Château du Petit Thouars, 2017 Chinon "L'Épée”

Built in 1420 perched high above the Vienne River in the commune of St-Germain-sur-Vienne, the story of Château du Petit Thouars as we know it today begins in 1636 when Georges Aubert de Saint-Georges purchased the Château du Petit Thouars on the advice of Cardinal Richelieu for whom he was working at the time and thus becoming the first count of du Petit Thouars, which at the time was an impressive estate with farmland, woodlands, and even vineyards. Since then, the château and estate has been passed down in tact from father to son through the generations.

The modern viticultural story of the estate begins in the late 1970s when Yves and Marguerite du Petit Thouars discovered in the family archives records of vineyards and wines dating to 1900, and decided to re-establish vineyards on the property. Today, it is the 12th generation, Sébastien du Petit Thouars and his wife D'Arcy run the estate and its vineyards, and they are organically farming 16 hectares of vines, about 13 hectares of Cabernet Franc, and 3 hectares of Chenin Blanc.

So, today's wine is taking us to the commune of St-Germain-sur-Vienne on the left bank of the Vienne River. I don't often get a chance to talk about Chinon's left bank, so I want to take a moment to highlight some of key elements that define the viticultural landscape here and also some the recent observations I have made about the area and its wines.

First and foremost, St-Germain-sur-Vienne is a relatively new addition to the Chinon AOC. It was formerly part of the Touraine AOC, and in 2015 the Chinon AOC cahier des charges was ratified to include St-Germain-sur-Vienne and 7 other communes, Seuilly, Lerné, Couziers, Thizay, Cinais, Candes-Saint-Martin, and Brizay - all of which are on the left bank of the Vienne River - expanding the Chinon AOC to a total of 26 communes of production. These 8 communes account for around 500 hectares of the appellation's 2400 hectares of vineyards, about 20% of the vineyard area, though the volume of production from these communes is significantly less as not all of the delineated area is planted to vine.

With the exception of Brizay, which is further east along the Vienne, these 7 other communes, including St-Germain-sur-Vienne, are all clustered together in an area referred to as the Seuilly sector. This area's viticultural landscape is shaped the presence of the Lerné-Seuilly fault that runs about 20km east-west from Ligré to Saix, the path the Vienne River takes southeaset from the Loire River, the large forest of Fontevraud. The combination of these geographical and geological features allows us to group these 7 communes into roughly two groups from a terroir perspective.

So, so beginning in the easternmost part of St-Germain-sur-Vienne, and continuing east into Thizay and Cinais, and then south to Seuilly and Lerné, these 5 communes are dominated by deeper soils dating to the Senonian age, these are deeper clays and sands, in some cases mixed flint, similar to what we find in La Roche Clermault and Ligré actually, and less presence of the Turonian tuffeau chalk influenced soils. The landscape here is quite undulating, so there are any number of possible exposures, and the vineyards set back from the influence of the Vienne, so the moderating influence of the Vienne is less, making the microclimate a little cooler overall.

Now the western part of St-Germain-sur-Vienne, which is where Château du Petit Thouars and its vineyards are located, continuing northwest along the Vienne towards the Loire into the communes of Couziers and Candes-St-Martin, the viticultural landscape of these communes is quite different. Here the vineyards are north of the forest of Fontevraud, right at the confluence of where the Loire and Vienne Rivers meet, and the vineyards are situated on a plateau of Turonian tuffeau chalk very close to the Vienne. This plateau is an extension of that same tuffeau plateau that borders the Loire in Saumur-Champigny. In fact, if it wasn't for administrative border between the Indre-et-Loire and Maine-et-Loire departments, I would argue that these three communes have more in common from a terroir perspective with eastern Saumur-Champigny than with the rest of Chinon. Because essentially, St-Germain-sur-Vienne is the last commune furthest east before the tuffeau plateau that we know to define Saumur-Champigny ends.

Now, that said, in terms of soils here, across these communes the soils are quite shallow and are dominated by heavier clay, and the bedrock is for the most part, the Upper Turonain yellow tuffeau chalk. In addition to this, we don't see this diverse range of exposures, because we are on the tuffeau plateau, so the vineyards are quite flat allowing for uninterrupted sun exposure throughout the growing season. Finally, the proximity to the confluence of the Vienne and the Loire means this area has two moderating influences, so the growing season tends to be longer and a touch warmer overall.

Now, as a final observation on the terroir of Chinon's left bank, and this is purely based on research and tastings and conversations with vignerons, is there does appear to be a common thread that links these 8 communes with those of La Roche Clermault and Ligré in particular, is that where there is the presence of clay, it is a "different" clay than what we find on the north side of the Vienne. It is heavier, denser, in fact many vignerons from the left bank when talking about their soils will refer to these clays as grosses argiles - meaning fat or large clays. And I have noted in my tastings that the tannins from wines from select sites across Chinon's left bank tend to be more pronounced, chewier, and there is a greater volume of tannin overall, and ultimately needing quite a bit more time to resolve.

So the l'Épée is coming from about 3 hectares of vines from the lieu-dit Les Plantes, which represents the heart of the Château du Petit Thouars vineyard plantings. The vines represent some of the oldest plantings, which date to between 1978 and 1988, so around 30 to 40 year old vines in 2017. The parcels are situated on the tuffeau plateau with a slight southeast orientation. In terms of topsoil, we have a very shallow, only about 40cm or so, of pure, heavy clay over the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk bedrock.

In terms of winemaking, the fruit was all machine harvested in 2017, but they have since switched to hand-harvesting. The fruit was destemmed and fermented in stainless steel with a rather classic approach to red wine fermentation, that is to say warmer fermentation temperature, around 30C, with pump overs twice per day and 20 days on skins. The wine is a combination of about 2/3 free run wine, about 1/3 press wine, and the aging was over 18 months in 3rd or 4th use oak barrels, followed by aging in stainless steel prior to bottling.

Key wine facts below:

• Producer: Château du Petit Thouars

• Appellation: Chinon

• Commune: St-Germain-sur-Vienne

• Lieu-Dit: Les Plantes

• Soil: 40cm heavy clay over the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk

• Alcohol: 13.0%