Winemaker Notes
The appellation of Saumur Champigny, like some of its easterly neighbors in the Touraine, is famed for its white tuffeau limestone along the banks of the Loire—dazzling cellars, châteaux built from their excavation, and, of course, wines. Its wines are red and made from Cabernet Franc, and Thierry has perfected the art of coaxing this grape's soulfulness and elusive finesse into bottle. This most recently arrived vintage of his signature red is generous, thickly textured, and ready to impress at table.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Saumur L'Échelier offers up an exotic, ripe bouquet of lemon oil, spices and ripe orchard fruits intertwined with a flinty-driven character. Medium to full-bodied, tense and straight, it’s satiny and ample with a rich crystalline core of fruit and an ethereal, vertical finish with chalky dry extracts. pH: 3.02; no malolactic fermentation.
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
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.