Manoir de la Tête Rouge - Bagatelle, Cabernet Franc, Saumur, Loire (2021)

TASTING NOTES

A textbook stemmy, tomato leaf core with green olives, sappy summer berries, wet leaves and forest floor and graphite. With chalky tannins that gently line the gums. 

Organic since 1998 and biodynamic since 2010, the vineyards are on a band of green chalk in the Lieu-dit de l’Enchentoir. Vines of 16 years are pruned in cordon de royat.

Grown on the tuffeau soils characteristic of the Saumur, from vines of 15 to 30 years age, pruned in alternating Guyot-Poussard trellising. Fermented and aged for six months in concrete vats with 30ppm of sulphites added at the bottling.

On the hill of Puy Notre Dame, a majestic collegiate eleventh century overlooks the vineyard. Le Manoir de la Tête Rouge was built in 1649 at the foot of the hill with the current owners accruing it in 1995 with 10 hectares of vineyards.