Saumur-Champigny "La Grande Vignolle" (Non-Filtré)

2020
France
Loire

100% Cabernet Franc. "La Grande Vignolle" is a single 6-hectare vineyard on a limestone plateau above a cliff along the Loire a few miles from the winery at the northern limit of the Saumur-Champigny appellation. The vines average 40 years old and the farming is certified-organic and in conversion to biodynamics (on track for certification in the 2021 vintage). The fruit is harvested by hand and fully destemmed for fermentation with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks and a 15-day maceration. The wine is aged in steel for a year. It holds a special place in the Dressner line-up: decades ago importers Joe Dressner and Denyse Louis requested that Grande Vignolle be left unfiltered for the American market and it has remained so ever since.

 

 

92+ points
"The 2020 la Grande Vignolle bottling from Domaine Filliatreau is beautifully expressive and suavely red fruity on the nose this year, offering up a fine constellation of cherries, pomegranate, cigar wrapper, a lovely base of tuffeau soil tones, hints of both menthol and tree bark and a gently floral topnote redolent of peonies. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied, focused and complex, with fine core and soil signature, ripe tannins and a long, nicely balanced and nascently complex finish. As I tasted this right off of the boat, it is understandably still quite young, but it has impressive depth, length and complexity and will be a superb bottle of SaumurChampigny with just a bit of bottle age. As it is sealed with a synthetic cork, it may come forward fairly briskly, once it settles in from its voyage. In a pinch, I would have no trouble drinking it now, but it is still pretty youthful! 2022-2035+. "
John Gilman,
View From The Cellar
May-June 2021

SKU/Code: 
DB0017-20
Product Line: 
Wine
Red
Varietal: 
Cabernet Franc
Farming Type: 
Organic