La Ferme de la Sansonnière: Tasting & Drinking
Mark and Martial Angeli are clearly dedicated individuals, adhering to a committed philosophy that is more about an entire way of life than mere viticulture. For me, however, it is always the quality of the wines within the glass that counts most. Vignerons such as Mark deserve credit for how they tend their land, protecting its health and vigour for future generations but, ultimately, the wine must have its chance to speak; dogma is not a substitute for drinking.
In the Loire Valley I would place Mark in a trio of regional figureheads, the other two being Richard Leroy and Eric Nicolas of Domaine de Bellivière. Both Richard and Eric frequently turn out stunning wines, sometimes an entire range of such wines. Mark sometimes matches their results, and all three cuvées, La Lune, Les Fouchardes and Les Vieilles Vignes de Blanderies have given me, over the years, some delightful and dependable drinking pleasures. Being blunt, though, there was certainly a phase when the wines tended towards extreme oxidation, although that seems to be past us now.
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