Arriving in Paris to teach English, Brendan caught the wine bug from a friend and soon found himself working in a wine shop with famous bottles like Guiberteau on the shelves. The Brézé wines captivated him, and its energy, limestone strike, and Chenin Blanc purity now resonate in his wines. Guiberteau helped launch Brendan’s career, hiring him in the cellar and assisting in acquiring a nearby vineyard, Les Chapaudaises—a one-hectare plot of sandy limestone (tuffeau) that imparts remarkable energy and texture to the wines.

The lieu-dit bottling hails from the site’s oldest and most unproductive vines. Les Chapaudaises has been farmed organically since 2010 and is a site Stater-West explains is finely tuned for “the style of Chenin that I am crazy for; elegant, pure, vertical, with salinity from the limestone.”

The vineyard is picked slightly earlier than Guiberteau’s Clos de Guichaux, and Stater-West works with fewer lees than his colleague, giving a Chenin of radiant succulence, cut-glass precision and sappy length. The 2020 was fermented naturally in stainless steel and then aged in used, large-format barrels (sourced from Louis-Benjamin Dagueneau) for 14 months.

On a par with the 2019 release, it’s rocky, overtly mineral and flush with flavours of citrus, iodine and a touch of fennel. Lithe and full of engaging clarity, the palate balances its fleshy, citrus-noted fruit and limpid succulence with chiselled freshness, a mass of energy and a lovely phenolic bite. The finish ripples to a long, salty close. Pure class.