Chateau de Chaintres has the terroir: classic tuffeau chalk, clay-limestone, and sandy soils right in the heart of the appellation. They have old vines (50+ years). They have a new winemaker devoted to biodynamics, who worked on many of our favorite Loire Valley wines as the right-hand man at Philippe Gilbert.Chaintres makes two cuvées, an old vine and a basic Saumur-Champigny. They're from similar terroirs, and they're both made with a light touch and minimal sulfur (only at bottling to keep the wine stable for shipping).Sure enough, the wines have a lot in common. Both are fresh, have beautiful fruit and floral notes (like crushed roses), with earthy undertones. Both have integrated tannins that don't get in the way of enjoyment of the wine.But the old vines dig really deep, giving us much more of the terroir. There’s a salty, savory edge to this wine, a hint of licorice complexity. And there’s more… of everything. More of the cassis. More of the crushed roses. More dark fruit and more earth. More nose, more density and more length.
What importer Rosenthal Wine Merchant has to say about this wine...
The vines that plunge the deepest into the tuffeau below are bottled separately, with the Vieilles Vignes cuvée comprising parcels ranging from 50 to 80 years of age. Despite the expected increase in concentration and structure with this wine compared to Les Sables, the same sense of freshness permeates this wine—making it “très digeste” indeed. Tannins are again graceful, but the underlying minerality is more assertive here, contributing a salty-savory edge to the fruit.
Details
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Grape Variety
Cabernet Franc
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Vintage
2020
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Size
750ml
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Farming Practice
Biodynamic
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Style
Earthy , Elegant , Minerally
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Sweetness
Dry
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Body
Light Bodied