In our brief few years of partnership thus far, Château de Chaintres—our first ever source of Saumur and Saumur-Champigny—has greatly enhanced our breadth of offerings from the Loire Valley. Constructed in 1675 by the Oratorian monks of the Notre Dame des Ardilliers, the Château de Chaintres is flanked by a 15-hectare walled clos in the sunniest and most favorable terroir in the immediate area. In 1938, the de Tigny family purchased this magnificent property and immediately revived viticulture within the clos; astonishingly, many of the vines they planted then are still in production.
We crossed paths with Château de Chaintres in 2017, when our old friend Jean-Philippe Louis—the longtime cellarmaster of Philippe Gilbert in Menetou-Salon and the guiding force behind Gilbert’s adoption of biodynamics—was hired at the estate. Jean-Philippe made his imprint immediately, converting viticulture to biodynamics (certified as such today) and enacting more sensitive and low-intervention methods in the cellar, and the quality of the wines promptly skyrocketed. While Jean-Philippe has since moved on, the current team continues in the same spirit, crafting elegant, penetrating, and precise renderings of this special terroir in the château’s stunning centuries-old cellar.
We stand prepared to receive several new releases from Château de Chaintres, including, notably, a miniscule allocation of the heartwarmingly old-school 1989 Saumur-Champigny which has rested tranquilly in the estate’s cellar since its bottling.
More on Chateau de Chaintres here.