La Ferme de la Sansonnière, 2023 Update
There are few vignerons working the land along the banks of the Layon who could claim, while keeping a straight face, that they enjoy a cult following. But one who could, if he was so inclined, is Mark Angeli, of La Ferme de la Sansonnière. I make a point of tasting with the paysan solidaire, as he calls himself, every year, akin to my regular rendez-vous with Nicolas or Virginie Joly, as reported on yesterday.
For many years the mainstay of Mark’s range of wines has been La Lune, a cuvée assembled from several small parcels, including vines arranged in a crescent shape, like the moon. It was a prior employee of Mark’s, Stéphane Bernaudeau (who was since gone on to forge a strong reputation as a vigneron himself) who thus christened the cuvée La Lune. Mark also produces two single-vineyard cuvées, Les Fouchardes and Les Vieilles Vignes des Blanderies, and a less commonly encountered red and rosé. There are a few other cuvées (more on those in a moment), but of those so far mentioned it is La Lune I would tend to buy for my own cellar (the single-vineyard cuvées are also worth a punt, but they rarely came onto my radar).
I continue to enjoy drinking those bottles as they age, most recently the 2012 La Lune, which popped up in my Loire 2012 at Ten Years report earlier this week. Meanwhile I continue to regularly stop by to taste the younger vintages with Mark, who now works in a trio with his son Martial Angeli, and their associate Bruno Ciofi. And yet, despite the renown enjoyed by the domaine, the praise heaped upon the trio by various corners of the wine world, and the pleasure I have found in those old bottles, I have struggled with Mark’s wines in recent years.
Key to my complaint is that I have found threads of oxidation in them, particularly when poured at the Salon Saint-Jean in Angers. It has been difficult to pick apart whether this reflected Mark’s restricted use of sulphites, obtained from a volcanic (as opposed to an industrial) source with which he feels comfortable (Mark did go through a zero-added-sulphites phase a long, long time ago – the wines did not turn out well), or whether the wines were simply too fragile to be sloshed back and forth, all day long, at the salon, a notoriously hot, feverish, elbow-room-only scrum of a tasting event.
So tasting younger vintages has, in recent years, been something of a trial. This year, however, something was different. It wasn’t just that the portfolio of wines has continued to evolve and expand, with new cuvées parcellaires and new blends. It was that I sensed a level of freshness, precision and drive that I have not found here for some years. Indeed, it seemed to me Mark and his crew were absolutely on fire, with the highlight being one of the most recent additions to the portfolio.
