Eric Morgat: Tasting & Drinking
Meeting Eric Morgat is a pleasure; he is clearly impassioned, thoughtful and dedicated to his vines and wines. The groove he settled into with L’Enclos was one that saw him making substantial wines, heavily oak-influenced in their youth, but ultimately the oak would be absorbed and they would regain a delineation and attractive minerally austerity only hinted at when the wine was young. The wines, even in this rather modern style, suggested that Eric Morgat should be considered as one of the current stars of Savennières.
Two developments have only further strengthened this view. The first was Litus, a wine with which Eric demonstrated he held a belief in the terroir of all Anjou beyond Savennières. In doing so he is, I believe, totally correct; Anjou is a patchwork of great but often poorly exploited terroirs, and the land around Beaulieu-sur-Layon where Eric, Domaine Ogereau, Domaine Belargus, Château Pierre-Bise and others have all proven that Chenin Blanc planted on these spilite soils is capable of giving wines of great finesse, is a good example of this.
Second is his more recent consolidation in Savennières, pruning off the peripheral vineyards, keeping only those on the most prestigious schistose terroirs, renewing the Clos Serteaux. Eric has peered through the looking glass of L’Enclos and picked out something finer and more focused from within, demonstrating a commitment to precision and fidelity in his wine. The resulting labels, Fidès and Clos Serteaux, are wines which contrast sharply with the oaky cuvées of old; these are wines of immediate tension and elegance, a more traditional yet still handsomely polished style.
I decided back in 2014 that Eric was top tier in Savennières and I find, a decade later, that this remains the case. Back in 2014, however, I also wrote that I believed the best was yet to come. Looking back from 2024, with the most recent vintages of Fidès and Clos Serteaux as evidence, it looks like I was right. (4/5/10, updated 26/5/11, 9/12/14, 3/11/24)
