The Clos Thierrière Quiétude 2021 is a sparkling Chenin Blanc from Vouvray in the Loire Valley, made bone dry with no dosage. Fine-beaded and taut rather than showy, it sits closer to a savoury white with bubbles than to party fizz.

Aromas run to green apple, lemon pith and white blossom, with a chalky, struck-match edge underneath and a touch of quince as it warms in the glass. The palate is dry and linear, apple skin and grapefruit carried on a soft, persistent bead, with a faint pastry note from time on lees.

Hand-harvested fruit from thirty-year-old vines on tuffeau, red clay, flint and shale gives the wine its grip, and the early picking shows in a bracing acid line that runs the length of the palate. Without dosage to soften it, the finish is dry, mineral and long, with real texture rather than sweetness doing the work.

Serve it with oysters, freshly shucked, or with a whole roast chicken and its pan juices. It also handles harder cheeses, salt-and-pepper squid and anything fried better than most sparkling wine, and makes a very good aperitif for anyone who finds Champagne too rich.

Drinking beautifully now and through to around 2029, with the acidity to hold longer if you'd rather see the lees character build.