Antoine Sanzay, 2017 Saumur-Champigny ‘Les Poyeux’
While Antoine Sanzay is the 7th generation in his family to be farming vines in and around the village of Varrains in Saumur-Champigny, Antoine's story at the family domaine really didn't begin until 1999 when he took over running the estate full time, but it wasn't until 2002 when he vinified his first vintage. Up until this time, the family's fruit had been sold to the local cooperative, and a portion of Antoine's grapes continued to be sold to the co-op until 2014, his first vintage vinifying 100% of his own fruit.
Antoine today has around 11 hectares, all of which are farmed organically. Of these about 10 hectares are Cabernet Franc, and his parcels are dotted around the communes of Varrains, Chacé, Dampierre-sur-Loire, and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. Today, we're looking at his bottling from Les Poyeux, arguably the top wine of range of Cabernet Francs.
The last time I spoke about this famed vineyard of Les Poyeux was nearly a year ago when I opened a bottle of 2009 Clos Rougeard Les Poyeux for my birthday. And since then, I've really developed a much better understanding of this lieu-dit through my research in speaking with producers that have parcels here, and also now, since having visited the site during my recent trip to the Loire.
So, to give you a lay of the land here, we are in the historical commune of Chacé, which is one of three communes in the Saumur-Champigny appellation that are set back from the Loire River, along with Varrains and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. Technically, from an administrative perspective, Chacé, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg and Brézé have now merged into the commune Bellevigne-Les-Châteaux. But of course Brézé is not part of the Saumur-Champigny AOP, it is part of the Saumur AOP.
But getting back to Chacé, there are two main vineyard areas in this commune. We have a tiny area of vineyards on the west side of the villages of Chacé and Varrains, where we find a very small area of ancient alluvium from the Thouet River, and also some calcareous soils, and then we have the area east of the villages where we find Les Poyeux and some other lieux-dits, and this area is dominated by calcareous-based soils. And it's important to note that while we do find both the Upper Turonian and Middle Turonian tuffeau here in Chacé, the majority of the vineyards are on the Middle Turonian tuffeau.
Now, let's dive into Les Poyeux. This is a very complex lieu-dit, and it is by no means homogeneous. The main part lieu-dit, which lies north of the D225, is about 30 hectares, that's nearly 75 acres. Then there is another portion of about 14 hectares that lies south of the road as well. Most of the lieu-dit is on a full south to southwest-facing gentle slope, and then in the western and upper parts of the site, the parcels have a more western exposure, at an elevation ranging from around 40 to 60m.
These favourable, warm exposures are likely part of the reason this vineyard has been prized for as long as it has. It's important to remember that it's really only been in the last 20-25 years that Cabernet Franc has been able to consistently ripen well every vintage in the Loire. And a vineyard like this would've been highly regarded for its ability to ripen the grapes better and more consistently than others.
And when I visited the vineyard, having seen several parcels in different parts of the vineyard, it is evident that this site is very special. Full sun most of the day, a forested, higher elevation area to the northeast blocking out any cold northerly winds. And really, seeing is believing, and from standing in the vineyard, I could instantly tell it was special.
Now in terms of the soils, of course we are dealing with the tuffeau bedrock. The eastern portion of the lieu-dit primarily sits on the upper turonian yellow tuffeau, and as you move west and down the slope, we are on the middle turonian white tuffeau. In terms of topsoil, the central and western portions of the vineyard have a combination of clay, silt and sand, articulated as limon-sablo-argileux or limon-argilo-sableux. We find more sand in the eastern and upper parts of the lieu-dit, and also deeper Senonian era sands and clays here as well. The degree of stoniness varies as well, with some parcels that aren't stony at all, to some that are 50 to 100% stones. And this is important because as we know from our readings about appellations like Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the important role that the galets roulés play there that stones hold heat, and help to retain heat at night. And when I picked up some of these stones at 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, after having received a lot of sunshine during the day, they were indeed quite warm. So this is another important factor that contributes to the terroir here.
Why does the heterogeneity of this site matter? Well, as with any lieu-dit or climat of this size, there will a lot of variability from parcel to parcel, and inevitably some parcels will be "better" than others as it relates to the balance between soil fertility, water retention, exposures, risk of chlorosis, etc. This will influence how the vigneron goes about his work in the vineyard, choice of plant material and rootstock, etc. And all of these factors impact the how and the degree of sugar and phenolic maturity, and this will influence on the winemaking choices in the cellar, and which will inevitably have an impact on the finished wine.
Antoine Sanzay has 4 hectares here in Les Poyeux, 2 hectares in the upper portion on the western side of the site, and 2 hectares in the middle of the vineyard south of the D225. His vines are on average around 50-55 years of age. The bedrock here is the middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk, and the topsoil is a pretty balanced mix of clay, silt and sand, about 25% clay content with a variable proportion of silt and sand. Antoine has relatively little topsoil in his parcels, anywhere from 20 to 60cm depending on the part of the slope we are on, with the soil being shallower at the top of the slope. One thing I did note in Antoine's parcels when I visited the vineyards with him is how stony his parcels are. We're talking easily 50% to 75% stones.
From a winemaking perspective, there are a few important things I want to note about Antoine's approach in the cellar. The fruit is all hand-picked and destemmed. And 100% whole berry fermentation, and there is a lot of care and attention that goes from getting the fruit into the tank without the use of pumps in order to ensure that the berries stay in tack without breaking the skin. Fermentation is with indigenous yeast in concrete, and the wine stays about 28 days on skins. Antoine does very little by way of extractive techniques, a few light pumpovers at the beginning of the fermentation to keep the cap wet, otherwise it is simply maceration by infusion. Antoine only uses the free run juice in his final cuvée, and the élevage is about 18 months in older barrels, a combination of larger foudres and 600L oak barrels.
* For more (and updated details about this lieu-dit), please check out my Substack feature.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Antoine Sanzay
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Chacé
Lieu-Dit: Les Poyeux
Soil: 20-60cm of clay-silt-sand (limon-sablo-argileux, limon-argilo-sableux) over the Middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk bedrock
Alcohol: 13%
