Antoine Sanzay, 2015 Saumur-Champigny
Cab Franc du Jour #1
Antoine Sanzay is a fifth-generation winemaker from the western part of Saumur-Champigny. He farms 11 hectares, all certified organic, and today we are looking at his Cuvée Domaine, essentially his entry-level wine, sourced from four hectares across three different communes in the western part of the appellation, Chacé, Varrains, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg.
What is particularly interesting about this wine from a terroir perspective is that these western communes carry a lot more sand in the topsoil, and that is critical to both the nose and the palate of the finished wine.
So what does that sand contribute? Primarily lift. This is a very expressive, aromatic red wine. At five years of age there are some tertiary notes beginning to emerge, with the fruit leaning into a slightly dried spectrum while still retaining some fresh fruit character. The pyrazines are nicely integrated, sitting more on the tobacco end of the spectrum with a touch of dried herbs. On the palate this is classic Saumur-Champigny: graceful, finesse-driven, and quite elegant, with silky, fine tannins and that lovely lingering chalkiness that I think of as the quintessential tuffeau minerality of the appellation.
Antoine vinified this in concrete with 30 days on skins, so there is some decent structure here. This is not quite a vin de soif, but it is not strictly a vin de garde either. I think you could comfortably get another three to four years out of this before it reaches its peak, but all in all it is a beautiful expression from this part of Saumur-Champigny.
Wine Details
Producer: Antoine Sanzay
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Communes: Chacé, Varrains, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg
Soils: Sand, over tuffeau chalky limestone
Alcohol: 12.5%