Saumur "Château Fouquet"

France
Loire
2021

100% Cabernet Franc. Château Fouquet is a Saumur lieu-dit in the village of Brézé, a few miles from the winery in Saumur-Champigny and from the town of Saumur. Founder Paul Filliatreau acquired some partly abandoned Cabernet Franc vines here in 1987 and began replanting in 1989 with massale cuttings from his friend and Chinon vigneron Charles Joguet. Farming was converted first to organic (certified since 1998) and then to biodynamic (certified since 2018). Filliatreau owns 15.5 hectares of vines, 11 of those in Cabernet Franc (and 4.5 in Chenin Blanc), planted on clay-limestone soils. The bunches are harvested by hand, destemmed and fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel. Maceration lasts about 2 weeks. The wine is aged in tank for 10 months. It is bottled with a light, non-sterile filtration. Sulfur use is modest. 

 

93 points
"The 2021 Château Fouquet bottling from Domaine Filliatreau is an excellent, young Saumur. Readers may recall that this vineyard is located in the commune of Brézé, which Paul Filliatreau purchased in rundown condition in 1987 and replanted in 1989 with cabernet franc cuttings from Charles Joguet. The wine is impressively ripe for a 2021, tipping the scales at 13.5 percent octane and offers up a lovely mix of red and black fruit in its aromatic constellation of cherries, dark berries, cigar wrapper, juniper berries, a lovely base of tuffeau soil tones and a topnote of bonfire. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and very precise, with a good core of fruit, fine soil signature, tangy acids and excellent balance on the long, complex and ripely tannic finish. In a pinch, this wine is approachable today, but really needs at least five or six years in the cellar to soften up its underlying tannins a bit more before it will start firing on all cylinders. It is a lovely, low fat example of Saumur-Champigny with loads of personality. 2030-2075. "
John Gilman,
View From The Cellar
July 2024

SKU/Code: 
DB0016-21
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Cabernet Franc
Farming Type: 
Biodynamic