Upper Loire wanderings: day 6: Domaine Sauvat and la Maison de Marie Camille

Domaine Sauvat, Boudes

Although I have driven through and stayed in parts of the Auvergne before I have never previously made any visits to producers. Annie Sauvat won the Salon des Vins de Loire Wine Blog Trophy in 2007 for the best viticulteur's blog, so her domaine seemed a good place to start . It was also close to where we would be staying.

When I arrived the well-set up tasting room was full of people – I have never previously seen toys and books provided for kids, while the adults amuse themselves tasting wine. It was extremely hot outside – around 35˚C – so it was good to have a short wait in the cool before going through with Annie to the winery.

Annie Sauvat and Michel Blot

"We now have around 10 hectares of vines,” explained Annie. “Six hectares of Gamay, one of Chardonnay and three of Pinot Noir. It was my father, Claude, who rebuilt the domaine. My grandfather died young and my grandmother sold off most of the land. My mother comes from Boudes and in the 1970s Claude started to replant. When I started here in 1987 we had between three and three and half hectares of vines.”

I commented on their well set-up tasting room. “50% of our production is on vente direct,” added Annie.

At this point Michel Blot, Annie’s husband, joined us hot and tired after working in the vines in the heat. Michel is from Brittany and was originally destined to make cider but as there is no school for cider makers he went to wine school in Mâcon instead and there met Annie.

Michel Blot

Michel is obviously quite a spiky individual and I suspect quite reasonably resented finding some pesky journo in his space (he is the winemaker) especially after a day’s hard work. Initially I got several challenging looks.

Annie continued: “There are some 40 viticulteurs in the Côtes d’Auvergne but only five or six live exclusively from making wine. It is common for one of the partners to work in another field.

"In the vineyards we are close to being organic – the rows are grassed over although we do use weedkiller once a year under the vines. Because of our steeply sloped vineyards we can’t harrow the soil under the vines as this would encourage erosion. Recently we have given up organic fertiliser and instead are using compost, which is giving us good results.”

We discussed sorting tables. "They are often a sign that the work in the vineyard is not as good as it should be," said Michel. "If you work properly in the vineyards you should need a sorting table." We also discussed picking into small cases – Michel maintained that using a trailer with a screw to transport the grapes wasn't a problem if it wasn't filled too full. The grapes aren't crushed and there is very little juice in the bottom of the trailer."

We touched on the move to appellation in particular whether it will be possible to make a pure Pinot Noir once the Côtes d’Auvergne is promoted to appellation – it won’t be. “There is very little Pinot Noir planted and some it is the wrong clone. Furthermore it is difficult to vinify.” Michel is not a fan of Pinot Noir/Gamay blends and doesn’t produce one preferring to either make a pure Gamay or a pure Pinot Noir. I think he is right as it is rare to find a convincing blend of Gamay and Pinot Noir and even rarer to find a really good one.

Annie and Michel certainly have a relaxed approach to the vintage!*
One of the two conical vats, where they punch down the cap by foot, can be seen on the left.

Annie and Michel are not alone in having a sofa in the winery – Neal Ibbotson of St Clair in Marlborough, New Zealand at ease on his winery couch: November 2007

Then Michel suddenly asked me what I thought of Robert Parker – clearly a test question. I explained that while I respected Robert's work I didn't work in the same way – I don’t use scores (except in wine competitions and when writing articles for magazines that require them) and I also think it is important to visit the vineyards and met the producers to help assess wines. I also said it was a pity that one critic has such power but much of that is down to the way that others use Robert Parker’s scores.

It became obvious that Michel wasn’t Robert’s greatest fan. “I can only respect a critic if they can come into my winery and produce better results than I can with my grapes.” This is a fairly common argument that a critic ought to be able to do what they are criticising. While they certainly ought to be knowledgeable about their subject, I can see no reason why a ballet critic, for example, should be a top ballet dancer.

Annie Sauvat

Before tasting the wines Michel showed me the 300 litre barrels he uses. He stressed how important it was for barrel-aged reds to have their malo in barriques. "If the malo happens before they are put in barriques, the wines are very fragile," he said.

We tasted seven wines and while I liked all of them I thought that the reds were their strongest suit. We started with two Chardonnays – the 2007 Prestige that spends about 11 months in oak and was bottled in November 2008 and the unoaked, crisp apple and lemony 2008 Cuvée d’Antan that doesn’t go through malo. The lightly coloured 2008 Les Charmeuses rosé with its delicate pear flavour and refreshing finish is made from Gamay – 50% from grapes pressed immediately after picking without maceration and 50% saignée.

The deliciously, easy drinking, ripe 2008 Selection Gamay was the first red. Made from yields of 50-55 hl/ha this is just the sort of wine where you finish the bottle effortlessly and wonder how it emptied so quickly. “What is a ‘grand vin’,” asked Michel rhetorically. “It’s a wine that gives pleasure – immediate pleasure.”

The 2007 Pinot Noir Prestige was picked by hand from a yield of 30-35 hl/ha. It spends 10-12 months in barrique – new to four years old. It’s slightly earthy in style with good, rich concentration and, at the moment, quite edgy, so could do with some more time in bottle. CRM thought it was reminiscent of a New Zealand Pinot Noir.

Anyone convinced that Gamay is invariably light in colour and flavour should taste the deep coloured and rich 2005 Gamay Mythique. It’s slightly drying, grainy tannins would not be noticeable with food. 2005 is so far the only vintage that Annie and Michel have made this cuvee, which is now sold out.

Michel has 40 ares of his own vines on the Coteaux de Bard, part of the commune de Boudes. Unusually the vines are on granite soils – the vineyards of Boudes are normally on argile-calcaire (clay-limestone). There are 30 ares of Gamay and 10 of Chardonnay. The vins de paille come from here.

Traditionally vins de paille here were made for personal consumption and often by by the cure (priest) from bunches of grapes that had been given to him. Like Vin Santo the grapes for vin de paille are not late picked. Instead they are harvested at the normal time and dried for four or five months. It is very important that there is no rot, so it is ideal if the grapes on a bunch are well spread out: some millerandage (shot berries) is good. The dried grapes tend to be pressed in two batches – they look for a minimum potential alcohol of 22˚. Then the second batch is allowed to dry for another two months – producing a potential of 25-27˚. The juice is fermented slowly in barriques for 18 months to two years.

We tasted the Michel Blot Raisins Confits X Gamay (vin de table) a blend of 2005 and 2006 – rich and sweet with strawberry and dried apricot flavours with refreshing acidity. "The drying process concentrates both the sugar and the acidity," observed Michel.

See Annie's comment on my visit here on her blog.

Domaine Sauvat
63340 Boudes
Tel: 04.73.96.41.42
Email: sauvat@terre-net.fr
Web: www.sauvat-vins.com

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La Maison Marie Camille, Saint-Germain-Lembron

Following our visit to Domaine Sauvat we headed back to Saint-Germain-Lembron to check-in to our chambres d'hôtes – La Maison de Marie Camille – run by Fabien and Mirielle Marotte where we were booked in for two nights with table d'hôte both nights. (Certainly recommended but a report in a separate posting.)

Mireille et Fabien Marotte
4 Rue de la Porte Vieille
63340 St Germain Lembron
Tel. 04.73.96.45 73, Mob. 06 50 70 45 73

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* Actually Annie was in the middle of repainting their flat above the winery, which was a convenient place to store the furniture