Domaine Guiberteau, 2018 Saumur Rouge ‘Les Arboises’
Cab Franc du Jour #128
The story of Domaine Guiberteau as we know it today begins with Romain’s grandfather Robert, who inherited his first parcels of vines in the village of Saint-Just-sur-Dive from his father-in-law in 1935. Following the war, Robert’s pursuits as a vigneron became more serious, and recognising the long history of viticulture and the potential in the neighbouring commune of Brézé, he acquired his first hectares there in 1954, including the parcels of the famed Clos des Carmes and Les Arboises, now the estate’s top white and red cuvées respectively.
Following Robert’s retirement in 1976, with no heirs interested in taking over the domaine, the parcels were rented out to the cooperative until Romain, Robert’s grandson, made the decision to return and pursue a life as a vigneron. Under the guidance of Charly and Nady Foucault of Clos Rougeard, Romain made his first vintage in 1996, and for the better part of the next two decades he continued his stage at Clos Rougeard while simultaneously vinifying his own wines and growing the domaine into what it is today.
Domaine Guiberteau now comprises approximately 14.5 hectares of vineyards, with about 7.5 hectares planted to Chenin and 7 hectares to Cabernet Franc, scattered across the communes of Saint-Just-sur-Dive, Montreuil-Bellay, Épieds, and Brézé. Romain makes four red cuvées from his Cabernet Franc, plus a more recent rosé. The reds include a domaine wine and Les Moulins, both blends from multiple parcels, alongside two cuvées parcellaires: Les Chapaudaises in Épieds and Les Arboises in Brézé, his flagship red. The vineyards have been farmed organically since 2003 and received certification in 2007.
The Commune of Brézé
The historical commune of Brézé sits about 10km due south of the village of Saumur, set back from the Loire River. Its northern border follows the southern border of Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, with Épieds to the east, Montreuil-Bellay to the south, and Saint-Just-sur-Dive to the west. The majority of the commune’s vineyards are concentrated in an area roughly 2.5km wide and 2.5km from north to south, following what is commonly referred to as the Brézé hill.
The highest point of this hill reaches about 85m above sea level, and the vineyards follow the hill’s perimeter to the north, northeast, east, and south, sloping gradually down to around 50m above sea level at the lowest points to the north and northeast, while levelling off at about 60 to 65m to the east and south. The positioning of the hill means the surrounding vineyards carry a wide variety of exposures, with more northerly aspects in the northern part of the commune and southerly exposures to the south, though there are plenty of exceptions throughout.
The terroir across the commune is complex and heterogeneous, but a few broad observations can be made. Across most of the commune, with the exception of a handful of spots along the crest of the hill, the topsoil is quite shallow, reaching bedrock within 50 to 90cm of the surface. Elevation provides a useful guide to the type of soils found in a given area. On the lower slopes, primarily in the northern and southern parts of the vineyard area at around 50 to 65m above sea level, the bedrock is the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, the glauconitic-micaceous craie verte, with more silty-clay topsoils above. On the higher slopes, a narrow band of terroirs follows the crest of the hill from west to east at elevations of around 70 to 78m. Here we find pockets of Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau, heavier red clays of Bartonian age, and sands and sandy-clays from the Senonian age, often appearing in alternating layers. Topsoils on these higher slopes tend to be sandier, with pockets of heavier clay in places.
The variability of exposures across the hill, combined with the shallow soils throughout, means that site selection for Cabernet Franc requires particular care. Which brings us to Les Arboises, one of the most Cabernet Franc-friendly sites in the commune.
Les Arboises
Les Arboises is a one hectare lieu-dit that has been part of the Guiberteau holdings since the beginning, planted by Romain’s grandfather by massale selection in 1957. Located in the western part of the hill’s crest zone, just a few hundred metres east of Château de Brézé, the vineyard sits on a gentle south-southwest facing slope at an elevation of around 80 to 85m above sea level, placing it among the highest points in the commune.
The soils here date to the Senonian age and are predominantly sand with quartz clays, a profile described locally as sable argileux, with roughly 70% sand content in both the topsoil and subsoil. Crucially, there is over a metre of topsoil before the tuffeau is reached below. Romain’s grandfather held a simple rule of thumb for deciding whether to plant Chenin or Cabernet Franc: more than a metre of topsoil, plant Cabernet Franc; less than a metre, plant Chenin.
In the Cellar
Romain tends to pick on the earlier side, with a focus on skin ripeness rather than seed ripeness. The fruit is hand-harvested, destemmed, and hand-sorted before fermenting in larger wooden vats with indigenous yeast, with total skin contact of around 15 days. Extraction is by infusion throughout, an approach particularly well suited to earlier harvesting. The free-run wine is drained off the skins after maceration, and Romain tastes through the pressings before deciding how much press wine to incorporate based on the cuvée and the vintage. Les Arboises is the only wine in the Guiberteau range to see new oak during aging; that proportion has decreased over the years, and for the 2018 vintage stood at around 50% new oak and 50% second-use barrels, with aging for two years in barrel followed by six months in stainless steel before bottling.
Wine Details
Producer: Domaine Guiberteau
Appellation: Saumur Rouge
Commune: Brézé
Lieux-Dits: Les Arboises
Soils: More than 1m of Senonian clayey-sand (sable argileux) topsoil and subsoil over tuffeau
Alcohol: 13.0%