La Ferme de la Sansonnière, 2018 Update
Mark Angeli of La Ferme de la Sansonnière has a loyal and passionate following, both among those who buy, sell and drink his wines, but also among the local vine-growing community. Mark’s drive to reduce intervention has inspired many of his peers, and his mentoring of young talent within the region should also not go unmentioned.
Over the years I have known Mark Angeli and his wines I have found the quality, especially in some recent vintages, to be quite variable. La Lune is surely his best-known cuvée, and it is frequently a very fine example of Anjou Blanc, even if Mark long forewent the use of the Anjou appellation in favour of the more relaxed Vin de France category. His iconic Rosé d’un Jour, was (in the 2008 vintage, at least) one of the most delicious and drinkable rosés I have ever had the good fortune to encounter.
On the other hand, Mark has never shied away from experimentation, and some of the less successful wines he made during the 1990s are testament to this. Mark went through a zero-sulphites period, and with age the wines fell apart into a brown and oxidised confusion, a sort of vinous fugue state. I like to pigeon-hole Mark’s zero-sulphites period alongside David Bowie’s Tin Machine project and Queen’s Hot Space album. They are all experiments I look back upon with a sense of dismay.
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