Wines

This wine, coming from Les Genêts section of the Clos des Chaintres, offers an intriguing insight into the terroirs expression of this domaine. While perhaps less honeyed and floral than the Clos des Oratoriens bottling in some vintages, these Chenin vines give fruit dominated by aromas and flavors of quince, lanolin, and hay. Mineral rich and built with high acidity and dry extract, this wine will develop for years in the cellar.

“Ex muros” is Latin for “outside the walls”, referencing the fact that this Chenin Blanc comes not from the estate but from a neighboring 3-hectare parcel of 40–80 year old Chenin Blanc in the highly regarded terroir of Brézé, which the Chaintres team has leased and transitioned to organic & biodynamic viticulture (certified in 2020). The warm clay soils infused with an unique green limestone-chalk lend a richness to palate while remaining precise, seamless and balanced—an electricity straight out of the bottle that makes you sit up straight in your chair!

Château de Chaintres reserves its oldest Chenin Blanc vines within the clos—over 80 years old and planted in flint-heavy tuffeau chalk—for the “Dames de Chaintres,” which ferments in stainless steel and ages for a year in a combination of steel and terracotta. Lean and penetrating, with an overriding note of smoky gunflint, the wine possesses an acidity somehow simultaneously electrifying and hefty, with a sizzling tension between the coiled fruit and chalky minerality that makes one convinced this is a wine that could withstand four decades or more of positive aging.

From Cabernet Franc vines situated in the heart of Saumur-Champigny on soils of sand, clay, and tuffeau chalk, the rosé is pressed directly, fermented spontaneously, and raised in steel with a bare minimum of sulfur. It’s a tangy, vivacious, brazenly energetic wine that speaks clearly of both variety and terroir. Certified biodynamic.

“Les Sables” is the estate’s primary cuvée of Cabernet Franc, with the oldest vines going to the “Vieilles Vignes” bottling below. Grapes are harvested by hand and entirely de-stemmed; fermentation takes place in stainless steel and occurs spontaneously; and extraction is obtained primarily via remontage during a 10-to-12-day maceration. As with the Chenin Blanc, sulfur dioxide is applied only at bottling and only minimally. This wine is remarkably fresh, with fully ripe, snappy red fruits and beautifully integrated tannins—a testament to this appellation’s capacity for producing elegant Cabernet Franc. This is the kind of wine that just feels good to consume.

The vines that plunge the deepest into the tuffeau below are bottled separately, with the Vieilles Vignes cuvée comprising parcels ranging from 50 to 80 years of age. Despite the expected increase in concentration and structure with this wine compared to Les Sables, the same sense of freshness permeates this wine—making it “très digeste” indeed. Tannins are again graceful, but the underlying minerality is more assertive here, contributing a salty-savory edge to the fruit.

The “Clos des Oratoriens” Rouge comprises a parcel of Cabernet Franc planted in 1947 in a particularly limestone-rich section of the clos. After a spontaneous fermentation in open-top wooden casks with a 10-day maceration, the wine is aged for one year: part in tronconic wooden Grenier casks, part in stainless steel, and part in clay jars situated in the deepest part of the chateau’s cellar. The result is a wine of remarkable finesse and liveliness, with delicate tannins and strikingly energetic fruit, and the old age of the vines is felt in the wine’s intensity rather than in any sense of weight or undue power.

Château de Chaintres produces this cuvée from one of their best and oldest parcels: a 1940 planting (hence the name: the year of plantation in Roman numerals) of Cabernet Franc in the heart of the clos. Aged in a single 20-hectoliter tronconic oak cask for two winters, “MCMXL” offers intensely concentrated, sappy fruit, penetrating and finely chiseled minerality, and a firmer structure than the other Saumur-Champigny wines in the lineup.