Julien Delrieu, La Joue, 2022

Rich, Green Apple, Bright

Loire / White / Chenin Blanc / Biodynamic

The grapes come from the lieu-dit Pont Bourceau but are harvested one to two weeks later. Half of the wine is fermented and aged in 228ltr barrels (bought from local hero and friend Stéphane Bernaudeau), it was bottled without fining or filtration. Julien decided to blend the rich and deep 2020 with the zingy and lifted 2021 to achieve balance and complexity.

Notes on the producer

Originally behind Les Roches Sèches, a domaine he created with two friends before splitting up in 2017, at which point he set out on his own with 3.5ha of vines around Faveraye-Mâchelles. As well as being a bee-keeper (a passion depicted on his labels), he studied winemaking in Dijon, brewed beer with monks in Belgium, made cheese in Italy and researched sake yeasts in Japan. Returning to France he chose the Loire for its proximity to Brittany (where he grew up), and worked with two Vouvray growers, Vincent Carême and Sébastien Brunet, before settling down in the black Anjou. Moved by wines from Richard Leroy and Mark Angéli among others and enthralled by the electric quality of chenin on schist, Julien chose the (then) affordable Coteaux du Layon for his first project, Les Roches Sèches, in 2010. Nowadays Julien rents a barn at the back of a farm, a rudimentary and DIY set up where wild-yeasts fermentations are carried out in fibreglass and oak, and sulphur is kept to a bare minimum if used at all.