Domaine Saint-Just, L'Ardoisier Méthode Traditionnelle Rouge
Domaine Saint-Just is the Lambert family domaine that was started by Yves Lambert, Arnaud Lambert's father, in 1996. Today the domaine's parcels are amalgamated with their parcels of Château de Brézé to form Domaine Arnaud Lambert. L'Ardoisier was one of the original cuvées of the domaine that Yves began making because it was a historical style of sparkling wine representative of the Saumur region, and Arnaud continues to make it today as a nod to his late-father's legacy. Arnaud believes that his father named the cuvée "L'Ardoisier" as a reference to the dark colour of Cabernet Franc and the mousseux rouge evoking the imagery of the dark, slate roofs common throughout the region.
Now, I know what you might be thinking... perhaps this wine is an anomaly in the Loire, a rare example of traditional method sparkling red Cabernet Franc, but in fact this style of Cabernet Franc has a long history in the region and is still produced extensively today. In my conversations with producers across the region, it seems that the style was first produced in the mid-1800s, and came about with the boom in sparkling wine houses that were established during this period across the Saumur region. Today, the stats on this style are a little hard to come by because there is not an official appellation of origin for Saumur Mousseux Rouge, but from my research these wines are almost always made with Cabernet Franc as the main variety, with the occasional addition of a small amount of Grolleau and/or Gamay, these wines are made using the traditional method, so the second fermentation is in the bottle, nearly all are made in a demi-sec style, that is a dosage with 32 to 50g/l residual sugar. And according to the association of producers of Saumur Fines Bulles, there are at least 30 domaines, including all of the sparkling wine houses, that regularly produce a mousseux rouge in this style, and an application has been put forward to the INAO to expand the Saumur Mousseux appellation to include mousseux rouge.
So for the winemaking for this wine, it is important to note off the top that Arnaud doesn't make this wine every year, but when he does he generally selects the same parcels, and they are usually towards the base of the slope in St-Cyr-en-Bourg, with the lightest textured soils to give the lightest possible tannin profile. The work in the vineyard is the same as Arnaud's reds, and the parcels are farmed organically. The choice of vintage then becomes a question of yield, and a more generous yield desired, because less concentration is required for this particular style. So this bottling is coming from the 2018 vintage, and the yield was around 60hl/ha. The fruit is machine harvested, and the fermentation of the base wine is in stainless steel with indigenous yeast, and the goal is a very short maceration to extract colour and flavour but not to extract tannins, so the fermentation temperature is around 22C and the total time on skins is 5 days.
The base wine is only comprised of the free run wine, which is aged for 8 months, then the wine is bottled with the addition of the liqueur de tirage to achieve the second fermentation in the bottle. The wine is aged for an impressive 3 to 4 years on lees, then the wine is disgorged and a dosage of 36g/l is added, so at the lower end of the demi-sec range. And the dosage isn't so much to add overt sweetness, rather to add balance to the tannins and acidity, as well breadth and length to the palate. The total production for this vintage was around 6000 bottles.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine Saint-Just (Arnaud Lambert)
Appellation: Vin Mousseux de Qualité Demi-Sec
Region: Saumur
Commune: Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg
Soils: lightly textured, sandy soils
Alcohol: 12.5%
Dosage: 36g/L
