It’s a while since we opened a bottle of Savennieres as we’ve been immersing ourselves in the wines of Vouvray and Montlouis-sur-Loire since our arrival in this part of the Loire.
We opened a bottle of Domaine FL’s Les Bergères Savennières last night and were struck by how different the wines are compared to the wines from around us here in Vouvray.
A big difference between the wines of Savennières in Anjou and wines from here, is the bedrock the vines are planted into. While some Anjou vineyards are on limestone soils, Savennières and much of Anjou is on black rock. Slate and schist with a very thin layer of topsoil. It retains the heat and gives superb minerality to the wines that come from them.
Here around Vouvray we are on limestone soils with top soils that have varying degrees of flint, sand and clay. The composition of the top soil does have a direct influence upon final wine style.
Fresh and juicy with lovely acidity the 2016 les Bergères has notes of plum skins and flowers with a backbone of grapefruit that follows through onto the palate. It wasn’t a perfect match for tarragon mayonnaise but we enjoyed it very much and reminded us of why we love Chenin so much.
