Béatrice et Pascal Lambert, 2017 Chinon ‘Les Puys’
Cab Franc du Jour #96
The story of the Lambert family’s domaine begins in 1987, when Béatrice and her husband Pascal purchased their first 4 hectares of vines in the commune of Cravant-les-Côteaux. Their son Antoine has since joined the domaine, and the estate has grown to 18 hectares across the communes of Cravant-les-Côteaux and Chinon. Organic farming began in earnest in 1995, with full certification achieved in 2005, followed by biodynamic conversion and eventual certification in 2012. The domaine produces several terroir-specific expressions of Cabernet Franc, and today we are looking at Les Puys.
The Puys du Chinonais
Les Puys takes us to one of the most fascinating and distinctive parts of the Chinon appellation: the Puys du Chinonais, a cluster of low-elevation, domed hillocks in the western part of the appellation, specifically within the communes of Chinon and Beaumont-en-Véron. The term puy derives from the Latin “podium,” referring to a raised platform, which is precisely what these formations are. There are eight main puys in total, two in Beaumont-en-Véron and six in the Chinon commune, all located to the north and west of the Chinon village itself. Together they cover approximately 70 hectares, with the lowest rising to around 30m above sea level and the tallest reaching about 88m.
These puys owe their distinctive shape to the geology of this particular part of Chinon. The Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk found here is unusually rich in quartz, making it more resistant to erosion than the tuffeau found elsewhere in the appellation. In many instances, this harder, denser form of the chalk appears alongside millarges, a sandier, more crumbly variation of the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau that is rich in silica. The contrast between these two types of limestone, placed side by side, led over time to the formation of these characteristic domed chalk mounds.
The sloping, convex shape of the puys promotes both greater solar intensity and excellent drainage, aided by the shallow topsoils across the slopes. Their position at the confluence of the Loire and Vienne Rivers means this part of the appellation experiences warmer temperatures and lower rainfall than anywhere else in Chinon.
The combination of climate, geology, soils, and topography has given rise to a unique mesoclimate here, one warm enough and arid enough to support a diversity of plants, animals, and insects more typical of a Mediterranean environment: juniper, almond trees, wild thyme, orchids, and an array of shrubs collectively evocative of garrigue, none of which are found elsewhere in Chinon. The Chinon appellation itself describes this area as a Mediterranean island within its boundaries, and that mesoclimate, combined with the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau soils, creates a grape-growing environment capable of producing long-lived, structured expressions of Cabernet Franc.
The Vineyard Selection
Today’s wine comes from the lieu-dit Les Puys, located a little under 2km north of the Chinon fortress, just east of one of the puys, Les Trottes-Loup, very close to the hamlet of Rochette. The Lambert family holds approximately 1.7 hectares here, with parcels at an elevation of around 84m above sea level on an easterly exposure. The soils offer a direct example of those two Upper Turonian tuffeau types sitting side by side: a portion of the Lambert parcels rests on the harder, denser Upper Turonian chalk, while other parcels sit on the sandier millarges. In both cases, the topsoil is a relatively shallow sandy-clay with a moderate degree of stoniness. The vines average around 20 to 25 years of age.
In the Cellar
The fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed, then transferred to the fermentation vessel without the use of pumps in order to keep the berries whole and intact. Fermentation takes place with indigenous yeast in large conical wooden vats, with some pigeage at the start of fermentation and a notably long total maceration of 40 to 50 days. A portion of the press wine is reincorporated into the free-run wine, and aging takes place in 50hl oak foudres for 12 months, followed by a further 15 months in concrete before bottling.
Wine Details
Producer: Domaine Béatrice et Pascal Lambert
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Chinon
Lieu-Dit: Les Puys
Soil: Sandy-clay topsoil, Upper Turonian tuffeau chalk and “millarges” bedrock
Alcohol: 14.0%