2022 Dm Guiberteau Saumur Rouge Les Moulins, Loire Valley

100% Cabernet Franc. As with the Moulins Blanc, this new label was created to provide a home to Guiberteau’s organic-in-conversion vineyards. The vines are mostly located in Montreuil-Bellay, with an inclusion of a healthy portion of old-vine fruit from a recently acquired parcel on the Brézé hill. The vines vary in age from seven to 80 years.

The wine was raised in stainless steel only, with just five days on skins. The idea is to offer a more open, delicious, early-drinking wine at a more accessible price than the village bottling—and it works. Elegant and crunchy, it’s a suppler, less angular release than the ‘21, with stony cherry flavours alongside spice, earth and lovely gravelly minerality.