Winemaker Notes
Thierry's seventy-year-old vines are planted on an ancient limestone plateau with remnants of viticulture dating back more than three hundred years. This downright Burgundian wine shows off the savory spine and weightless concentration imparted by this particular site.
Blend: 100% Chenin Blanc
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Saumur L'Échelier opens with an aromatic, openly fruity and soft chalk bouquet with some lovely dashes of lemon juice and notes of flint stones. Round and elegant on the palate, this is an intense, vital and persistent mineral Saumur with textural qualities and a remarkably nervy and salty finish that reveals serious tannin grip and refreshing bitters of lemon juice. Tasted in June 2021.
Unquestionably one of the most diverse grape varieties, Chenin Blanc can do it all. It shines in every style from bone dry to unctuously sweet, oaked or unoaked, still or sparkling and even as the base for fortified wines and spirits. Perhaps Chenin Blanc’s greatest asset is its ever-present acidity, maintained even under warm growing conditions. Somm Secret—Landing in South Africa in the mid 1800s, today the country has double the acreage of Chenin Blanc planted compared to France. There is also a new wave of dedicated producers committed to restoring old Chenin vines.
Marked by great châteaux built with the same tuffeau limestone that is also responsible for the excavation of so many of the famed Loire caves, Saumur is famous for its Chenin blanc based sparkling wines. Inside the Saumur region, Saumur-Champigny creates some of the Loire’s greatest Cabernet Francs.