Vignobles De La Coulee De Serrant 'Clos de la Coulee de Serrant' 2021

Grape

100% Chenin Blanc

Tasting notes

A rich, powerful wine built to stand the test of time. Ripe orchard and citrus fruit — dried apricot, orange zest, sugared plum — sit against the estate’s distinctive oxidative-leaning style, with notes of warm soil, pickled ginger and chamomile lifting a silky texture. The palate carries great concentration, balanced by real intensity of acidity and a long, saline, mineral-driven finish.

More About The Winery

Clos de la Coulée de Serrant is a single, walled seven-hectare vineyard on a steep, south-facing schist slope above the Loire in Savennières. Cistercian monks planted it in 1130, making it one of the oldest continuously cultivated vineyards in France — King Louis XI reportedly called its wine “a drop of gold” — and its distinction earned it a rare honour: its own standalone appellation, one of only a handful of single-vineyard monopole AOCs in France alongside names like Romanée-Conti and Château-Grillet. The Joly family acquired the estate in 1962.

Nicolas Joly returned from a career in investment banking to run the family estate in the late 1970s, and after encountering Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic writings began converting the vineyard in 1981 — completing the whole estate by 1984 and becoming one of the very first producers in the world to farm biodynamically. The move was met with open skepticism from neighbouring growers; it took roughly eight years and endorsement from figures such as Lalou Bize-Leroy of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti before the approach gained credibility. Today the vineyard integrates livestock into its ecosystem, is worked partly by horse on its steep slopes, and follows lunar and celestial cycles for vineyard decisions.

Joly rejects the label “winemaker,” describing himself instead as a farmer and philosopher, and in 2001 co-founded La Renaissance des Appellations — now roughly 230 member estates across 13 countries — promoting organic and biodynamic viticulture worldwide. The estate today produces three Chenin Blanc cuvées — the Coulée de Serrant monopole, Le Clos de la Bergerie, and Les Vieux Clos — with Joly’s daughter Virginie now serving as winemaker.