100% Cabernet Franc. Monopole. Les Arboises is a subsection of the limestone-dominant Brézé hill. This is Guiberteau’s top red from renowned red terroir. It is a monopole parcel planted in 1957, on a very rocky, chalky site that produces super-graceful and mineral expressions of Saumur.
The fruit was fully de-stemmed and the wine is naturally fermented in concrete before resting for 18 months in a mixture of new, one, two, and three-year-old barrels. Guiberteau ages this cuvée for longer than this other reds, both in barrel and bottle, feeling this site’s more angular tannins require extra refinement.
This may be the best example of this wine that we have shipped. Still very young, it is already super-sexy with a wonderfully pitched balance of seductive flesh and chalky, powdery, smoky, savoury notes that drive right through the palate. The fruit profile is dark, (cherry, blackberry and something bloody) but there’s also loads of florals (dark rose and violet), fresh herbs and some classy oak spice. As good as Les Chapaudaises is, this takes it to a whole new level. Another benchmark example from this star of Saumur.