Champalou, 2020 Update
Every opportunity I have to taste the wines of the Champalou family causes my heart to skip a beat. Maybe it is their elegantly ethereal nature which induces this phenomenon? These wines shimmer in the glass like limpid, gently swirling pools beside a gurgling stream, and are scented in a manner which would put even the most floral of summer meadows to shame. And it is all so fleeting and transient. The pools will dry up, and the meadow will wither as one season gives way to the next; and so too the glass, and then the bottle, or the tasting, will come to an end.
Happily, rivers can rise once again, and summer will always return (even in Scotland). And so too I know I will meet the wines of Champalou once more. Sadly, unlike the changing of the seasons, it does not seem to come around every year. I see from my older notes that the last time I tasted with any of the Champalou family was back in 2017, and our paths have not crossed since then. So I was delighted when earlier this year I met up with Céline Champalou (pictured), and equally delighted when I caught sight of her wines, some recent releases standing alongside some older vintages.
Indeed, I think my heart may have skipped a beat.
The Wines
Diehard Vouvray fans will know these wines well, as this has long been one of the appellation’s leading domaines. For those less familiar, the range ticks all the usually Vouvray boxes, with a single sparkling wine, sec and demi-sec cuvées, and two moelleux labels, one based largely on passerillage and made most frequently, one based on botrytis and produced only in select years. In this the range exhibits similarities with that at a number of other domaines, not least Philippe and Vincent Foreau (even if the style is very different); there is one distinguishing feature chez Champalou, though, and that is Le Portail, an overtly oak-aged cuvée.
