DOMAINE GUIBERTEAU SAUMUR BREZE BLANC 750ML 2020

The 2020 Brézé shines gold in the glass. Aged for 24 months in barrel and six in tank, it’s a powerful, ripe, smoky, toasty wine, almost as if someone's just served up a plate of smoky bacon. There's richness, succulent density and an attractive saltiness here. Energetic in the glass, the 2020 is almost chewy, like a meal in itself. It will leave you salivating.

2020 was a ripe vintage, but Romain Guiberteau's Brézé is a restrained beauty with all the class of this top site. The nose is all smouldering smoke, toast and almonds, while the palate delivers an invigorating blast of mineral acidity coated with filigree strands of silken fruit – orange, tangerine, even ripe pineapple. But these are all tightly wound at present, with the tingling Brézé tension like a tightly pulled thread. This needs a couple of years to reveal its charms, which it surely will.

Lemon oil, crushed mint, white flowers and hazelnuts introduce Guiberteau’s 2020 Brézé, a medium to full-bodied, satiny and rich white that’s broad and enveloping with a fleshy core of fruit. Long, ethereal and mineral, the finish is underlined by delicate notes of spices and caramel. Crafted from vines planted on three different plots, it matured for two years in half new/half used barrels.