A tuffeau plateau above the Loire
Between Saumur and Montsoreau, on the left bank of the Loire, Saumur-Champigny spreads its vines across eight communes, on a plateau overlooking the river. The hillside villages, home to winegrowers and coopers, live partly in troglodyte dwellings carved into the chalk.
The terroir: clay-limestone over chalk
The soils, clay-limestone and sometimes covered with wind-blown sands, rest on Turonian chalk — tuffeau. This cool, well-drained limestone base tempers the ripening of cabernet franc and lends it finesse and freshness: this is the key to the appellation's style, both generous and elegant.
The style of the wines
Saumur-Champigny shows a garnet hue and a nose of red fruit, spice, roasted notes and flowers (iris, violet). On the palate it is rich and full-bodied, with fine, velvety tannins — a digestible, fragrant red, to drink young for its fruit or to cellar, five to twenty years depending on the cuvée, served between 16 and 18°C.