Country: France  Region: Loire  Vintage: 2018/19 Category: White Wine  Colour:  White Grape: 100% Sauvignon Blanc  Producer: Domaine Joel & Thierry Delaunay The 2016 vintage (now all gone) was awarded a Gold Medal and 96 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards La Voûte comes from a relatively new appellation called Touraine Chenonceaux, which was created in 2011 after 20 years in the making. Chenonceaux is known for the majestic Château de Chenonceau, featured on the La Voûte label. The wines are from selected parcels of vines located in Touraine. The Sauvignon Blanc is often not released until May following the vintage, spending around seven months on its lees to add weight, texture and complexity. La Voûte is situated in Touraine Chenonceaux, on the bank of the Cher Valley, 50 kilometres east of Tours near the famous Château de Chenonceau. The soil is clay and silex (a mixture of flint and sand) and the pruning method is simple Guyot. After a hard frost in April, which had a significant impact across the Loire Valley, the end of spring and summer was relatively clement, allowing the grapes to reach optimum maturity. The harvest itself was early, starting from 1st September. Although the difficult conditions resulted in a small harvest, the small size of the grapes resulted in excellent concentration and very high quality fruit. 100% Sauvignon Blanc. 100% of the cuvée underwent skin contact for 20 hours in a pneumatic press. Alcoholic fermentation took place over 20 days at a controlled temperature of 16°C. The wine was aged on fine lees after fermentation with bâtonnage until the end of April. The wine was then filtered before bottling. A quick online search of reviews with this wine will lead you to terms like ‘Superb expression of Loire Sauvignon Blanc – Decanter Magazine’  . It won a Silver Medal at the Decanter World wine awards and below are a professional critics review, alongside the latest Vivino review, where the wine gets a score of 4.1 points. Tasting Note: On the nose: wonderful hints of large, ripe, juicy and tasty pineapples, mangos and melons. Also some minerality and ever so slightly some silt.