Domaine de Nerleux, 2021 Saumur-Champigny “Clos des Châtains”
For nine generations the Neau family have been a vital part of the viticultural landscape across the commune of St-Cyr-en-Bourg in Saumur-Champigny. Vigneron Eugène Neau acquired additional parcels to establish Domaine de Nerleux in 1870. The domaine was eventually passed to Eugène's son, Robert Neau, who not only continued as an independent vigneron with Domaine de Nerleux, but also founded the Caves de Saumur, the appellation's cooperative, with his cousin, Marcel Neau. Robert Neau was grandfather to two important native St-Cyriens and vignerons, cousins Arnaud Lambert, who's father established Domaine Saint-Just with parcels from his mother's side of the family, and Amélie Neau, who is proprietaire-vigneronne, 9th and current generation and first woman in the Neau family to lead Domaine de Nerleux, and she took over from her father in 2010. The domaine today is comprised of 28 hectares of organically farmed vines, and they are producing a thoughtful range of 5 reds, and a rosé in still and sparkling from their Cabernet Franc vines, and today we're looking at their Clos des Châtains Vieilles Vignes cuvée.
All of Domaine de Nerleux's parcels of Cabernet Franc are situated in the commune of Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, making their range of reds a true expression of the terroir of St-Cyr-en-Bourg. So what are some of the key elements that define the terroir landscape of this commune. St-Cyr-en-Bourg is notably the commune that is the furthest south in the Saumur-Champigny appellation, starting about 5km southeast of the Loire River, and the majority of the vineyards are situated on the butte of St-Cyr, which is a large tuffeau chalky limestone plateau. A limestone plateau that was quarried out centuries ago for limestone to building the castles and buildings of the Loire leaving 200km of caves and tunnels under the village and vineyards.
There are two areas for viticulture in this commune. An area in the eastern part of the commune that hugs this forested area, where the vines tend to have more western exposures. And then the area of vines directly on the limestone butte, which is dotted around the village itself, but the majority of the vineyards are on the southwestern side of the village. In this part of the commune, we can find all exposures here, north, south, east and western-facing exposures.
Now in terms of the soils, unlike some other communes in the appellation, the soils here in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg are a little bit easier to define. The majority of the vineyards are lying between elevations between 40 to 60 or so meters above sea level, and the bedrock is the middle Turonian tuffeau, which here is known locally as craie verte, which is a glauconitic-micaceous chalk. And then there are a couple small pockets of higher elevation areas, around closer to 65-70m above sea level, that are on the upper Turonian yellow tuffeau. The topsoils are relatively shallow, and the topsoil textures are fairly homogeneous across the commune, with a clay-silt mix with about a 25 to 40% clay content depending on the parcel.
The combination of the communes position away from the Loire River, coupled with the shallower soils and strong influence of the tuffeau chalk, means that
Drilling down to today's wine, the Clos des Châtains, this is coming from about 5 hectares of vines, from predominantly the lieu-dit Châtains, with a small portion from the lieu-dit Mureaux, both located on the western side of the butte of St-Cyr, so we have more southwest-facing exposures in these parcels. In terms of soils, Châtains is located a little more downslope, so we have the benefit of slightly deeper soils, so we have a little more than a metre of topsoil before the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk bedrock, and the topsoil texture is a clayey-silty sand with a subsoil of clay before the tuffeau. The vines in this parcel represent some of the oldest of the domaine, planted between 1949 and 1953.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit is machine harvested, and entirely destemmed. Amélie will make a small pied de cuve with selected yeast to start the fermentation, and the fermentation is in stainless steel with temperature control, with the fermentation temperature ranging from 28-32C. In terms of extractive techniques, they use an innovative system for remontage that is extremely gentle. The place a large donut shaped balloon inside the tank, and they inflate the balloon to submerge the cap, and as they slowly deflate the balloon, which they just do once per day, the wine will slowly flow over the cap to create a gentle extraction. The total time on skins is around 19 to 12 days. The aging is done entirely in stainless steel, and it is aged for about 12-15 months before bottling.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine de Nerleux
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: St-Cyr-en-Bourg
Lieu-Dit: Châtains
Soil: A little over a meter of topsoil, clayey-silt over clay, over the Middle Turonian tuff eau chalk bedrock (craie verte)
Alcohol: 13.5%
