Clément Poirel
Beaulieu-sur-Layon

 Poirel makes wine in a beautiful place on the Layon river. In fact, that's just what the place is called. Beaulieu-Sur-Layon sits on hills of Schist and Slate, just 20km south of Angers. Clement found a small but pristine smattering of parcels in 2020, previously tended by Jean-Francois Chéné. The fields have been worked without intervention since 2005 when Chéné took over from his father. The material here has been proven over years of beguiling vintages from  La Coulée d'Ambrosia. 

     Clément, a former chef in Paris and New York, believes that quality comes with time. He lets the wines slowly breathe through the seasons, waiting to find their place. He has 20 barrels in a same cave on a gravel floor. 

     Over the past few years, I was able to taste the same wines 4 or 5 times, passing back and forth from Anjou into Saumur. The wines always struck me. The white barrels were electric. The reds were brooding and vegetal. And over time they continue to take on new depth, like seeing the same vintage with 3D glasses, or seeing your high-school crush 20 years later, but they look good, but also the same, in a nice way.