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Arnaud Lambert Saumur Blanc Les Perrières 2021

Thursday is an unusual day on which to publish my Weekend Wine report; for obvious reasons, it usually sees the light of day on Monday. But then this has been an unusual week, marked by the rush to publish my Bordeaux 2023 vintage report. This is a vintage in which we have all been prepared for a fast-paced campaign with some early big-name releases, although with one French public holiday this week, and two next week, and only a handful of releases made, so far it is not a campaign I would describe as fast-paced.

In the midst of a torrent of typing and pedantic proof-reading I looked for a glassful of sanity, and where else to turn but to the combination of Chenin Blanc and limestone. I settled on the 2021 Les Perrières, from Arnaud Lambert, in Saumur.

Les Perrières is a very common name for a lieu-dit; indeed, scratch around many appellations and wine regions and you will find numerous vineyards which have taken on this name. Only a few miles upstream, for example, one of Bourgueil’s most highly regarded parcels is Les Perrières. This lieu-dit sits quite high up the Bourgueil slope (which is inevitable really – I will explain why in a moment), very close to Domaine de la Butte. In Burgundy, meanwhile, you are spoilt for choice; you can find vineyards named Les Perrières in Meursault, Pommard, Beaune, Montagny (that is in Burgundy, isn’t it?) and Mâcon, not to mention in the generic Bourgogne appellation. And this is just a selection; there are others.

So why is this such a common name? A clue to the answer to this question comes from another Les Perrières, near Fronsac, which I visited a few years ago. A vineyard in the possession of the Guinaudeau family, of Château Lafleur and Château Grand Village, these vines once gave rise to G Acte, but in the 2018 vintage this cuvée was renamed for the lieu-dit, becoming Les Perrières.

Arnaud Lambert Saumur Blanc Les Perrières 2021

Walking the Vines with Baptiste at that time one of us – it might have been Baptiste, but perhaps I shouldn’t say – nearly fell down an open shaft in the centre of the vineyard. It was a mineshaft, and an indicator that the name Les Perrières signifies the presence of a stone quarry (which is why Les Perrières in Bourgueil lies high up the slope – on the higher limestone, not on the lower gravel terraces). The limestone from Baptiste’s Les Perrières was used as building stone, for Libourne, St Emilion or Bordeaux, while that in Bourgueil went to Bourgueil itself, Saumur or maybe Angers.

I should reassure you, by the way, that Baptiste subsequently had any open shafts he found made safe with metal gratings. Vineyard labour is hard enough to find in France without losing your employees down a hole in the ground.

The lieu-dit of Les Perrières in the Saumur appellation sits at the entrance to the village of Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg (just to the north of Brézé), on the west side; Arnaud Lambert has a tiny triangle of vines here, a corner plot of 60-year-old Chenin Blanc, planted on soils of sandy-silty clay (argile sablo-limoneuse on the label) and, of course, limestone (or chalk, which is craie). After harvest by hand and pressing, the juice is fermented and then aged in wood, using 50% new barrels and 50% foudres, and after twelve months of suitable repose it is blended and bottled.

In the glass the 2021 Saumur Blanc Les Perrières from Arnaud Lambert possesses a pale straw hue, and it presents a surprisingly concentrated nose (from this cooler vintage) of confit fruits, all orange and dried apricot, perhaps lightly polished by the oak, but sprinkled with crushed limestone and overlaid with an attractive reductive character. It continues in this fresh and bright vein on the palate, showing salty and cool, with a delicate sense of construct, supporting savoury fruit and a sinewy texture through the middle. It remains appealingly bitter and cool through to the finish, which shimmers with citrus pith substance before a firm and delicately saline finish. This is a very fine example of Saumur Blanc, its character surely shaped by the limestone (that which was not quarried out, anyway) beneath the vines. The alcohol on the label is 13.5%. 92/100 (2/5/24)

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