"It has been a year since I last tasted the excellent 2018 Saumur-Champigny “Vieilles Vignes” from the Filliatreau family. The wine has blossomed nicely over the course of this past year and is briskly turning into an outstanding example of the vintage. The wine is ripe at 14.5 percent alcohol, as is the style of this vintage on the Loire, but very pure and precise on both the nose and palate. The bouquet hops from the glass in a lovely blend of black cherries, sweet dark berries, coffee bean, a touch of tree bark, hints of menthol, chalky soil tones, cigar wrapper and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a sappy core of fruit, fine soil signature and grip, ripe, well-integrated, chewy tannins and fine focus on the long, wellbalanced finish. While the wine is evolving nicely with bottle age, it is still a bit too early for primetime drinking for this fine bottle of Saumur-Champigny, so keep it tucked away in a cool corner of the cellar for another six to eight years and let those tannins soften up properly. 2030- 2075. "