Nicolas Joly, 2022 Update
Nicolas Joly is an Anjou touchstone, a vigneron with who I try to taste every year. While the wine is here can only be described, at the very least, as ‘individual’, and perhaps more accurately as ‘idiosyncratic’, Nicolas Joly has such a significant presence in the Loire Valley, both in terms of the vineyards he owns in the Savennières and Coulée de Serrant appellations, and in terms of his significance to the organic and biodynamic movements in the region, that I think I consider it my duty to check in on his wines.
Of course these days it is rarely Nicolas I taste with, as he has gradually handed over responsibility for the family vineyards and wines to the next generation. Most visible in this regard is his daughter, Virginie Joly.
When it became apparent Virginie was taking on more work in the vineyards and cellars, many people – myself included – looked for a change in style chez Joly. I think any change that has come over the past five-to-ten years has been minimal at best, the only apparent point of contention between the two generations of which I am aware being the percentage of botrytised fruit which goes into the press; Virginie likes to keep it low, maybe 5%, but Nicolas uses what the vineyard gives him. That might mean 10% or even 15% botrytised fruit in the blend.
The inclusion of botrytised fruit when making dry white wines in Anjou is not unusual, as by the time the fruit has reached a stage of golden ripeness botrytis is always present – to a greater or lesser degree – in the vineyards. As the Mandalorian would say, “This is the way”. It is the shift towards earlier picking and meticulous selection out of botrytised fruit, favoured by Vanessa Cherruau, Eric Morgat and Pierre Ménard, to name just three modern-day stars of Anjou, that is behind the new style of Anjou Blanc (and Savennières). A much more minerally and acid-driven style which, to my mind, is worth seeking out.
