Pierre Ménard, 2018 Anjou Rouge "Orion Alpha," Loire Valley, France | Cab Franc Chronicles скачать в хорошем качестве

Pierre Ménard, 2018 Anjou Rouge "Orion Alpha," Loire Valley, France | Cab Franc Chronicles

Cab Franc Chronicles - Your source for all things Cabernet Franc! -------------------- Analysis and commentary of the Pierre Ménard, 2018 Anjou Rouge "Orion Alpha," Loire Valley, France Pierre Ménard is from a family of vignerons from around the hamlet of Valette in Faye d'Anjou. Following his viticultural studies in Angers, he spent time doing vintages in Bordeaux, Porto, New Zealand, the Niagara Peninsula in Canada and Hungary, before returning home to establish his own domaine with some of his family's parcels, and his first vintage was 2013. Today Pierre is farming around 4ha of vines in Faye d'Anjou, mostly planted with Chenin Blanc, save for a tiny parcel of Sauvignon Blanc and a little less than a half hectare of Cabernet Franc that is used for his "Orion Alpha" Anjou Rouge. Faye d'Anjou is situated on the north side, or right bank, of the Layon River, just west of the commune of Thouracé. The commune's viticultural area stretches from the banks of the Layon River inland towards the Forêt of Beaulieu and the Forêt of Brissac in the northwest and northeast parts of the commune, respectively. The topography of the commune is quite undulating, with very steep slopes that have varying exposures hugging the Layon River, and then the topography gets progressively more flat as you move further inland, north towards the forests. In general, the conditions get progressively cooler as you move inland, and the warmest sites following the prime slopes closer to the Layon River. In terms of soils, what dominates this side of the Layon is the St-Georges series of schists, as well as pockets of sandstone and soils of volcanic origin like Rhyolite and Spilite. The soils of volcanic origin tend to be concentrated in the western part of Faye d'Anjou, while the schists and sandstones and scattered throughout the commune. Topsoils tend to be quite varied in texture and depth, though for the most part we find silt-dominated soils, with a few pockets of very sandy soils in some places as well as the odd pocket of more clayey soils as well. The topsoils along the prime slopes close to the Layon tend to be more shallow with a stronger impact of the mother rock, and as you move inland the topsoils get deeper and the subsoil is dominated by clays. So the Orion Alpha is coming from 0.38 hectares of vines from two lieux-dits, Vallet and Clos des Mailles. Both of these lieux-dits are in the southeastern part of Faye d'Anjou, with Vallet being a little further inland and Clos des Mailles hugging the prime slopes close to the Layon. The parcel at Vallet is a 0.22ha parcel that was planted in 2008, and it is situated mid to the upper part of the slope on an east facing exposure. The shallow topsoil is clayey in texture mixed with quartz, followed by a bedrock that is comprised of sandstone and schist beginning around 50cm below the surface. The second parcel at Clos des Mailles is 0.16ha and the vines are quite old, planted in the 1950s, and the Cabernet Franc vines are located just below from Pierre's Chenin vines, both of which are planted in the upper part of the lieu-dit, high on the slope with a more northwest-facing exposure. Here the topsoils are also quite shallow, with a silty-sand clay texture, followed by bedrock of green to ochre sandstone-schists. He says in warmer vintages like 2018, the parcel at Vallet brings more power and breadth to the wine, while the Clos des Mailles brings aromatics and a floral quality, and these two parcels are quite complementary in that way and bring balance to his expression of Cabernet Franc. In terms of winemaking, the fruit is hand-harvested, hand-sorted and hand destemmed. The fermentation is whole berry with a natural pied de cuve starter, in wide 10hl stainless steel tanks. He will do a little punching down at the beginning of the fermentation just to release some juice and then it is infusion for the duration of the fermentation. The total time on skins is about 3 weeks. The finished wine is a combination of the free run wine and press wine. Aging is for 9 months, and about 3/4 of the volume is aged in older barrels and the rest in stainless steel. 0:00 Intro 0:53 Anjou and Cabernet Franc 2:41 Anjou growing environment and soils 3:59 Challenges for Cabernet Franc on Anjou Noir 5:34 Faye d'Anjou viticultural area and climate 7:15 Faye d'Anjou soils 8:39 Vineyard selection - Orion Alpha 10:22 How the lieux-dits influence the wine 11:23 Winemaking 12:45 Tasting preamble 13:22 Tasting notes -------------------- Originally posted to Instagram May 5, 2025. -------------------- Key wine facts below: Producer: Pierre Ménard Appellation: Anjou Rouge Commune: Faye d'Anjou Lieux-Dits: Vallet, Clos des Mailles Soil: 50cm clayey with quarts over schistous sandstone; silty-sand over ochre to green sandstone-schists Alcohol: 14.1% --------------------- FOLLOW ME:   / cabfrancchronicles   #cabfranc #cabernetfranc #cabfrancchronicles #pierremenard #anjou