Domaine Patrice Colin Pierre a Feu Chenin Blanc / 2024 / 750mL

The Domaine Patrice Colin Pierre à Feu Chenin Blanc 2024 is a dry, flinty white from Côteaux du Vendômois in the greater Loire Valley. It leans towards tension and stony drive rather than the honeyed richness Chenin Blanc can show further west.

Quince, green apple skin and a squeeze of lemon lead the aroma, with a chalky, struck-match edge behind them and a faint suggestion of chamomile. Air brings out ripe pear and a little beeswax without softening the overall shape.The palate is lean but not thin, with fine acidity running the length of it and a slightly grippy, mineral texture across the middle. The 2024 finishes dry and savoury, apple and salt lingering longer than the fruit weight would suggest, which makes it a good deal more serious than its easy first impression.

Pour it with oysters, grilled whiting, a goat's cheese salad or roast chicken with tarragon. It also handles trickier plates well - fennel, green herbs, anything with a lemon and caper dressing - where a rounder white would fall flat. Drink from now through to about 2030. It is open and refreshing straight away, though a year or two in the cellar will let the texture fill out and the flinty character settle into the fruit.