Saumur Blanc, “Dames de Chaintres”, “Clos des Oratoriens”

Château de Chaintres reserves its oldest Chenin Blanc vines within the clos—over 80 years old and planted in flint-heavy tuffeau chalk—for the “Dames de Chaintres,” which ferments in stainless steel and ages for a year in a combination of steel and terracotta. Lean and penetrating, with an overriding note of smoky gunflint, the wine possesses an acidity somehow simultaneously electrifying and hefty, with a sizzling tension between the coiled fruit and chalky minerality that makes one convinced this is a wine that could withstand four decades or more of positive aging.