Régis Néau with Emilie, his daughter who is taking over running Domaine de Nerleux from Régis & Babette

A few more photos in my emerging series on taking photos of vignerons in the round. All three here make both Saumur-Champigny and Saumur.

Richard in front of the Château de Chaintres with a bottle of the 2009 Château, Saumur-Champigny 

Richard Desouche is now well established at Château de Chaintres and his 2009 Champignys tasted today are looking very promising. 

Antoine Sanzay with a barrel sample of 2009 La Salles Martin, Saumur Blanc
 

I'm confident that Antoine Sanzay, who is based in Varrains, will be one of the future leaders in Saumur/Saumur-Champigny. He is already one of the most exciting of the younger generation of vignerons. Currently only five of his 11 hectares go under his own production – the rest go to the Cave Cooperative of Saint-Cyr. His contract with the coop runs until 2013 and it will not be renewed.  

Despite the quality of his wines he has no importer in the UK. He doesn't have big volumes to sell but even so you would have thought there was an English importer who would be keen to import Antoine's wines.    

Richard Desouche, the manager of Château de Chaintres (Saumur-Champigny) and who has his own small vineyard said: “We have picked a little bit to make the base wine for the Crémant de Loire – yields are low. Today we are checking the Chenin, while when we checked the Cabernet Franc recently it was around 11.5% potential alcohol but the acidity is still very high. The ban des vendanges for the Cabernet will be next Wednesday (8 October) but I’m preferring to wait until it’s riper and reckon to start on Monday 13th."

Richard Desouche

Richard, who is half English and formerly a talented rugby player, last year replaced Krishna Lester who had been manager of Chaintres for many years as well as being the mainstay of the Saumur cricket team, whose president is a citizen of Touraine – Mick Jagger.

Krishna Lester

Joël Deniau, the genial director of the Syndicat Viticole des Côtes de Saumur and the Syndicat General des Vignerons Producteurs de Crémant de Loire, gave me the various dates for the start of picking in Anjou-Saumur. “The ban for Sauvignon Blanc was on 17 September as well as for the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for base wine for Saumur Mousseux and Crémant de Loire, Gamay: 18th and the 22nd for Chenin for base wine. Tomorrow (2 October) Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon can be picked for the various rosés – Cabernet de Saumur, Rosé d’Anjou, Rosé de Loire and Cabernet d’Anjou. Next Monday (6 October) is the ban for still Chenin followed by 8 October for the Cabernet for Saumur and Saumur-Champigny. Although some of the potential alcohol levels are quite high, the latest control on Cabernet Franc showed a range of 11.3%-12.4% but still with high levels of acidity, which is the case everywhere in the Loire this year.”

Joël Deniau comtemplates the quality of the Coulée de St Cyr
2006 Saumur Blanc from Yves Lambert of Domaine Saint-Just