Château de Villeneuve, 2017 Saumur-Champigny “Le Grand Clos”
Château de Villeneuve's history and vineyards can be traced back ton 1577. At the time the estate was named Bel Air, and it was the youngest son of the de Villeneuve family Jean-Marie Berthelot who named the estate Chateau de Villeneuve.
Fast forward to the modern era of the domaine, the Chevalier family purchased the property in 1967, and begun to restore its vineyards and cellar. In 1982, Jean-Pierre Chevalier returned from his studies in Bordeaux and began to run the estate.
The estate and its 28ha of vineyards are located in the commune of Souzay-Champigny. There are 9 historical communes that make up the Saumur-Champigny AOP - 6 that are dotted along the Loire River, and three that are set back.
Souzay-Champigny, is located close to the Loire River, but the commune stretches about 4.5km to the southwest, so are three distinct areas of vineyards in this commune. We have the vineyards that hug the Loire River on the Turonian tuffeau plateau, then there is another area in around the hamlet of Champigny that is on a different type of limestone that dates to the Eocene period, and then we get to another pocket of the Turonian tuffeau limestone in the far southwest corner of the commune.
So from a birds eye view, it is easy to generalize the microclimate and soils of Saumur-Champigny, but when we drill down to single commune, there will be a lot of nuance here. So here in Souzay-Champigny, the vineyards closest to the river will received stronger moderating influence from the River, and thus impact budbreak as well as maturities. As well, these limestones all have different properties with impart their own influence on the finished wine.
The vineyards of Château de Villeneuve are very close to the Loire River, less than 200m away, and for this wine, it is coming from a specific parcel of 3 hectares that are closest to the chateau, and less than 50m from the Loire, so there is a stronger moderating influence, and in fact, these parcels almost always mature about 8 days ahead of the rest of the vineyard.
In terms of soils, we are on the Turonian tuffeau chalk plateau, and more specifically the Middle Turonian tuffeau, which is a micaceous chalk. And the topsoil here is relatively shallow, we hit the chalk within less than a meter, and the topsoil is a moderately stoney silty-clay, with a smaller percentage of sand.
The vines are on average about 50 years of age, and the vineyard is farmed certified organic. The estate makes this wine in the best vintages. The fruit is all hand-harvested, destemmed. It undergoes a cold soak for about 7 days prior to fermentation. Fermentation is with indigenous yeast and takes place in 40HL oak vats, with about 28 days on skins with regular pigeage. Maturation takes place in a combination of 12HL oak foudres and 600L demi-muids.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Château de Villeneuve
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Souzay-Champigny
Lieu-Dit: Villeneuve
Soil: Shallow, moderately stony silty-clay topsoil, atop the middle Turonian tuffeau bedrock.
Alcohol: 13.0%
