la Fontainerie page on Beaune Imports, U.S. importer
