Château du Hureau: Georges Vatan
Georges Vatan was very well-known locally, having been mayor of Dampierre-sur-Loire during the 1970s, and he was a leading figure in the creation of the Association des Producteurs de Saumur-Champigny in the early 1980s, along with Paul Sanzay, Jean-Pierre Charruau, Claude Daheuiller and Paul Filliatreau. Georges is also credited with the creation of La Cuvée des 100, a special cuvée made each year using fruit donated by one hundred vignerons (in truth the number today is somewhere between eighty and ninety) and which is served at Les Grandes Tablées du Saumur-Champigny, an annual festival in Saumur. He was a keen amateur hunter as well as a painter, and in recent years at least one of his works has been transformed into a label for a Saumur Blanc cuvée by his son Philippe.
In Georges’ time the Vatan domaine was a considerable one, with both vineyards up on the limestone plateau behind the château, and a large area of apple orchards more distant, the latter covering 35 hectares. Despite this, in 1981 Georges called a halt to vinifying his fruit as he had done for many years. Perhaps, being in his mid-fifties with two large businesses to run, he realised he had to scale back operations somewhere. The Vatan grape harvest was, from this point onwards, sold to the local co-operative instead. As for the work out in the vineyard and orchard, Georges ceded these responsibilities to his two sons, Philippe and Pascal. The latter looked after the vines, while Philippe took on the management of the orchards.
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