Tasted in Sept 2017 and a pure delight at 27 years old! Unctuous, rich and obviously sweet but with that fresh lifting vein of acidity which prevents the wine from being cloying or heavy. Flavour like apple tarte tatin and cream. The texture is smooth and the nose is of a cox's orange pippin. This is a wine to foil a savoury or a hard cheese or a blue cheese rather than a dessert - for which it is simply not sweet enough - too delicate for that. Drink and savour.

The Pichotsƒ?? run of recent vintages has produced a wonderful collection of dry, demi-sec and sweet wines. This is the longest established estate in Vouvray (est. 1739) and their current reputation has been built on their obsessively low yields and rigorous triages during the harvest - the 1990 Vouvray Moelleux is the result of a third ƒ??trieƒ?? right at the end of the harvest, for example. Robert Parker recently wrote that ƒ??these wines represent uncommonly natural expressions of both Chenin Blanc and terroirƒ??. These are totally authentic products of great class, character and individuality. The underlying acidity in this sweet wine will ensure it can develop over the next 20 years or more.

Jean-Claude Pichot, and his son, Christophe, have been supplying us with Vouvrays since the early 1980ƒ??s and our original belief that this is one of the finest estates in the central Loire is now widely accepted. For tax purposes, the domaine has been split up between father and son, with Christophe using the name of Domaine du C??teau de la Biche, although all the wines are the same, appearing on different labels at different times of the year!