VIEW FROM THE CELLAR
By John Gilman
July-August 2022 Number One Hundred
Saumur-Champigny “les Closiers”- Domaine des Closiers
Anatole de la Brosse purchased this estate in 2018 and has Nady Foucault as one of his consultants! Monsieur de la Brosse’s first vintage at Domaine des Closiers was the following year of 2019. Monsieur de la Brosse’s les Closiers bottling is his entry level wine, aged in tank for six to eight months prior to bottling and crafted to be more immediately accessible than his other two red wine cuvées, les Coudraies and les Trezelliêres. The combination of the extremely high quality of the wines here and Nady Foucault’s participation on a consulting basis have quickly given the estate the moniker of the “next Clos Rougeard”. The 2020 les Closiers bottling comes in at an even thirteen percent octane in this warm summer and offers up a beautifully refined nose of red and black cherries, tobacco leaf, chalky soil tones, cigar ash and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and seamlessly balanced, with a good core, fine transparency and grip and a long, moderately tannic and complex finish. This is a lovely bottle that is approachable out of the blocks, but really deserves at least a few years’ worth of bottle age to allow its secondary layers of complexity to emerge. 2022-2045+. 92+.
2020 Saumur-Champigny “les Coudraies”- Domaine des Closiers
The Saumur-Champigny “les Coudraies” is one of the estate’s single vineyard wines, made from a selection of the best parcels in this hillside vineyard. The wine is aged in mostly older casks for one year prior to bottling. The 2020 les Coudraies comes in at fourteen percent octane and offers up a simply gorgeous bouquet of red and black cherries, cigar wrapper, a touch of tree bark, a complex base of soil tones, juniper berry, a touch of cedar and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and very elegant in profile, with a rock-solid core of fruit, firm, buried tannins, excellent focus and grip and a long, complex and very, very promising finish. This is a great bottle of Saumur-Champigny in the making! 2032-2085.
95.