Château de Fosse Sèche: Vineyards
As indicated in my introduction, the domaine is located in the more southern reaches of the Saumur appellation, not far from Montreuil-Bellay to the south-east, and Le Puy Notre-Dame to the south. Perhaps better known to all is the somewhat larger town of Doué-la-Fontaine, famous for its zoo, which lies just a few kilometres to the north-west. Here we are on the plateau of Brossay, a full 20 kilometres south of Saumur, and the region is significant in that we have here a deviation from the usual limestone terroirs of Saumur and Saumur-Champigny. The Saumur limestone, generally Turonian in origin (and therefore directly analogous to that of Vouvray, which originated in the same era) is missing here, and instead we find flint which is much older, being of Jurassic origin. The rather rare combination of flint and iron oxides is named éolithe, a name which is carried through to one of the cuvées. Along with the flint comes clay, in a layer perhaps 60 centimetres deep.
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