Le Petit Saint-Vincent (Dominique Joseph), 2017 Saumur-Champigny ‘Les Clos Lyzières)
Located in Varrains, Le Petit Saint Vincent is a humble domaine run by fourth generation vigneron Dominique Joseph, who is affectionately known as Pélo by family and friends. Pélo took over at the helm at the domaine in 1990, and was responsible for helping to convert their vineyards to organic viticulture. The domaine is comprised of 13 hectares of vines, of which 12.7 hectares are Cabernet Franc, and there is a small 0.3 hectare parcel of Chenin Blanc. Among Pélo's range of Cabernet Francs include a still rosé, méthod ancestrale sparkling rosé, his early-drinking cuvées "Pélo" and his domaine wine, and two cuvée parcellaires from adjacent lieux-dits Les Poyeux and Les Clos Lyzières, both of which are in the commue of Chacé.
To give you a lay of the land here, the historical commune of Chacé is one of three communes in the Saumur-Champigny appellation that are set back a few km south of the Loire River, along with Varrains and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. Are these three communes dramatically different from a terroir perspective than the six communes that hug the banks of the Loire River? Well, yes and no. There are certainly similarities that unify all nine communes, but the are some things that are worth mentioning about Varrains, Chacé and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg.
Firstly, the tuffeau plateau that hugs the Loire River gradually begins to slope south as you move away from the edge of the Loire. So in the six communes that hug the bank of the Loire, we tend to find mostly flat vineyards, and, in some instances, vineyards with more northern exposures. Conversely, in Varrains, Chacé and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, we tend to see more south-facing exposures, which is favourable for ripening. These three communes also receive less of a moderating influence from the Loire, so budbreak can often be a little bit earlier than the communes that hug the Loire.
In terms of soils, there is quite a lot of nuance from lieu-dit to lieu-dit and even from parcel to parcel within a given lieu-dit in this part of the appellation, but there are some interesting observations that we can make about the soils in Varrains, Chacé and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. So, with the exception of a handful of pockets in northern Varrains and a tiny corner of western Chacé, the influence in terms of soils across these communes is largely the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, which is a glauconitic-micaceous chalk known here as craie verte.
Whereas along the plateau that hugs the Loire, we see a range of elevations and diverse patch work of soils from the Upper and Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk, to sands and/or clays with flint from the Senonian age, and lacustrine limestone from the Eocene epoch in pockets at higher elevations.
The topsoils across these three communes also tends to be more shallow that what we see along the banks of the Loire, so there is a greater influence of the tuffeau chalk. And in terms of topsoil textures, we actually see a lot more clay-rich soils and pockets of sandier soils along the banks of the Loire, whereas in these three communes it tends to be more of silt-sand-clay mix, so around 25% clay content. So the shallow topsoil, coupled with the slightly lower clay content, that might suggest to me that we might find more wines from this part of the appellation that have a little less power and roundness, and they could present a little more linear on the palate.
To take a closer look at the commune of Chacé specifically, there are two main vineyard areas in this commune. We have a tiny area of vineyards on the west side of the villages of Chacé and Varrains, where we find a very small area of ancient alluvium from the Thouet River, and also some tuffeau-influenced soils, and then we have the area east of the villages where we find Les Clos Lyzières, and this area is dominated by tuffeau-derived soils. And it's important to note that while we do find both the Upper Turonian and Middle Turonian tuffeau here in Chacé, the majority of the vineyards are on the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk.
Looking at Les Clos Lyzières with a little bit more detail, this lieu-dit is in a very special part of Chacé. This is about a 9.5 hectare lieu-dit, and it is located on the south side of the D205 along the eastern border of the commune, and the lieu-dit shares its western border with Les Bas Poyeux, and the heart of the famed lieu-dit Les Poyeux, where the domaine also has parcels, is located directly above and to the west of Les Clos Lyzières. Les Clos Lyzières is on a gentle south slope, ranging from 56m above sea level at the top of the lieu-dit sloping to around 40m above sea level at the bottom of the lieu-dit.
Le Petit Saint-Vincent has about 1.8 hectares of 55 year old vines here at Les Clos Lyzières, and they are in the eastern part of the lieu-dit. And what is fascinating is his parcels in Les Clos Lyzières are 600m from his parcels at Les Poyeux, and the terroirs couldn't be more different, and the resulting wines show very differently in the glass. In Les Clos Lyzières, Pélo's parcels have a rather shallow topsoil of about 40-50cm, and the texture is clay silt-loam, so we have a higher proportion of clay, and this is atop the Middle Turonian tuffeau, the craie verte. At Les Poyeux, the domaine has 0.8ha here, and the parcels are almost adjacent to those of Clos Rougeard, which is in a unique part of Les Poyeux. Here there is about 1.5m of mostly sandier topsoil, which sits atop the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk bedrock.
From a winemaking perspective, the yields from this site are on the lower side, around 25-30hl per hectare. The fruit is all hand-harvested and destemmed. Fermentation is in concrete with indigenous yeast, with about 20 to 25 days of skin maceration, and Pélo will do some light pump overs during the first few days of fermentation to homogenize the must, and then it will maceration through infusion for the duration of the post-fermentation maceration. Aging is also in concrete for about 12 months. For his Les Poyeux, the approach to fermentation is exactly the same, the only difference being the Les Poyeux is aged in neutral barrels for about 12 months.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Le Petit Saint-Vincent (Dominique Joseph)
Appellation: Saumur-Champigny
Commune: Chacé
Lieux-Dits: Les Clos Lyzières
Soils: 40-50 clay-silt loam, over the Middle Turonian tuffeau chalk (craie verte)
Alcohol: 13.0%
