Etienne Bodet, 2020 Saumur Rouge ‘Clos Durandière’
A fifth generation wine-grower, Etienne Bodet is arguably one of the young talents to watch in Saumur. His family has had vines on the right bank of Montreuil-Bellay since the 19th century - a unique terroir that he believes has been undervalued and serves as the root of Etienne's passion and inspiration for this domaine today.
Before setting out on his own, Etienne spent time working with Sylvain Pataille in Burgundy, Bernard Baudry in Chinon, François Dal in Sancerre, Aurélien Gerbais of Champagne Pierre Gerbais, Romain Guiberteau and eventually Clos Rougeard, where is he is still working to this day. Etienne's experience has informed his approach in the vineyard and cellar - rigorous, and detail-oriented work in the vineyard focusing on organic viticulture and biodynamic practices, and a well-informed, thoughtful meticulous approach to winemaking with as little intervention as possible.
Etienne currently has 5.5 hectares of vines, 3 hecatres of Cabernet Franc and 2.5 hectares of Chenin Blanc. He launched his domaine with the 2020 vintage Clos Durandière - a parcel with much sentimental value as this plot was planted in the same year Etienne was born and the was gifted to him for his wedding in 2015. He has since added another parcel of Cabernet Franc, the Clos des Vaudelles, across the route from the domaine just a couple hundred metres away on a completely different terroir than the Clos Durandière, and the first vintage of this wine was 2023 and will be released in 2026.
So today's wine is taking up to the commune of Montreuil-Bellay in the Saumur AOP. This commune is about 15km south of the village of Saumur and the Loire River, so climatically speaking there is less of a moderating influence from the Loire, so generally budbreak will be a little earlier here, and the growing season as a whole a touch cooler and short compared with the communes close to the Loire in Saumur-Champigny.
What is interesting to note about this area of Saumur, at least geologically speaking, here we find the Montreuil-Bellay fault, which stretches about 150 km, and through tectonic activity over hundreds of millions of years, this has exposed a different bedrock and soils in several communes in Saumur.
Across four communes here in Saumur, specifically Doué-en-Fontaine, Brossay, Vaudelnay, and Montreuil-Bellay, we find a narrow band of Jurassic-era limestones and soils. And just as with the Turonian tuffeau chalks we find in Saumur-Champigny, Chinon and Bourgueil, there is a lot of complexity to the Jurassic-era soils we find here in these four communes. However, unlike the Turonian tuffeau chalk soils, I have yet to notice similar patterns in terms of elevation and what soils we find where with respect to these Jurassic-era soils.
Specifically in the commune of Montreuil-Bellay, the main viticultural areas in the commune are concentrated on the west and east sides of the Thouet River, which is a tributary of the Loire that starts at the village of Saumur.
So on the west side, or left bank, of the Thouet, this area is dominated by very stony ancient alluvium in the northern part of the viticultural area, and then in the southern part on the west side, closer to the border of Vauldenay we find Jurassic-period limestones, specifically Bathonian limestones and/or silex. This side of the Thouet has shallower topsoils, with a slightly higher silt and sand content. Generally speaking, the terroirs on the west side of the Thouet tend to be a little bit warmer, drier and less vigrorous.
On the east side, or right bank, of the Thouet this area is a little bit harder to define as there is a lot more diversity and heterogeneity of soils. Here we find another type of Jurassic limestone that we don't find on the left bank, a type of marl that dates to the Oxfordian age, which has a slightly higher clay content than most limestones. We also find some pockets of very stony ancient alluvium, as well as the Jurassic limestone and silex we find on the west side of the Thouet, but mostly this area is dominated by this Jurassic marl. The topsoils on the east side of the Thouet very in depth, but we find a higher proportion of clay on this side of the Thouet. In general the terroirs here are a little cooler, experience later budbreak, have a higher water reserves and are slightly more vigorous than the west side.
So looking at the parcels from the Clos Durandière, these vines are planted in a true walled clos of the family's château on the right bank of the Thouet. It is 1.3ha parcel of vines planted in 1983 by massale selection. In terms of soil, here we are on a little sliver of the Bathonian limestone, that has a higher iron oxide content in it. So there is about 30 to 60cm of a clayey and silty sands, so about 25% clay content overall mixed with silts and sands, and the parcels are quite stony as well, and then we hit the hard limestone immediately after.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit is all hand-harvested and hand-sorted. Etienne will use about 10 to 30% whole cluster, the rest is destemmed. Fermentation is done in stainless steel with indigenous yeast, and the fermentation temperature typically hits a maximum of about 26C. In the case of the 2020 vintage, Etienne did some punchdowns in the second stage of the post-fermentation maceration, but he shared that in subsequent vintages it is only maceration through infusion. The total time on skins is around 26 to 28 days. The free run and press wine are aged separately for 24 months in a combination of new 228L and 500L barrels, and used barrels some of which are from Clos Rougeard. After aging, the free run wine and press wine are blended and aged 6 months in tank before bottling, and then an additional 6 months in bottle before release.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Étienne Bodet
Appellation: Saumur Rouge
Commune: Montreuil-Bellay
Lieu-Dit: Clos Durandière
Soil: 30-60cm of clayey silty-sands (limon sablo-argileux), over Bathonian limestone with silex
Alcohol: 13.18%
