Armand Foreau begins the family adventure in Vouvray. From the few vines he owned there, he enlarged the vineyard to 18 hectares in 1969 and established the notoriety of the house with the bottling of its wines, a rarity at the time. Armand began to dig the cellar in 1910, by hand, little by little, it was not finished until 1970. Part of his vines having left by inheritance to his daughter married to Gaston Huet, his immediate neighbour, his son André reconstitutes the estate by buying back plots. He remained at the head of the estate from 1969 to 1982, followed in turn by his son Philippe, who signed his first vintage in 1983. In the purest family continuity, Vincent Foreau joined the estate in 2007, after a professional baccalaureate and a learning on the job, as close as possible to reality, benefiting from the teachings of his father and the loyal employees of the estate. On the vine side, all the vines of the Clos Naudin estate were certified organic in 2015. No more weed killers, no more insecticides since 2005, replaced by sexual confusion. The La Grande Espace plot, planted in 1970 at the top of the plateau, produces the finest wines. At Clos Naudin, we have long been very attentive to the appearance of botrytis: if it does establish itself, we will wait for it to develop to 40 to 100% of the grapes. After harvesting these grapes affected by noble rot which go into the Reserve Moelleux, with the richest sort which goes into the Goutte d'Or cuvée (cuvée produced only in 1947, 1990, 2011 and 2015), we go back to harvest the golden grapes which are the basis of the classic moëlleux.
By tasting the Vouvrays of Philippe Foreau, everything becomes clear, legible in the chenin; what is complex is also greedy, what is very ripe therefore remains tense, what is early good is confirmed and amplified over the decades. Pure, long in the mouth, with a proverbial persistence, the Vouvrays of Clos Naudin have the regularity of a metronome despite the variations of the Loire climate. The parakeets (clay soils with flint) give the wines of the estate their typicality, just as comfortable in sugars as in dry ones; even the sparkling wines are made with extreme care. The style is often quite rich, more baroque than at Domaine Huet, and no less powerful in the persistence of the mouth. The latest vintages are led with brio by Vincent, the son of Philippe Foreau. Their legendary precision is combined with a slightly more open fruit. Which is not to displease us. A bright future is promised to this Vouvrillon estate.