2020 AOC Saumur - Billes de Roche
2020 AOC Saumur - Billes de Roche
Brilliantly unctuous Chenin from the sun-blasted 2020 vintage -generous and yielding but held in place with a nervy mineral edge and profound saline length.
Cuvée: Billes de Roche Blanc
Style: Still
Colour: White
Grapes/Blend: Chenin
ABV: 14%
Vintage: 2020
Winemaking: From the top of the slope between the yellow and white chalks, with a silty-clay topsoil. Pressed slowly, fermentation in small barrels for 12 months, then settled in tank for 4 months. Unfiltered, a small addition of sulphur.
Sulphur: 25 mg/l
Soil: Sandy clay, chalk
Yield: 25 hl/ha
Classically trained winemaking husband and wife duo Melanie and Aymeric returned to Saumur in 2006. Starting out by renting vines, then in 2008 purchasing the 4.5 hectares they farm today. Chenin, Cabernet Franc and Grolleau across four plots on the slope of Clos de Cerisae looking towards the village of Puy-Notre-Dame. Clos de Cerisaie are their older vines - 50-year-old, with Billes de Roche being the younger vines at 25 years. Soil is clay on limestone. Sulphur use is kept to a minimum.