Charles Joguet Clos de La Plante Martin

Pale straw in colour with golden hues. The bouquet shows intense concentration of bruised apple, nectarine, almonds and smoke which evolve into greengage, toast and honey on the palate. Despite richness of flavour and a textured mouthfeel, this is a bone dry, crisp style with a complex and refreshing acidity on a vibrant finish.

Charles Joguet. This young painter and sculptor abandoned a budding art career to assume direction of the family Domaine in 1957. He soon began to question the common practice of selling grapes to negociants, as his own family had done for years. The Joguets owned prime vineyard land in between the Loire and Vienne Rivers, with some of their finest found on the left bank of the Vienne, just outside Chinon, in Sazilly. These very lieux-dits had been recognized for their character and defined before the Renaissance—some even date back to the Middle Ages. Variations in the soils of these alluvial plains were substantial enough to realize that he was sitting on what would be considered in other regions as Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards. To sell the grapes off or to vinify these individualized plots together would have been madness. Separate terroirs, he believed, necessitate separate vinifications. Over the course of his tenure, Charles took the risks necessary to master the single-vineyard bottling with an artistry that A.O.C. Chinon had never before seen. In so doing, he realized the true potential of the land.