Domaine de la Paleine, 2020 Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame

Domaine de la Paleine's roots in Le Puy-Notre-Dame can be traced back to the 18th century when the estate was named Moulins de la Palenne, in reference to the two windmills that once stood on the property. The modern story of the estate begins in the 1990s with then-owners Laurence and Marc Vincent, who were instrumental in shifting the estate's focus towards quality and a more holistic approach to their work in the vineyards. Since 2023, the domaine has been under the guidance of Jean-Louis Bernet, they're farming about 34 hectares of vines, about 15 hectares of which are planted with Cabernet Franc, with 6.3ha in Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame, 1ha in Saumur-Champigny and the difference falls under the Saumur AOP. The estate has been farming organically since 2010, and they began working biodynamically in 2017.

Established in 2008, the appellation of Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame is a relatively new one in the Loire Valley, though the viticultural history of the area dates back to the 12th century, when the House of Plantagenets ruled the region. The appellation, which takes its name from the village of Le Puy-Notre-Dame that sits at the highest point in the Saumur region, actually extends across 17 communes in the Maine-et-Loire and Vienne departments, though the majority of the production is concentrated in the neighbouring communes of Le Puy-Notre-Dame, Vaudelnay, and Brossay.

At the heart of the appellation, we are about 20km south of the village of Saumur and the Loire River, and about 40km east of the Massif des Mauges, which represents the southeastern end of the Massif Armoricain. This appellation is one of the few in the Loire Valley who's viticultural landscape is very closely linked to elevation, which ranges from 50 to 105m above sea level, with the average elevation being around 80m above sea level.

Because of the region's location, it tends to experience cooler and drier conditions during the growing season than other parts of the Saumur AOP, though thanks to elevation, the growing season is longer because this higher position protects the vineyards from spring frost, so budbreak is often earlier here, but the risk of frost is lower and thus extending the growing season. This longer growing season allows for greater phenolic development and maturity, and can give more pronounced, firmer tannins in the finished wines.

This elevation plays a role in the soils we find across the region. At this elevation, we don't find any alluvial soils, rather the region is defined by two main groups of soils. Firstly, we have the Turonian tuffeau chalk-derived soils, which is most notable in the commune of Le Puy-Notre-Dame, and we find all three kinds of tuffeau here, the Lower Turonian white tuffeau chalk, Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, known here as craie verte, and also the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk. Secondly, as we head north into Vaudelnay and Brossay, we find predominantly Jurassic limestones and silex. In terms of topsoils, it varies quite a lot from lieu-dit to lieu-dits, but we generally find more shallow topsoils that have a slightly higher silt content, with about 15 to 25% clay.

In addition to these terroir influences, there are a few key distinctions that make this appellation unique compared to the rest of the Saumur AOP. Firstly, Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame is a red wine only appellation, that requires a minimum of 85% Cabernet Franc, with the only accessory variety being Cabernet Sauvignon. In addition to this, for Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame yields are capped at 50hl/ha, there is a higher minimum ripeness level of 12% potential alcohol and chaptalization is not permitted. Finally, the appellation has longer aging requirements, and the wines cannot be released before June 1 the year following harvest, versus January 15th for Saumur Rouge.

So, today's wine is coming from a selection of the domaine's parcels in the villages of Le Puy-Notre-Dame and neighbouring commune of Vaudelnay, and the cuvée is really intended to be emblematic of the Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame appellation in how the parcels are chosen, that is to say a focus on the estate's parcels in the higher elevation areas that give excellent maturities with soils representative of the appellation, that is both the Turonian tuffeau chalk and the Jurassic limestone. So, for the 2020 vintage, this is from about 1.5ha of 25-YO vines on average, from one parcel in Puy-Notre-Dame, La Pignoterie, that is very close to the chai with a slight western exposure at an elevation of around 70m above sea level. Here there is a shallow sand-silt-clay topsoil over the Middle Turonian tuffeau, the craie verte. From Vaudelnay for this vintage, they worked with two parcels, both on the plateau of the butte of Brossay in the northern part of Vaudelnay, at an elevation of around 85 to 88m above sea level. The bedrock is a hard, jurassic limestone, with some flint, with a shallow sand-silt-clay topsoil.

In terms of the winemaking, the yields are generally on the lower side, around 30-40hl/ha. The fruit is hand-harvested and hand-sorted. The fruit is destemmed, and fermentation is in stainless steel with indigenous yeast at around 25C. The total time on skins is around 25 days with some pigéage and remontage to aid extraction. Aging is done exclusively in stainless steel for about 9 months, and then the wine is bottled, and then aged at the domaine for upwards of 2 years prior to release.

Key wine wine facts below:

• Producer: Domaine de la Paleine

• Appellation: Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame

• Commune: Le Puy-Notre-Dame, Vaudelnay

• Lieux-Dits: La Pignoterie (Le Puy-Notre-Dame), La Cave de la Roche & Le Haut du Champ Raisi (Vaudelnay)

• Soils: shallow sand-silt-clay over craie verte (La Pignoterie) and sand-silty-clay over Jurassic limestone with flint (La Cave de la Roche & Le Haut du Champ Raisi)

• Alcohol: 14.0%