Domaine Beauséjour Chinon Les Vignes Rouges 2022

This week, a vinous stepping stone, from the Domaine Beauséjour of the past, to the Domaine Beauséjour of today. A wine which links the old and the new.

To understand that statement, come with me to Panzoult, a somewhat overlooked corner of the Chinon appellation but which today is home to some increasingly noteworthy vignerons and domaines, including Baudry-Dutour at Domaine du Roncée, Nicolas and Sylvain Grosbois at Domaine Grosbois and, straddling the Panzoult-Cravant-les-Coteaux boundary, Domaine de Pallus. As well as a dozen other less well-known vignerons.

And, one sleeping beauty. Domaine Beauséjour.

This domaine has, for a long time been the possession of the Chauveau family, in recent years run by the patriarch Gérard Chauveau, with the help of his son David. While it was a well-known domaine in the region, that was the limit of its renown. This may well be due to a slide in quality in recent years. Gérard was unwell but still ruled the domaine with an iron rod, from his sick bed no less, and David never had free rein to take the domaine fully in hand. There was an interest in selling, but the recalcitrant Gérard could not find anyone to meet the price he was asking, a price which no doubt reflected the decades of effort and passion he had poured into this project (he and his brother Daniel having planted the first vines on the domaine, in 1969).

Eventually Gérard passed away, and there was a new impetus to sell, and a new willingness from other family members to negotiate. In 2021 the domaine finally changed hands.

The new owner is Ivan Massonnat.

We are already five years on from this transition, but this was not a simple handing over of responsibility. The domaine was in need of a huge amount of work.

This work naturally began in the vineyards, with a detailed geological study allowing for a much greater understanding of the soils here. The domaine has around 20 hectares of vines at present (Ivan having pulled up about 7 hectares), which stretch from the tree line as the slope transitions into plateau above the domaine, down to the lower soils on the floodplain of the Vienne. This means every soil type, from millarges (the upper layers of the tuffeau jaune of the Turonian) and clay on the upper slopes, down to alluvial and frankly sandy soils at the bottom. Of course it is a lot more complicated than that, as illustrated by this new soil map for the domaine; there is faluns too, and it is not always a smooth down-slope transition from limestone to clay to sand.

One question that Ivan had to answer was how to divide up his harvest. Should he produce a single Beauséjour cuvée? Or would a multitude of terroir-specific cuvées be preferable? Or perhaps a domaine level cuvée, accompanied by a prestige bottling, provided the vintage allowed it?

In the end he and his team have settled on five cuvées, more detail on which I will include in my upcoming tasting report and soon-to-be updated profile of Domaine Beauséjour. Nevertheless, before they came to this decision the 2022 vintage was upon them, and for this – Ivan’s first vintage as proprietor – he and his winemaker Sarah Mianville decided to blend everything into a single domaine cuvée, taking fruit from all of Beauséjour’s terroirs. The end result is a deliciously bright and easy-going Chinon sold through one French retailer, at a ridiculous known-down price. If you happen to have a holiday in the region coming up, look out for this one on the shelves of your local Intermarché. It is quite probably the best wine on their shelves, and certainly the best value (I think it was about €7, if memory serves correctly).

The 2022 Chinon Les Vignes Rouges from Domaine Beauséjour has a quality that reflects the standards of the new owner, but an old style label representing its transition from the ancien regime (the terroir-specific cuvées coming in 2023 will have new labels). In the glass this displays a dark yet vibrant hue, matched by a delicious nose of blackberry, raspberry, graphite and currant. This crunchy core of fruit continues on the palate, with a savoury focus filled with dried brambles, dark chocolate and road tar, these confident flavours set within a bright, juicy and delineated frame, the combination of savoury concentration in a light-footed frame just delicious; if you told me Axel Heinz made this wine, I might just believe you. There is just a lick of dry tannin at the end, adding some frame, otherwise this is a simply vivacious and joyful drink-now Chinon. Pull the cork as soon as you find a bottle, or any time over the next couple of years. The alcohol is 13.5% on the label. 91/100 (13/7/26)

Read more in:

• My profile of Domaine Beauséjour
• A guide to all things Cabernet Franc
• My guide to Chinon and some exemplar Chinon vineyards

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