Domaine du Closel, 2024 Update
Is there a more enjoyable tasting than that which is to be had with Evelyne de Jessey-Pontbriand at Domaine du Closel?
I doubt it.
It is not just the character found in the wines, which have improved immeasurably during her tenure, a statement I can make with certainty not just based on my regular tasting liaisons with Evelyne, but also based on my findings at the Clos du Papillon vertical tasting she put on a few years ago. And it is not just the fact that she knows Savennières like the back of her hand (as I found out when I took a Savennières stroll with Evelyne back in 2019) and can put you (or me!) straight on any misconceptions we might have about the history of this increasingly famous Ligérian appellation.
It is also the fact that here is a vigneron with palpable intellect and sparkling wit who can not only hold forth on the appellation – its history, geology and more – but entertain and amuse at the same time.
So earlier this year I kept my tasting record as intact as I possibly can (the Covid years put a bit of a blot on my copybook, admittedly, but in that I am surely not alone) by stopping off to taste with Evelyne. She pulled the corks on five wines, with a focus on the most recent vintages of two well-known cuvées, Les Caillardières and Clos du Papillon, both of which were wearing rather snazzy new blue-on-white labels.
