Château de Villeneuve, 2020 Update
Saumur-Champigny is home to the Loire Valley’s most famed and most expensive cult wines, not to mention a gaggle of young vignerons hoping to make their mark (these two observations are surely not unrelated). Nevertheless, while long-established A-listers and youthful start-ups both hold my interest, we should not overlook the Saumur-Champigny stalwarts, domaines where the mantra is quality and consistency without any of the surrounding hype or viticultural dogma.
While there are a number of domaines scattered through the Saumur vineyard around Chacé, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg and along the banks of the Loire itself that fit this description, first among them is surely Château de Villeneuve. Jean-Pierre Chevallier took over the running of the domaine back in the 1980s, continuing an impressive family history of viticulture which spans five generations, although it was only in 1969 that Jean-Pierre’s parents acquired Château de Villeneuve (pictured). Jean-Pierre continues here today (although retirement beckons, and the next generation is waiting in the wings) albeit in newly refurbished and equipped cellars which were completed as recently as 2016.
The Wines
Although Jean-Pierre Chevallier came to winemaking with a Bordeaux mindset (he studied oenology there) over the years I sense his work has, like many in the region, become more Burgundian. Or would it be unreasonable to say more Ligérian? His focus is more on the fruit, his work in the cellars leaning more towards infusion rather than aggressive extraction, and while he continues to vinify and age in wood he has over the last decade moved steadily away from barrels towards 12-hectolitre foudres, reducing the impact of the oak on his wines. Today, both reds and whites are vinified in mix of foudres and the large barrels known as demi-muids.
