Robert et Marcel wrap up the Clos Cristal deal

Clos Cristal, Saumur-Champigny 

The deal has been closed. It has been agreed, and will be signed and sealed that Robert et Marcel, aka La Cave des Vignerons de Saint-Cyr, would take a 25-year lease on the famous Clos Cristal, one of two highly unusual vineyards established by Antoine Cristal (1837-1931).

Cristal established two vineyards – Clos Cristal for red and the Clos des Murs for white. As well as enclosing these vineyards with a wall he built walls within the vineyard running west to east. These walls had regular holes which allowed vines to be planted on the north side and trained through through the hole. This means that the roots and base of the vine is in the shade, so helping to keep the roots etc. moist, while the rest of the vine faces south and the sun plus benefitting from heat radiated from the wall.

This agreement ends a crisis that started in early 2016 when L'Institut du Clos Cristal, the company running the Clos Cristal on behalf of the hospital of Saumur got into financial problems. L'Institut du Clos Cristal is now in liquidation with debts of some 300,000 Euros. Clos Cristal had been run since 1996 by Eric Dubois.

In April 2016 the Saumur Hospital appealed for people to make offers for the Clos Cristal on a 25 year long-term rental agreement. This appeal produced a large response – 18 offers. From this five were selected and there was a proposal that le Clos might be managed between a number of partners. In the interim Robert et Marcel were invited to run the Clos, which had been untended for several months, for two years. Unfortunately this was too late to save the 2016 vintage, which will not be released.

Instead of an arrangement with a number of actors, Robert et Marcel will be the leaseholders of Le Clos Cristal for 25 years. The Clos will continue to be run organically, as a separate entity and managed by François Robinson, who has experience of working in Australia and New Zealand. Robert and Marcel will be investing 1.3 million euros and replanting six of the ten hectares. 10% of this will be Chenin Blanc and 90% Cabernet Franc.

in 1957 the late Robert and Marcel Neau were the founders of the well run Cave des Vignerons de Saint-Cyr in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. They were president and director respectively. It was in November 2013 that the Cave de Saint-Cyr changed its name. Robert et Marcel are part of Alliance Loire – now an association of seven cave cooperatives from the Pays Nantais through to Touraine, whose headquarters are at St Cyr.  Alliance Loire is also a shareholder in Ackerman, the region's leading Loire based négociant. Ackerman is in expansionist mode. In particular it has been acquiring individual domaines such as Château La Varière in Anjou and and Château de Sancerre.

Famous Clos Cristal (Saumur-Champigny) available to rent

Extract from a report in Le Courrier de Ouest: 9th April 2016

'L'hôpital de Saumur vient de lancer un appel à fermage pour le Clos Cristal, hospices de Saumur, de Souzay-Champigny. Il est un des symboles du vignoble de Saumur avec sa technique des ceps passant à travers les murs.

Les rumeurs vont bon train sur l'état de santé du domaine du Clos Cristal. Propriété de l'hôpital de Saumur depuis un legs en 1928 d'Antoine Cristal, son fondateur, ces 10 ha de vignes sont aujourd'hui confrontés à des difficultés financières.'

Read the rest here.

Antoine Cristal (1836-1931) is widely credited as the father of good Saumur red wine, particularly after the ravages of phylloxera. In 1886 he acquired the Château de Parnay rapidly developing a passion for wine and viticulture. Cristal created two unique walled vineyards – Le Clos Cristal planted with Cabernet Franc for red wine and Le Clos des Murs planted with Chenin Blanc for white. 

They are unique because Cristal devised a system of walls that ran across the vineyard with the vine root planted on the shady side – clearly north in the case of the Clos des Murs – keeping the roots moist. The vine was then threaded through a hole in the wall to benefit from the sun and heat. 

In 1928 Cristal bequeathed his Clos Cristal to the Hôpital de Saumur before he died in 1931. 

Since 1996 Éric Dubois has run the Clos Cristal on behalf of l'Hôpital de Saumur. The vineyard is organic. Unfortunately, according to this report in Le Courrier de Ouest, the Clos has run into financial problems and the the owners are now looking to rent out this famous vineyard.

The Clos des Murs, still owned by the Château de Parnay, used to be in a lamentable state but, with a change of ownership, has happily now been restored.   

 Clos Cristal 

Clos des Murs       

Photos from a visit to Le Clos Cristal (Saumur-Champigny) in June 2006

Sign@Le Clos Cristal

10-hectare Le Clos Cristal is one of two vineyards designed and built by Le Père Cristal at the turn of the 20th century. Antoine Cristal built walls in his vineyards, which had holes in them. This allowed him to plant the vines in the shade and then to trained the vine through the hole, so that the rest of the plant and its grapes were in the sunshine and also benefited from the radiator effect of the sun’s heat stored and given out by the wall.

Above and below: vine roots in the shade

Rest of the vines facing the sun

Geese and a hen@Le Clos Cristal

Le Clos Cristal was planted with Cabernet Franc and only some of the vines are trained through walls, the rest of the vineyard is planted normally. However, in the Clos des Murs at Parnay (part of the Château de Parnay) all the vines are trained through the walls. This is a much small vineyard and is planted with Chenin Blanc.

Old bottles in the cellar@Le Clos Cristal

Sign@the Clos des Murs, Parnay

As far as I know nobody else took Cristal's example and planted walls in a vineyard for although it works – I have tasted several impressive vintages of the cuvée Clos des Murs from Le Clos Cristal – it must be a very expensive way of growing vines. There are some three kilometres of wall in the Clos Cristal.

More details on Antoine Cristal:

www.thewinedoctor.com/weekend/closcristalhospicessaumurchampigny06.shtml

www.mon-chef-a-moi.com/vin/val-de-loire/cristal.html

Also Le Clos Cristal www.clos-cristal.com