Roches Neuves Insolite Blanc 2015

100% Chenin Blanc. Biodynamic. Insolite's fruit comes from a special, densely planted 90-year-old vineyard on complex, clay, limestone, sandstone and flint soils, at a site called Les Cerpes et Saint-Vincent, in Saumur. In order to achieve the kind of fruit required to produce a white with Insolite's crystalline and intense personality, the yields are ruthlessly managed-18 hl/ha is not out of the ordinary. The fruit is then transported to the cellar in small cases where it goes into a pneumatic press, and then a slow, natural fermentation follows in 12-hectolitre Austrian (Stockinger) ovals and ex-Alphone Mellot demi muids. The fermentation takes about 4 months, after which the wine rests on fine lees, slowly building texture, for another 12 months. Over the years, Germain's "house" white has evolved into one of the Loire Valley's most exciting Chenins, a racy, deep yet taut homage to old-vine Chenin Blanc grown on Saumur's limestone plateau.