The 2020 vintage, only bottled in magnums as is the new “norm” at this iconic domaine, is from an incredibly low-yielding vintage and is a very powerfully built wine. Ann says it’s like 2009 except not as alcoholic, and it is a wine of rare and scintillating structure, density and profundity. It has weight and elegance, acidity and length. There are nuances of honey wax, subtle floral notes, almond meal, sage and doughy / bready flavours. It is a super-impressive wine. Cheers Randall

The 2022 Clos La Néore in magnum, from the legendary Edmond Vatan estate, is a masterpiece of precision and restraint. From the famed Monts Damnés vineyard in Chavignol, this 100% Sauvignon blanc grown on Kimmeridgian limestone expresses a brilliant mineral backbone. The nose is lifted with notes of citrus zest, white flowers, flint and a touch of sea breeze. On the palate, it’s linear, saline and razor-sharp, with vibrant acidity and great depth. The magnum format ensures a slow, graceful ageing curve. A rare, iconic wine of singular style.

Few wines from the Loire command the kind of reverence reserved for Vatan’s Clos la Néore. In little more than a decade, it has shifted from an insider’s secret to one of the most coveted white wines anywhere. Its site — a monopole on the steepest face of Les Monts Damnés in Chavignol — combines terres blanches soils, an ideal southerly aspect, and vines replanted by Edmond Vatan in the 1960s, now nearing full maturity.

The farming remains resolutely low-yielding and traditional, ensuring fruit of extraordinary concentration. In the cellar, Anne Vatan preserves her father’s uncompromising methods: late harvesting, wild-yeast fermentations in neutral foudres, minimal sulfur, no filtration. The wine is released only after racking and gentle élevage in century-old oak, a process that privileges transparency and precision over control.

The result is a Sancerre that ages more like great Chablis, building layers of complexity over decades. Its scarcity — roughly 4,000 bottles annually — combined with its singular personality, has elevated Clos la Néore into the pantheon of the world’s most collectible whites.