Étienne Bodet, 2020 Saumur Rouge ‘Clos Durandière’
Cab Franc du Jour #137
Étienne Bodet is a fifth-generation winegrower and arguably one of the most exciting young talents to watch in Saumur. His family has had vines on the right bank of Montreuil-Bellay since the 19th century, a terroir that Étienne believes has long been undervalued and that serves as the foundation of his passion and inspiration for the domaine.
Before striking out on his own, Étienne accumulated an exceptional breadth of experience, working with Sylvain Pataille in Burgundy, Bernard Baudry in Chinon, François Dal in Sancerre, Aurélien Gerbais of Champagne Pierre Gerbais, and Romain Guiberteau, before eventually landing at Clos Rougeard, where he continues to work to this day. That formation has shaped every aspect of his approach: rigorous and detail-oriented work in the vineyard rooted in organic viticulture and biodynamic practices, and a thoughtful, meticulous approach to winemaking with as little intervention as possible.
Étienne currently farms 5.5 hectares, comprising 3 hectares of Cabernet Franc and 2.5 hectares of Chenin Blanc. He launched the domaine with the 2020 vintage of Clos Durandière, a parcel with deep personal significance: the vines were planted the same year Etienne was born, and the plot was gifted to him as a wedding present in 2015. He has since added a second parcel of Cabernet Franc, Clos des Vaudelles, located just a couple of hundred metres away across the road from the domaine on an entirely different terroir. The first vintage of that wine was 2023, with a release planned for 2026.
The Commune of Montreuil-Bellay
Today’s wine takes us to the commune of Montreuil-Bellay in the Saumur AOP, about 15km south of the village of Saumur and the Loire River. That distance from the Loire means less moderating influence from the river, so budbreak tends to arrive a little earlier here, and the growing season as a whole runs slightly cooler and shorter than in the communes closer to the Loire in Saumur-Champigny.
What makes this part of Saumur particularly interesting from a geological standpoint is the Montreuil-Bellay fault, which stretches roughly 150km and has, through tectonic activity over hundreds of millions of years, exposed a different bedrock and soil profile across several communes in the region. Across four communes specifically, Doué-en-Fontaine, Brossay, Vaudelnay, and Montreuil-Bellay, a narrow band of Jurassic-era limestones and soils emerges. As with the Turonian tuffeau chalks found in Saumur-Champigny, Chinon, and Bourgueil, there is considerable complexity within these Jurassic-era soils, though unlike the tuffeau, the patterns of what is found where do not follow the same elevation-based logic.
Within the commune of Montreuil-Bellay itself, the main viticultural areas are concentrated on both banks of the Thouet River, a tributary of the Loire that originates near the village of Saumur. The left bank, or west side, is dominated by very stony ancient alluvium in its northern portion, while toward the south, near the border with Vaudelnay, Jurassic Bathonian limestones and silex take over. Topsoils on this side are shallower, with a slightly higher silt and sand content, and the terroirs here tend to be a little warmer, drier, and less vigorous overall.
The right bank, or east side, is more heterogeneous and harder to characterise neatly. In addition to pockets of stony ancient alluvium and the Bathonian limestone and silex found on the west side, this area is largely dominated by an Oxfordian-age Jurassic marl not found on the left bank, a type of limestone with a slightly higher clay content. Topsoil depths vary considerably, but clay proportions are generally higher here than on the west side. As a result, these terroirs tend to run slightly cooler, with later budbreak, greater water reserves, and somewhat more vigour in the vines.
Clos Durandière
The Clos Durandière parcels are situated in a true walled clos within the family’s château property on the right bank of the Thouet. The parcel covers 1.3 hectares and was planted in 1983 by massale selection. The soils here occupy a narrow sliver of Bathonian limestone with a notably higher iron oxide content. Approximately 30 to 60cm of clayey, silty sands, with roughly 25% clay content mixed with silt and sand, sits above the hard limestone bedrock, and the parcels are quite stony throughout.
In the Cellar
The fruit is hand-harvested and hand-sorted. Étienne incorporates 10 to 30% whole cluster, with the remainder destemmed. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel with indigenous yeast, typically reaching a maximum temperature of around 26C. In the 2020 vintage, some punchdowns were performed during the second stage of the post-fermentation maceration, though Étienne has since moved to a purely infusion-based approach in subsequent vintages. Total skin contact runs approximately 26 to 28 days. The free-run and press wines are then aged separately for 24 months in a combination of new 228L and 500L barrels alongside used barrels, some of which come from Clos Rougeard. After élevage, the free-run and press wines are blended and aged for a further six months in tank before bottling, followed by an additional six months in bottle before release.
Wine Details
Producer: Étienne Bodet
Appellation: Saumur Rouge
Commune: Montreuil-Bellay
Lieu-Dit: Clos Durandière
Soil: 30-60cm of clayey silty-sands (limon sablo-argileux), over Bathonian limestone with silex
Alcohol: 13.18%