Philippe Foreau Domaine du Clos Naudin Vouvray Moelleux 'Goutte d'Or' 2020
While Foreau bottles a Vouvray Moelleux Reserve only a few times per decade, the fabled “Goutte d’Or” (“drops of gold”) has been produced only five times in the domaine’s century of history: 1947, 1990, 2011, 2015, and 2020. Harvested well after everything else, “Goutte d’Or” represents extreme risk and extreme faith, but the resulting wine is truly without peer. In 2020, Philippe and Vincent bottled just four barrels of a nectar effortlessly carrying 240 grams per liter of residual sugar—a plumbing of the depths of terroir that could only be produced in this place, with this grape variety, by such knowing and skilled stewards as the Foreaus. The sheer complexity of “Goutte d’Or” all but defies description, and color-coding its fruit characteristics is futile; there are apples and peaches, sure, but also plums, wild strawberries, and cherry jam. Confronted with a wine that still manages to feel refreshing amidst all that sweetness, all that fruit, and all that texture, all one can do is marvel—and to cellar their bottles for as long as their sense of restraint allows.