Château de Chaintres, 1989 Saumur-Champigny
Cab Franc du Jour #47
The history of Château de Chaintres and its vineyards dates back to at least 1675, when it belonged to the Oratory of Saumur and the priests cultivated the vineyards on behalf of the nearby Abbey of Fontevrault. The modern era begins in 1938 when the de Tigny family purchased the estate, and they remain its owners today. The family was among the founders of the Saumur-Champigny appellation and was also among the first to champion the return to organic viticulture in the 1990s.
The estate is situated in the hamlet of Chaintres in the commune of Dampierre-sur-Loire, just east of the village of Varrains and about 1.5km south of the Loire River. When you examine the lay of the land here, you quickly understand why this site was identified as a distinctive terroir by the monks several centuries ago.
The château’s 17 hectares of Cabernet Franc occupy a true walled clos, still surrounded by its original walls, on a gentle south-facing slope. The nature of the slope and the erosion that has taken place over centuries has created a complex mosaic of terroirs within this small enclosed space. The estate has since identified eight distinct terroir formations, differentiated by the composition of the topsoil and the proximity to and type of bedrock beneath. At the top of the vineyard the bedrock is the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk, while toward the middle and lower portions of the slope the Middle Turonian white tuffeau takes over.
Today the estate produces five individual Cabernet Francs from across these eight terroir formations, though in 1989 that level of parcel-by-parcel thinking was not yet the norm.
The 1989 Vintage
During this period, vignerons would typically harvest all of their parcels together without closely examining individual blocks for differences in ripeness, meaning that in lesser years some fruit might come in slightly underripe while other parcels were at their peak. In the case of 1989, this was not a concern: it was an exceptional year in Saumur-Champigny, widely regarded as the finest vintage of the decade. At the time of harvest, the estate estimates the vines averaged around 45 years of age, with the oldest reaching approximately 60 years and the youngest around 15.
In the Cellar
The winemaking of the era was built for aging, though with the understanding and technology available at the time rather than today’s more refined approach. A higher proportion of press wine would likely have been included in the finished cuvée, contributing a degree of rusticity, weight, and tannic structure that needed many years to soften and resolve. The wine was aged in older foudres before being bottle-aged in the estate’s underground cellars for 30 years prior to release. That it can still be found for less than $100 is remarkable.
Wine Details
Producer: Château de Chaintres
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Dampierre-sur-Loire
Soils: Bedrock of upper and middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, mixed sand, silt and clay topsoil.
Alcohol: 12.5%