Arnaud Lambert - Saint Syr Blancs, Saumur-Champigny, Loire, France (2021)

TASTING NOTES

A precise, mouth-watering wine with tension, fruit weight and texture. Lots of citrus fruits and beeswax with earthy undertones and a long salty finish.

Whole cluster pressed for 4.5 hours. Juice is selected with the first 25% of the press juice and the last 30 minutes of the press juice declassified and blended into the entry-level appellation wines. Fermentation is natural unless absolutely necessary to compromise with a pied de cuve (grape juice already fermenting) due to very high alcohol potential. Vinified in 90% in stainless steel and 10% old French oak barrels (7+ years old); new experiments are being made in concrete eggs. Max fermentation temperature 17°C during the one month fermentation. Malolactic fermentation happens in some vintages within certain tanks/barrels; maximum of 30% in any year. Batonnage (stirring of the lees) is made toward the end of the primary fermentation and for some months after the wine is dry. This helps to “open up the wines” and work against reduction. The first SO2 addition is made just before bottling.

Tuffeau limestone bedrock (calcium carbonate rock with a small proportion of sand) with a topsoil mix of tuffeau rock, clay, sand, and alluvial depositions.