2020 Domaine Guiberteau, Saumur Rouge, Les Moulins, Loire Valley, France.
The tight, austere and firm dark garnet/ruby Les Moulins Saumur Rouge by Romain Guiberteau takes its time unwinding and opening up, but when it finally comes around it is is a beautiful and structured 100% Cabernet Franc with blackberry, dark currant, plum and cherry fruits, as well as delicate violet florals, woodsy truffle, subtle bell pepper, chalky stones, anise and pipe tobacco. This concentrated wine is an ager in progress and is just giving a hint at the true potential with a medium body, gripping tannin, which is not aggressive, but powerful, and a nice cut of natural acidity, this Cab Franc should be left alone for another 5 to 10 years for full evolution. Coming from multiple sites in Berrie, Brézé, and Montreuil-Bellay with a complex mix of clay-sand soil over Turonian limestone, sandy-clay soils over Turonian limestone, clay-sand soil over Jurassic limestone, with an array of elevation and facings to provide the depth and balance here. The winemaking is precise with the Guiberteau Saumur Rouge bottlings, 100% Cabernet Franc, are carefully hand sorted and picked in the vineyard and 100% de-stemmed, then see an indigenous yeast fermentation with a cool maceration period before a shorter elevage. The wines are bottled quickly after being aged for just 4 to 6 months in tank, without any oak, with Guiberteau typically raising his reds in both stainless and concrete. This bottling has become a greeting card for the winery, allowing fans of the Loire Valley to get to know Guiberteau’s style in a totally transparency way without paying too much.
The Domaine Guiberteau, discovered and brought to the American market by the late Becky Wasserman, who’s life has been celebrated this last month since her passing, mostly regarding her excellent collection of Burgundy producers, though it shouldn’t go unnoticed that her company was savvy enough to find gems, like Guiberteau, in the Loire. Guiberteau, which has become one of the most sought after domaines in Saumur, with their wines already stringently allocated, and found in some of the best restaurants in France, as well as here, has a very limited production. The rise of this small estate has been meteoric since its founding around 2000, with it becoming all organic by 2003, with Romain Guiberteau, who took over the management of his family’s vineyards back in 1996, running this estate which has top notch holdings, with most in the legendary terroir of Brézé, with hillside plots on chalky soils planted to Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc. As I’ve mentioned before, Guiberteau’s hill of Brézé wines in Saumur are rare gems and highly sought after, especially the intensely mineral driven Chenins, but I also love the basic Saumur Rouge here and the upper end cuvées, with this Les Moulins being a terrific terroir driven Cabernet Franc. The organic vines at this estate, and leased plots, grown within the Saumur zone, many of which that were planted between 1955 and 1957 sit on the classic ancient silt and sandy soils over the limestone bedrock that gives this wine its class, mineral tones, crisp detail and lively acidity, while allowing beautiful ripe fruit to shine through, as seen here.
($30 Est.) 93+ Points, grapelive