Savennières, with Evelyne de Jessey Pontbriand, 2019
Evelyne de Jessey Pontbriand and I emerged from the cool cover of the trees above the Château des Vaults (or Domaine du Closel if you prefer) into the baking heat of a warm summer’s day. Having just walked up what had turned out to be a surprisingly steep and stony slope to the vineyards above the château, aided only by a few uneven steps cut into the ground, we were both a little out of breath. And as we came out onto a grassy plain peppered with fruit trees, I was already beginning to feel the heat of the early-afternoon sun.
But I had no regrets. Despite only walking for a few minutes we had climbed very high; I had never before appreciated just how close the steep slopes and plateau of the vineyards are gathered around the town of Savennières. A short while before I had been standing in the shadow of the Château des Vaults, of which Evelyne (pictured below, as we stood up on the plateau) is proprietor; now I was looking out across the top of its slate-tiled roof, and indeed across all the rooftops of the town. With the characteristic needle-like spire of the Église Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Romain (parts of which date to the 10th century) among them, it could only be Savennières. It was a fantastic view.
Indeed, what better place could there be to learn a little bit about the history of this town and its vineyards, which are of course inevitably intertwined, and its wines. I listened as Evelyne de Jessey Pontbriand provided a well-practised account to the history of the town, its châteaux and its vineyards.
The Bourgeois Arrive
“During the Middle Ages vineyards were farmed by monastic institutions, by nobility or even royalty”, said Evelyne. I suspect this will not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the publication of my Loire Valley regional guides; even the most obscure appellations, including many which have flirted with extinction, from Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu to the Coteaux de Giennois, owe much of their existence to the church and the patronage of noblemen. “Peasants were not allowed to be involved in such a noble practice, but with the coming of the Renaissance this changed. It was at this time that the King of France decided that the bourgeois could also plant vineyards”.
