A great-value Loire producer highlighted.
From €12.75, CA$24.65, £14.49, $19.90, 260 Norwegian kroner, AU$42, $1,050 New Taiwan dollars
In early 2017 in Portland, Oregon, the same Crémant de Loire rosé appeared on restaurant glass-pour lists across the city. I don’t know who was the first to have it, or if it was a game of follow the leader, or just a distributor who poured it for several buyers who all thought the wine was too good to pass up. But by the following May the distributor was out of stock. When I visited a wine bar in Napa in June of that year, the same pink bubbly was going out by the trayful.
The wine was Château de Brézé and, unbeknown to me, this now-defunct label was to be the first of many enjoyable experiences of Arnaud Lambert’s Brézé wines. As I have got to know his portfolio better, I have concluded that while the bubbly is delicious, the real gems are the still Chenin Blancs and Cabernet Francs.
Among producers of Chenin in Brézé, who include the cult Clos Rougeard as well as Domaine du Collier and Domaine Guiberteau, Lambert is the newcomer, and produces the best-value wines (although all of these are good). He is also responsible for farming more acreage in Brézé than any of the other producers (see his team above), both in Brézé and in the neighbouring commune of St-Cyr-en-Bourg. His parcels of vines in Brézé are shown below, yellow denoting Chenin Blanc, purple Cabernet Franc and the little orange parcel Chardonnay.
Arnaud's late father, Yves Lambert, started Domaine de St-Just in 1996, having planted vineyards in Saint-Cyr over the course of the previous decade. Arnaud Lambert joined the domaine full-time in 2005 after completing studies in Bordeaux, Dijon, Brittany and a stint with a cooperage in Bordeaux. The Lamberts signed a 25-year lease on 20 hectares (49 acres) of vineyard attached to the 11th-century Château de Brézé in 2009. This brought their total acreage to around 40 hectares, 20 in Brézé and 20 in St-Cyr-en-Bourg. Together, they converted the vineyards to certified organic viticulture. Yves Lambert died in 2011, a year before conversion was complete.
In 2017, the Château de Brézé label and the Domaine de St-Just label merged under a new Arnaud Lambert label. Of the eight wines I have tried (of the 15 produced), all are intense and focused. The entry tier, which I’m recommending here, offers outrageous value and is probably easier to find than the others.
Clos de Midi is the largest of Lambert’s eight parcels in Brézé and includes four hectares that are devoted to Chenin Blanc. Here, 40-year-old vines sit on tuffeau limestone bedrock with varying depths of sandy topsoil. There is just enough clay for the cover crop to retain water, forming a blanket that protects the rich community of microbial life in the soil. While many parcels are farmed biodynamically, the domaine chooses not to certify because of philosophical disagreements with Demeter.
Lambert’s winemaking is simple. While all Chenin Blanc is made using direct press and ambient yeast, different parcels are made in different vessels. Clos de Midi is fermented and aged in concrete tanks and eggs. The lack of oak serves to highlight the dense, ripe fruit and phenolic texture without involving wood tannin.
Arnaud Lambert, Clos de Midi 2020 Saumur Blanc feels vibrant and alive, showcasing the concentration of the 2020 vintage. It's 13.8% alcohol.
A young wine with such complexity of aromas that I had to restrain myself from drinking it all so that I could come back a second day to tease more out of it. It tasted of tangy peach yogurt, citrusy spruce tips, fresh scamorza cheese, ripe cantaloupe, German chamomile, daisy, apple juice, lemon peel, candied orange peel and wet concrete. This wine has incredible texture; the acid is high but it’s broad and mouth-watering as opposed to linear. The bitter floral phenolics combined with a dash of lanolin oil add a bit of weight. Quite long. This will only improve if you manage to hold it. VVGV
I gave it a score of 17.5 and while I believe this wine could last 15 years, I’ve given it a conservative ten in my tasting note. I doubt you’ll have it that long. It’s wonderful on its own but versatile enough to be a ringing answer to the nightly question of what to pair with supper. An amberjack, mushroom and bok choy donabe was very good but I’m itching to try it with seared scallops in tangerine butter or a wedge of ashy-rinded Valençay goat’s cheese. In the event you run out before dinner, or dinner calls for red, do try the Arnaud Lambert, Terres Rouges Cabernet Franc 2019 Saumur-Champigny (13.5%) from St-Cyr-en-Bourg. I’ve written it up here.
The Clos de Midi is available in the US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Norway, Australia and Taiwan. The 2019 Terres Rouges can be found in the US, France, Germany, Denmark, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Spain, Australia and Russia (the 2018 is also widely available, including in the UK). While I may regret typing this… I have never had a disappointing vintage from this producer. I do hope that continues.
See also our most recent collection of tasting notes on Loire Chenins, courtesy of Tam.