Domaine des Sables Verts, 2020 Saumur-Champigny ‘Les Poyeux’
Domaine des Sables Verts is an historical domaine based in Varrains that was in the hands of the Duveau family for 10 generations. With retirement looming, brothers Alain and Dominique Duveau made the decision to put the domaine up for sale. The buyers were Caroline Meurée and her husband Hervé Malinge, a young couple who met while doing their wine studies in Bordeaux. With the desire to move closer to where they grew up, Hervé from Vendée and Caroline from Picardy, and Sables Verts up for sale, the couple made the decision to put down roots in Saumur-Champigny and in 2019 embark on an exciting and ambitious new journey as the young proprietors of Domaine des Sables Verts. The domaine spans 16 hectares, a total of 33 parcels dotted across five communes, with 15.5 hectares planted with Cabernet Franc, and they began to convert their vineyards to organic viticulture right from day one. They are currently making four Cabernet Francs, which include their domaine cuvée, and 3 cuvées parcellaires, Les Clos Forènes, Chaintres, and Les Poyeux, which is the wine we are looking at today.
So, Les Poyeux. This is quite possibly the most famous Cabernet Franc vineyard not only in the Loire Valley, but one could argue the whole world, in large part due to the reputation of a little domaine you might have heard of - Clos Rougeard. The lieu-dit is located in the commune of Chacé, in the eastern part of the commune, east of the villages of Chacé and Varrains, and its eastern border follows the western border of the commune of Dampierre-sur-Loire. What is important to note about this lieu-dit off the top is its sheer size. This is a 44 hectare vineyard - that's about 108 acres for my American friends. It's huge. It actually accounts for a little over a quarter of the vineyard area in Chacé, which is pretty impressive. Naturally, as it could be expected with a vineyard this size, is by no means homogeneous in terms of terroir.
Based on my conversations with vignerons, research and visiting the lieu-dit, we can roughly divide the lieu-dit into three parts. Firstly, we have the section north of the route D225, which can be divided into two parts.
We have the area often referred to as Hauts Poyeux, which is at the northern end of the vineyard and covers an area of about 10 hectares. The parcels range in elevation from 42 to 64m above sea level, and the slope is oriented ever so slightly to the northwest.
The we have the heart of Les Poyeux, which is more or less situated in mid-slope, and is an area of about 20 hectares north of the D225. Depending on where the parcels are planted, they can have a full west-facing exposure, or southwest or south-facing exposure. And the elevation ranges from around 44 to 62m above sea level.
Finally we have the area referred to Bas Poyeux, or Lower Poyeux, and this is the section of the lieu-dit that is located south of the D225. These parcels generally have a full south-facing exposure, and the elevation hovers in the 40 to 54m above sea level.
Now in terms of soils, because of the nature of the topography of this site and the surrounding area, there area three major groups of terroir units. In the eastern-most part of the vineyard, we have a narrow band of Senonian-era soils. These are much deeper soils, and a mix of sand, silty-sands, with varying textures for the subsoil.
As you move west across the lieu-dit, there is then an area of vineyards with the influence of the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk bedrockIn terms of topsoil, with a mix of sand, silt and clay in the topsoil, and generally there is less than a meter of topsoil. The area of Upper Turonian tuffeau is concentrated in the central and upper portions of the vineyard. Finally, in the western-most parcels of the lieu-dit as well as the Bas Poyeux, we have parcels on the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, which is the glauconitic-micaceous chalk known as craie verte. The topsoil is more shallow again, and similarly textured with that mix of sand, silt and clay.
Why does the heterogeneity of this site matter? Well, as with any lieu-dit or climat or vineyard 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 water retention, vine vigour, exposures, etc. This will influence how the vigneron goes about their work in the vineyard, and it will also influence the rate and degree of sugar and phenolic maturity, and often influences their winemaking choices in the cellar, and which will inevitably have an impact on the finished wine.
So today's wine is from a little over 1.8 hectares of vines, all situated in the lower part of Les Poyeux, so this area referred to as Bas Poyeux south of the route. And their parcels are clustered in the northwestern part of the Bas Poyeux, so towards the top of the slope, at an average elevation of around 46m above sea level, and the parcels have a gentle southwest-facing exposure. From a soil perspective, this particular part of Les Poyeux is actually a bit more homogeneous in terms of terroir. So we have a relatively shallow topsoil of about 50cm of a sandy-clay silt, or limon sablo-argileux, followed by the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, the craie verte. The age of their vines are notable as well, with most being planted between 1952-53 and 1960-61, so that's 60 to nearly 70 year old vines on average, which Hervé and Caroline noted that because of this they less susceptible to hydric stress and also tend to be more consistent in terms of budbreak, flowering, etc.
In terms of the winemaking for this wine, the fruit is all hand-harvested, hand-sorted and destemmed. The berries are transported to stainless steel tank by gravity, and the fermentation is with indigenous yeast, with the peak fermentation temperature reaching 25C. The total time on skins is around 22 days, and they will do some pumping over at the very beginning of the fermentation, with just a light wetting of the cap occasionally for the duration. The finished wine is a combination of free run wine and press wine, and for the 2020 vintage, the aging was in a combination of stainless steel and 10hL sandstone amphoras for about 12 months.
Caroline and Hervé noted to me that they have evolved their élevage of their Les Poyeux quite a bit since their first vintage in 2019. They have gradually eliminated using stainless steel for the aging, and increase their use of amphora and also older barriques from Bordeaux, with the amphora providing micro-oxygenation while still retaining the wines freshness and minerality, and the helping to contribute to a more smooth and velvety mid-palate. They have also lengthened their elevage to 18 months total, followed by 6 months in bottle before release.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine des Sables Verts (Caroline Meurée et Hervé Malinge)
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Chacé
Lieu-Dit: Les Poyeux
Soil: 50cm of silty-sandy-clay, over the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk (craie verte)
Alcohol: 14.5%
