Antoine Foucault, Domaine du Collier, Saumoussay (Charly Foucault's spirit lives on - part 2)

 Antoine and Carolyn new home for Domaine du Collier

Last week we dropped into to see Antoine Foucault and Carolyn Boireau at Domaine du Collier's new premises in Saumoussay, close to St-Cyr-en-Bourg. They were just finishing the 2017 harvest – dealing with the remaining grapes. Unfortunately they lost some 30% of the harvest to frost but the quality of the Cabernet they were sorting through looked good.

Antoine and Carolyn founded Domaine du Collier back in 1999 using the cellar under Antoine's parents (Charly and Françoise Foucault) house in Chacé. They have seven hectares in Brézé. In the autumn of 2015 they bought this extensive property in Saumoussay. Before he died in late December 2015 Charly advised Antoine where he should put the winery equipment. The property includes an extensive cave, which we did not see this time but hopefully will do on another visit.  

 

 

Their dog is exhausted after supervising the harvest 

Off on an adventure: Day 18 – Caroline Boireau and Antoine Foucault

 Caroline Boireau and Antoine Foucault 

Domaine du Collier, Saumur 

Antoine Foucault

 As I suspect there will be limited time to post on Jim's Loire while we are away – there are posts prepared in advance that will feature pics of Loire producers and may be from elsewhere plus some recently enjoyed bottles.   

2013 La Dive Bouteille@Château de Brézé - named producers

 Antoine Foucault (Domaine du Collier)

Photos of Loire producers who presented their wines@the 2013 edition of La Dive Bouteille held in the cellars of Château de Brézé – taken on 3rd February 2013. 

 Caroline Boireau (Domaine du Collier)

above and below

 Antoine Sanzay

Bertrand Jousset (Domaine Jousset, Montlouis)

Frantz Saumon

(Montlouis et un saumon dans la Loire)

Gérald Marula – Beaumont-en-Véron and Lerné

above and below

Jean Maupertuis, Auvergne 

Matthieu Cosme, Vouvray

Pascal Potaire, Faverolles-sur-Cher

Romain Guiberteau, Saumur

above and below

Sébastien Brunet, Vouvray

Thierry Germain, Domaine de Roches Neuves

2010 Cabernet Franc in Saumur

Charly Foucault@Le Clos Rougeard

Nady Foucault

After a fine lunch at Le Pot de Lapin we headed out into the vineyards. First we had a quick word with Jean-Pierre Chevallier (Château de Villeneuve) before he rushed off with fresh supplies of water for his pickers, who were picking in a vineyard at Dampierre. JP was worried about potential rot. He gave us rapid instructions on where to find him in the vines but although we tried to locate him and his picking team we failed miserably. Insread we headed off the Chaintres to see Richard Desouche.

Richard Desouche (Château de Chaintres)

Despite complaining about the recent rain – some 50mm over the past week or so – and the difficulties of retaining pickers, Richard seemed reasoanbly happy. They were picking Cabernet Franc in the Clos of Chaintres, which was coming in between 12.5%-13% potential. The Chenin Blanc had already been picked with a potential of between 13.5%-13.7% and acidity of 6.2-6.3. It would be fermented in barriques (or pieces) from Burgundy. 

Antoine Sanzay

Grapes from Domaine Antoine Sanzay

Next just down the road to Varrains to see a very happy Antoine Sanzay, who was processing some very clean looking hand-picked Cabernet Franc.  Antoine appears to be on his way to becoming a media star as there was a film maker in attendance, Jérôme Paressant who has already made a couple of short films starring Antoine and is now making another. Click here: www.vimeo.com/jeromeparessant  

Antoine Foucault (Domaine du Collier)@ the sorting table

Domaine du Collier sorting table

Two 'grands fromages' in the vineyards: Antoine Gerbelle and a colleague from Revue du Vin de France

From Antoine at Varrains to Chacé with a first stop to see Antoine Foucault to be greeted by rude remarks by Antoine Gerbelle, long-time writer with La Revue du Vin de France, who was enjoying a glass of Antoine's Saumur Rouge while checking out the 2010 Loire vintage. Antoine and his team were also busy sorting hand picked Cabernet Franc that, once destemmed, dropped straight down a large tube into the vat in his amazing cellar below. The cellar was excavated in the 11th-12th century and formed part of a whole network of cellars and tunnels that led all the way to Saumur, where another network apparently carried onto Fontrevaud.

We concluded our day with a last quick visit to see Antoine's dad, Charly and his uncle, Nady, at Clos Rougeard where the last grapes of the day were being checked over and the picking team relaxing with a glass or two of something reviving. Both were happy with the quality. "We picked  on Thursday and Friday of last week," said Nady. Then after the rain of Monday we picked Les Poyeux on Tuesday and Le Bourg on Wednesday. We should finish by Saturday morning. The Cabernet is at 13+ alc, 5.9 acidity and 3.15 ph."     

Les Portes Ouvertes (open house) à Montlouis in June

Samedi 6 et dimanche 7 juin Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June

Invitation from a small band of 30-year-old wine and cider producers

Antoine Foucault (Brezé)

Lise et Bertrand Jousset (Montlouis)
Antoine Foucault (Saumur)
La Grange aux Belles (Anjou)
Nicolas Grosbois (Chinon)
Cyril Zangs (Ciderond Normand)

Nicolas Grosbois, Panzoult (Chinon)

Also exhibition of sculture by Olivier Masson and visits to the vineyard with the producers.

36 Rue des Bouvineries, 37270 Montlouis-sur-Loire. Tel: 02.47.50.70.33; mobile: 06.03.10.27.06

•••

Samedi 13 juin : 14h / 19h & dimanche 14 juin 2009 : 10h / 19h

La cave se rebiffe chez Frantz Saumon,

Frantz Saumon

vignerons, cidre"rond", brasseur et paysan-boulanger

vous invitent aux journées de dégustation

Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June
At Frantz Saumon’s cellar in Husseau

Frantz Saumon (Montlouis)

Patrick Corbineau (Candes-Saint-Martin – Chinon and Touraine)

Laurent Barth (Alsace)

Patrick Corbineau (Brouilly)

Cyril Zangs (Cidrerond Normand)

Brasserie de la Pigeonnier (brewer@Saint-Martin-le-Beau)

Jean-Baptise Jamin (paysan-boulanger)

15 Chemin des Cours, Husseau, 37270 Montlouis sur Loire
At the northern end of the pretty little village of Husseau

More Saumur harvest news

(3 October 2008)

Vineyards overlooking Dampierre

(3.10.2008)

Jean-Pierre Chevallier

Jean Pierre Chevallier, Château de Villeneuve
Caught up with Jean-Pierre in his Les Cormiers vineyard (Chenin Blanc), close to the famous Clos des Murs. He and his pickers were busy doing a selective picking – choosing those bunches affected by noble rot and therefore too rich and powerful in alcohol to go straight into Les Cormiers, his grand vin blanc. They started yesterday afternoon and Jean-Pierre was very surprised that the juice that came out of the press was 18.4% potential. “I can’t make dry wine with that!” he said. “I’ll ferment it separately and may be I’ll make some Coteaux de Saumur again this year – not what I had intended to do.” Château de Villeneuve has made Coteaux de Saumur only twice before – in 1921 and 2003. JP is well satisfied with the quality of the fruit both Chenin and Cabernet.

What Jean-Pierre is picking – part of bunch has noble rot

What's being left behind for next week: perfect bunches for le grand vin

“I got a special derogation from the INAO to start picking my Cabernet today as one parcel was already at 13.7% on Monday and the rest is between 12.8%-13.2% but with an acidity of 6.7. I’ll start picking the Cabernet next week.”

Richard Desouche, Château de Chaintres and Petit Domaine

When we arrived Richard, who manages Chaintres, was busy overseeing a batch of Chenin Blanc through the pneumatic press. “We’ve finished picking for the Crémant. There is 10% less juice in the grapes than normal. We need more than 160 kilos of grapes for a 100 litres of juice – the Crémant rules insist on 150 kilos for 100 litres. We’ve also picked the Chenin for the Chaintres still white as well as for my Petit Domaine.” Richard also talked about the need, once they start vinifying the red, to be really careful this year not to extract too much tannin. “We’ll have to be really gentle. Once we start on the Cabernet Franc we’ll have four days of picking left.” Richard is hoping to move Chaintres to organic viticulture.

Richard by the press.

We tasted three vintages of Saumur-Champigny from Château de Chaintres – 2005, 2006 and 2007. The first two vintages were made by Krishna Lester, the previous manager. The brooding and concentrated 2005 needs several more years in bottle. The less concentrated 2006 is quite tannic – a touch green in the finish. It will be interesting to see what happens to this in a year or so – will the fruit win through or will the tannins continue to dominate? The 2007 is light in the style of this vintage – “very kirsch” said Richard.

Richard suggested that we went back to Le Pot de Lapin, which we were very happy to do. We started with a refreshing glass of les Bulles de BD, a rosé petillant from Bruno Dubois in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg. Then the attractively plummy 2005 Domaine de la Cune Saumur Champigny from Jean-Luc and Jean-Albert Mary in Chaintres. This is the straight domaine cuvée, which is drinking well at the moment. Unfortunately the first bottle was corked. This is the first corked wine I have had for a while, although curiously a day later we tried three bottles of a Médoc over dinner at a friends’ house – two of which were corked!

At Le Pot we saw Patrick Vadé of Domaine Saint-Vincent. “We’ve already done a tri for the Crémant. We’ll start picking the Chenin early next week and the Cabernet Franc on Wednesday.”


Antoine Sanzay

We called by Antoine's winery in Varrains. Unfortunately there was no sign of Antoine. His Saumur Blanc and Saumur-Champigny are well worth trying as Antoine is one of the most promising young producers in the area.

Antoine Foucault: getting ready for the vintage
Later in the day we dropped in on Antoine at Chacé, who, assisted by his cousin, was busy making final preparations for the start of the harvest of his Chenin Blanc expected early next week depending on the acidity levels. When last checked his young Chenin vines were at 12.2% and the Centenaires at 13.5% with acidity levels around 7. Antoine said that the Foucault brothers, Antoine’s father Charly and uncle Nadi, will probably start in the middle of next week – again depending on what happens to the acidity.

Antoine with his 2006 Domaine du Collier Saumur Blanc

We quickly tasted the Domaine du Collier 2006 Saumur Blanc, which has just been bottled – absolutely delicious (see below) as well as the 2005 La Charpentrie Saumur Blanc from 100 year old vines. This is richer reflecting both the vintage and the age of the vines but still with fine minerality.



Antoine Foucault’s stock control problem
So delicious is Antoine’s 2006 domaine Saumur Blanc that his father, Charly, can’t keep his hands off this recently bottled wine – a wine with some floral aromas, a hint of butter and toast but overall a wonderful mineral purity and great length of flavour. Although the disappearing stock may be hitting Antoine’s bottom line, it’s also a huge compliment as Charly and his brother, Nadi’s, wines are the benchmark for the region.

Antoine's dog gets ready for the vintage – snoozing in the little trailer that will take the debris that's left over after being through the press

Régis Neau, Domaine de Nerleux

Our last visit on Friday (3rd) was to see Régis. From having been a glorious morning the sky was now covered and threatening rain.

Régis in his vines destined for Coteaux de Saumur:
early November 2007

“I’ve finished picking,” said Régis “We started on the Chardonnay on 19th September, the Chenin on 22nd and the Cabernet on 23rd/24th. We finished on 29th/30th with another parcel of Chenin. We now have 7 hectares, which we use for sparkling wine. As everywhere, the yields are down this year. Normally we have 70 hl/ha – this year it’s 57 hl/ha overall. The Cabernet at 50 hl/ha and the Chenin at 65 hl/ha. We are now waiting for the Chenin and Cabernet for the still wines. For the Cabernet the acidity in the best parcels is now down below 6. At Monsoreau I have some Cabernet that is between 11.2% and 12.2% with acidities between 5.2 and 6.5. The Chenin is a 12% with 7.5 acidity. It’s been very dry – we need a little rain now but not too much!”

More to follow....