Domaine Guiberteau, 2018 Saumur Rouge
Cab Franc du Jour #13
Among wine professionals, Domaine Guiberteau needs little introduction, so I will do my best to keep it brief. Romain Guiberteau is the current proprietor, and it was his great-grandfather who established the domaine in the early 1900s. When Romain left law school and returned to the domaine in 1996, he staged under the guidance of Charly and Nady Foucault of Clos Rougeard, and that mentorship has profoundly shaped the direction of the domaine in both viticulture and winemaking ever since. They have nine hectares in total, with mixed plantings of Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc, predominantly in the southern part of Saumur. Their vineyards are located primarily in the commune of Brézé, long regarded as something of a “grand cru” zone for winemaking in the Loire Valley. All of the vineyards are farmed organically.
Their domaine wine is essentially their entry-level expression, sourced from approximately two hectares across three different communes, with the majority of the fruit coming from Brézé and Épieds, which sit side by side in the southern part of the Saumur appellation. The vineyards here have a very shallow, sandy-silty topsoil over a limestone bedrock, and that proximity to the bedrock is critical to how these wines express themselves. The vines for this particular wine were planted between 1955 and 1957, so we are talking about genuinely old vines.
After about an hour and a half in the decanter, this wine really comes alive. The nose is perfumed and lively, with sweet red fruits of cherry and raspberry and a touch of blackcurrant. The herbaceousness comes through beautifully as dried herbs, fresh sage, and fresh savoury, with a lovely violet undertone. The palate is vivacious, with almost a crunchy quality to the acidity and very fine, satiny tannins, with a beautiful chalky minerality on the finish. But what this wine is truly about, and how it communicates the terroir of the sites, is that ethereal, lacy, refined character. It is focused and precise, with a great deal of nuance, showing itself in an almost Pinot-like way in terms of finesse, grace, and levity. A beautiful expression of Cabernet Franc from Saumur.
Wine Details
Producer: Domaine Guiberteau
Appellation: Saumur Rouge
Communes: Brézé, Bizay, Montreuil-Bellay
Lieux-Dits: Various
Soils: Shallow sandy-silty topsoil over tuffeau limestone
Alcohol: 13%