Antoine Sanzay, 2017 Saumur-Champigny ‘Les Poyeux’
Cab Franc du Jour #86
While Antoine Sanzay is the seventh generation of his family to farm vines in and around the village of Varrains in Saumur-Champigny, his chapter at the family domaine truly began in 1999 when he took over the estate full time, though his first vintage as winemaker came in 2002. Until then, the family’s fruit had been sold to the local cooperative, and a portion continued to go that route until 2014, which marked Antoine’s first vintage vinifying 100% of his own fruit.
Antoine today farms around 11 hectares, all organically, of which approximately 10 hectares are Cabernet Franc, with parcels dotted across the communes of Varrains, Chacé, Dampierre-sur-Loire, and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. Today we are looking at his bottling from Les Poyeux, arguably the top wine in his range.
The Commune of Chacé
Les Poyeux is located in the historical commune of Chacé, one of three communes in the Saumur-Champigny appellation set back from the Loire River, alongside Varrains and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. From an administrative standpoint, Chacé, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, and Brézé have since merged to form the commune of Bellevigne-les-Châteaux, though Brézé falls under the Saumur AOP rather than Saumur-Champigny.
There are two main viticultural zones in Chacé. A small area to the west of the villages of Chacé and Varrains contains a limited pocket of ancient alluvium from the Thouet River alongside some calcareous soils. The larger and more significant area lies to the east of the villages, where Les Poyeux and several other lieux-dits are found, dominated by calcareous-based soils. Both Upper and Middle Turonian tuffeau are present in Chacé, though the majority of the vineyards sit on the Middle Turonian chalk.
Les Poyeux
Les Poyeux is a complex and far from homogeneous lieu-dit. The main part of the vineyard, lying north of the D225 road, covers approximately 30 hectares, with an additional 14 hectares to the south of the road. Most of the site occupies a gentle south to southwest-facing slope, with the upper and western portions carrying a more westerly exposure, at elevations ranging from around 40 to 60m above sea level.
Those warm, favourable exposures are likely a significant part of why this vineyard has been so prized for so long. It is worth remembering that it has only been in the last 20 to 25 years that Cabernet Franc has been able to ripen consistently every vintage in the Loire, and a site like this would have stood out historically for its ability to ripen grapes more reliably than surrounding vineyards. Visiting the site reinforces that sense of specialness: full sun for most of the day, and a forested, higher-elevation area to the northeast providing shelter from cold northerly winds.
In terms of soils, the eastern part of the lieu-dit primarily sits on the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau, while moving west and down the slope transitions to the Middle Turonian white tuffeau. The topsoils in the central and western portions of the vineyard are a balanced mix of clay, silt, and sand, described locally as limon-sablo-argileux or limon-argilo-sableux, with more sand in the eastern and upper portions of the site, alongside some deeper Senonian-era sands and clays. Stoniness varies considerably across the lieu-dit, from parcels with virtually no stones to those with 50 to 100% stone content. As students of appellations like Châteauneuf-du-Pape will appreciate, that stone content matters: picking up stones in Les Poyeux at three or four o’clock in the afternoon, after a full day of sunshine, they are noticeably warm to the touch, and that heat retention at the surface is another meaningful contributor to the site’s terroir.
The heterogeneity of Les Poyeux matters because, as with any lieu-dit of this scale, there is significant variability from parcel to parcel. Some plots inevitably perform better than others in terms of soil fertility, water retention, and sun exposure, and all of these factors influence rootstock and plant material choices, the pace and degree of sugar and phenolic maturity, and ultimately the winemaking decisions in the cellar.
Antoine’s Parcels
Antoine Sanzay holds 4 hectares in Les Poyeux: 2 hectares in the upper western portion of the site and 2 hectares in the middle of the vineyard south of the D225. His vines average around 50 to 55 years of age. The bedrock beneath his parcels is the Middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk, with a topsoil that is a fairly balanced mix of clay, silt, and sand, carrying around 25% clay content with varying proportions of silt and sand. The topsoil is quite shallow, ranging from only 20 to 60cm depending on the position on the slope, with the shallowest soils at the top. One of the most striking features of Antoine’s parcels, observed while visiting the vineyard with him, is their remarkable stoniness: easily 50 to 75% stones throughout.
In the Cellar
Antoine’s approach is careful and restrained throughout. The fruit is hand-picked, fully destemmed, and fermented as whole berries, with considerable care taken to move the fruit into tank without pumps in order to keep the berries intact and unbroken. Fermentation takes place in concrete with indigenous yeast, with the wine spending approximately 28 days on skins. Extraction is kept to a minimum: a few light pump-overs at the start of fermentation to keep the cap moist, then maceration by infusion for the remainder. Only the free-run juice is used in the finished cuvée, and élevage takes place over approximately 18 months in a combination of older large foudres and 600L oak barrels.
Wine Details
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%