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François et Julien Pinon Vouvray Les Déronnières 2020

When I first met the late François Pinon, more than a few years ago now, he spent some time explaining his deuxième côtes philosophy.

Let me start at the beginning. For the uninitiated, one way in which the Vouvray vineyard can be carved up is into the première côte – the long run of south-facing vineyards which look out across the valley of the Loire – and the deuxième côtes, all those slopes and valleys set back from the Loire, looking out across the Brenne or its tributaries. The première côte is home to almost all of the appellation’s most famous vineyards, for example Domaine Huet’s Clos du Bourg and Le Mont, Philippe Foreau’s Les Perruches, Charles Lesaffre’s Les Girardières, Vincent Carême’s Le Clos and Le Peu Morier, Boutet-Saulnier’s Clos Dubois and more than a handful of others.

In contrast, the vineyards of the deuxième côtes are less exalted, but the leading exponent was surely François Pinon.

François owned a scattered multitude of different parcels (a necessary but sadly not bullet-proof insurance against crop losses due to frost or hail) and, unlike those vignerons working on the première côte, he never made a feature of any one parcel. Instead, he blended according to terroir, producing Les Trois Argiles (from parcels with clay soils) and Silex Noir (from vines on more flinty soils). They were (and still are) always demi-sec in style, typically with 16 g/l (give or take a few grams) of residual sugar. In François’s words, he found the cooler climate of the deuxième côtes, and the “older and colder” (as he put it) Turonian limestones of the plateau and associated slopes engendered a firm acidity in the wines, which he felt was best balanced by some residual sugar.

François et Julien Pinon Vouvray Les Déronnières 2020

This changed in 2014, however, when for the first time he singled out Les Déronnières, a lieu-dit on the plateau above the cellars, as the source of a new cuvée parcellaire.

To provide a little more context, the Pinon domaine is located fairly high up in the Val de Cousse, created by the – no surprises here – the flow of the Cousse, a stream which runs down off the plateau to join the Brenne. The house is tucked against the limestone rock-face, within which there is an opening to the handsome subterranean cellars. It is often said that Les Déronnières is situated directly above the cellars, but with my pedant’s hat on (be kind, it is a while since I have donned it) if you were to make the ascent from the cellar door you would be standing in the lieu-dit of Les Tailles d’Amboise when you reached the top. A little further along is the lieu-dit of Les Déronnières (about 19 hectares) and its enclave, Les Déronnières de Cousse (about 6 hectares). The soils are a thin melange of clay and flint, with the Turonian limestones not too deep.

The fruit from this site used to feed into the Silex Noir cuvée, but in 2014 François decided to isolate it from the blend. In keeping with his philosophy, the cuvée began life as a demi-sec, with 18 g/l in the 2014 vintage, and 24 g/l in 2015 (I have a few bottles of the 2015 tucked away somewhere – sadly I missed out on adding the 2014 to the cellar). There was no release in 2016 as frost reduced the portfolio to just two cuvées (a demi-sec and a moelleux, both all-encompassing blends) and when it reappeared in 2017 it was drier, with just 9 g/l. A sign of a changing climate, perhaps? Whatever the reason, this sec or at least sec tendre style has been the blueprint for this cuvée ever since.

The first thing you might notice when opening a bottle of the 2020 Vouvray Les Déronnières from François et Julien Pinon is that the Pinons recently took the decision to switch from natural cork to the plant-based Nomacorc Green Line, for all cuvées; this is fine if you drink all your Vouvray young but I don’t, and it does make me nervous about committing other cuvées to the cellar for two or three decades rather than years. Anyway, that’s not relevant here, not today anyway. This cuvée presents a quite beautiful nose (free of cork taint, obviously) with bright streaks of melon, dessert apple and even a touch of pineapple, with a touch of waxy intensity. This is matched by a glossy, dense and pure palate, with fine seams of textural construct supporting layers of sweet orchard fruits which mirror the nose. It feels delicately bitter, fine and pithy, and while it has modest acidity it has but no shortage of vigour and a sense of balance, certainly more so than some other recent, warm vintages. This is delicious, for drinking now, or for cellaring – Nomacorc permitting, of course. The alcohol on the label is 13.5%, and I happen to know that the residual sugar is just 7 g/l. A top result. 94/100 (20/11/23)

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