Domaine Arnaud Lambert Saumur Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg Les Perrières 2021 is a dry, taut Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley, built on citrus and orchard fruit rather than richness. It comes from a single site of vines planted around 1965 on sandy clay over limestone, and it carries the cut you would expect from a cooler Loire season.

The nose opens on grapefruit and yellow apple, with quince, dried apricot and a chalky, faintly smoky edge underneath. Time in the glass brings a touch of beeswax and toasted hazelnut, though the fruit stays clear and unforced throughout.

Fermented with wild yeasts and aged twelve months on fine lees in older foudres and barrels, the 2021 has texture without weight. Acidity runs firm and straight down the middle of the palate, the lees work adds a light creaminess across the mid-palate, and the finish is long, saline and properly dry. The cool 2021 growing season shows in the tension here more than in any lack of ripeness.

Serve it with roast chicken, pork belly, scallops or a plate of oysters. It also handles harder cheeses, smoked trout and anything with a mustard or cream sauce.

Drinking well from now, and this Saumur Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg Chenin Blanc has the acid and structure to keep developing through to about 2033. Give young bottles half an hour in the decanter.