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Domaine de la Pépière La Pépiè Cabernet Franc 2018

Recent days have been filled with old bottles. Several weeks of visits and vertical tastings in Bordeaux has had me scribbling notes on a variety of venerable vintages. Château Brane-Cantenac took the lead last Friday, pouring old vintages as far back as 1961, 1945 and 1928 (and others, although nothing older than that latter wine), followed closely in second place by a tasting at Château Larcis-Ducasse in July, when I tasted as far back as 1959.

My recent Weekend Wine choices have also leaned towards older vintages. Provided you will allow me to refer to vintages such as 1997 and 1994 as ‘old’, that is.

Time to stop all this old wine. To paraphrase Steve Martin in The Jerk (1979), bring us the fresh stuff!

Well, 2018 might not be entirely ‘fresh’, but it is certainly the youngest Weekend Wine for quite a few weeks.

While the Nantais is known for Muscadet and Melon de Bourgogne, the region has a long history of planting other varieties, both white and red. Marc Ollivier of Domaine de la Pépière, for many years a doyen of the region, was no exception, as he tended decent plantings of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Côt. Looking back at my notes from early encounters with Marc he told me he had 5 hectares of red varieties planted, a significant slice of the 35-hectare domaine.

Of course, much has since changed. Marc retired in 2020, making 2019 his final vintage. Shouldering the Pépière mantle today is Rémi Branger, scion of a local family of vignerons, who Marc took on as an associate back in 2006, although the two families had a long history of renting and trading vines prior to this. Rémi works with Gwénaëlle Croix who joined the domaine in 2014, a few years after she arrived at the domaine one winter to learn how to prune, part of her viticultural and oenological studies at Montreuil-Bellay.

Domaine de la Pépière La Pépiè Cabernet Franc (VdP du Val de Loire) 2018

The vineyard has grown a little, and at the last count was up to 42 hectares, with parcels in several of the region’s cru communal zones, including Clisson, Château-Thébaud, Gorges and Monnières-Saint-Fiacre. The area dedicated to red seems to have contracted a little though, with just 3 hectares planted today; Rémi and Gwénaëlle fashion the red harvest into two cuvées, one varietal expression of Côt, and one either pure Cabernet Franc or a blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Of course there is no appellation for such wines in the region, so both are designated IGP, although with a typically Ligérian disregard for the rules the wines are still labelled as Vin de Pays du Val de Loire, despite more than fifteen years having passed since the vin de pays system was phased out.

These reds are no-fuss, no-frills wines, the fruit typically fermented in stainless steel, given a short maceration to extract colour but not too much structure, after which there comes a correspondingly short élevage, again in stainless steel, before bottling. Having tasted both the 2018 Cabernet Franc and 2018 Côt as pre-bottling samples from cuve back in early 2019 I was charmed, but revisiting them a few years later – from bottle this time – I was less enamoured. The Côt was decent enough, the Cabernet less so, and neither really lived up to my early expectations. Coming back to the Cabernet after another couple of years, however, it has really got into its groove. Was it simply sulking last time, or is there some bottle variation here?

The cork on the 2018 La Pépiè Cabernet Franc from Domaine de la Pépière was pulled on Sunday afternoon, revealing a beautifully pigmented wine, with a vibrant black cherry hue in the glass. And the nose offers all the aromatics I hoped for after my first taste back in 2019, staring with a rich and smoky minerality resembling crushed black olive stone, with threads of dark cherry, dry currant, antiseptic and spicy black pepper. This continues on a beautifully dark and savoury palate which carries all the aromatics from the nose, intertwined with a rose petal perfume and supported by a core of ripe tannins and juicy acidity. Having had my doubts, this has turned out to be an absolutely cracking cool-climate Cabernet Franc, confident and precisely drawn, with a long and mouth-watering length. Delicious, although based on my previous encounter there may be some bottle variation here. You have been warned. The alcohol is 13.5% on the label. Certified organic. 92/100 (8/9/25)

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