Domaine du Clos Naudin: The Cuvées
Philippe Foreau will tell you that he makes only five cuvées, these being sparkling, sec, demi-sec, moelleux and moelleux réserve. This is a fact upon which Philippe Foreau places some emphasis, the range being much more straightforward than might be found at some other domaines where there are a multitude of cuvées based on lieux-dits or other features. Foreau fans will already be correcting me with knowledge of the sixth cuvée, Goutte d'Or, but as this is a very rare and rather exclusive wine made in small quantities and enjoyed by only a select few Philippe doesn't include it in his list of five. The same can be said of other cuvées such as the one-off Réserve Première Trie.
Having said that, there are not that many years when all five of these possible cuvées are made, recent examples being 1995, 2005 and 2009.
The fruit from younger vines, and fruit of lower potential, is destined for sparkling wine, not unusual in the Vouvray appellation. Although it is the fabulous première trie wines that seem to provoke the most debate and garner the most acolytes, most of what is harvested from the scattered vineyards of Vouvray is destined to be made into sparkling wine. Philippe Foreau uses any fruit with a potential alcohol less than 12% for his sparkling Vouvray. In doing so the quantity of sparkling wines produced naturally varies from year to year, and acts as a barometer for the quality of the vintage. In more difficult vintages sparkling wines can account for a large percentage of the domaine’s output, such as in 2004 when 50% was channelled into sparkling wines. In general, however, sparkling wines account for about one-third of the output of the domaine.
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