While among the most important and historically influential estates in the Loire Valley, Domaine du Clos Naudin did not become a household name overnight.

Despite the fact that the domaine was established in 1923, it took decades for it to become internationally famous. In fact, it wasn’t until a pair of historically great sweet wine vintages, 1989 and 1990, came along that the names of Clos Naudin and the Foreau family were finally put on the map.

The domaine’s founder, Armand Foreau, was not from a winemaking family, but he was an early champion of quality wine. He also formed a strong connection with the Huet family, when his daughter Germaine married Gaston Huet in 1934. Armand gave the couple part of his cellar—which Huet still uses—but he retained its original section that he had personally dug out using hand tools.

For fifty years, under Armand's guidance, the estate gained a sterling reputation, but it remained little known outside France. The estate’s great 1989s and 1990s changed all that.

Behind those wines was the youngest of Armand’s three sons, Philippe, who had joined his father in the 1980s. Today, working with his son Vincent, Philippe continues to make both dry and sweet Vouvray of astonishing clarity and expression.