One Delicious Wine from Clos des Plantes
A few weeks back my colleague David Hatzopoulos and I were tasting with a sales rep some wines that we had been allocated but unable to try on our own. As we finished up, he asked us if we would like to taste a Loire wine that he was very fond of, a co-ferment of Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc from Anjou, made by Olivier Lejeune at his young domaine, Clos des Plantes. Anyone who knows me knows that I'll taste pretty much anything if the bottle is open and I love the Loire Valley. The region's wines are those that first sent me down the rabbit hole. There is incredible diversity of terroir, so many remarkable varieties, and among producers there is a great willingness to experiment in the vines and cellar alike. Dave and I both immediately liked the wine, though we couldn't quite put our fingers on why. So I thought I'd dig into it a bit and Olivier was kind enough to spend some time talking with me recently.
Olivier's path to winegrowing was not a straightforward one. He comes from the north, near Amiens on the way to Belgium, and after a degree in international business, he spent ten years living and working around Southeast Asia. However, with each passing year he felt further away from the open spaces he had grown up with and in 2014 he and his wife relocated to New Zealand where he enrolled in the Wine Science program at the University of Auckland. He worked several stages at the esteemed Felton Road in Central Otago and in 2016 returned to France to spend some time working with Anjou titan Marc Angeli. It was Angeli who helped Olivier find and purchase the three hectare estate that he called the Clos des Plantes.
The estate is in the village of Montbenault (best known for the extraordinary wines of Richard Leroy). At the time of purchase, the previous owner had been ill for some time and the vineyards were in serious disrepair. The rehabilitation process has been challenging and Olivier says it is still an uphill battle. However these kinds of difficulties, combined with his limited experience in region, has left him feeling willing to experiment. This has resulted not only in several outstanding bottlings of Chenin that have become highly sought-after, but the delightful red that we are offering today.
"Pelo" takes its name from Olivier's grandfather, who loved wine (St. Emilion in particular) and the label bears his image. The parcel of Cabernet Franc that Olivier farms is a troublesome one, lodged in between two strips of trees and bushes and that dips into a basin. As a result, it is a deadly trap for any amount of humidity and very susceptible to frost, which did considerable damage in both 2018 and 2019. The wines he made in those vintages, with grapes destemmed by hand, felt quite concentrated and extracted and he noticed some Brettanomyces in both wines as well.
So with his first decent crop in 2020 he decided to try something different. He lined the bottom of the tank with some Chenin Blanc with its skins and after a week when the fermentation was firmly in progress he added whole bunches of Cabernet Franc and then over that some direct-press Cabernet Franc. He did no pump-overs or punch-downs, relying entirely on infusion during a short nine day maceration. The pressing was done using an old vertical basket press, very gently.
The resulting wine is fascinating: a shimmering red rim around a slightly purple core that hints at translucence in the glass. The nose is full of red plum aromas and little hints of fresh green herbs and crushed violets. On the palate there is more of that plump red stone fruit but the texture and mouthfeel are what is most compelling. The wine skips, nearly floating, with a lovely snappy acid core and fine tannins giving shape to a lovely juicy mouthfeel. This is red wine in its flavor profile but it drinks much more like a white, with terrific refreshing length.
Olivier talked me through his thought process during the vinification. He added Chenin not only to give some extra aromatic lift to fruit that had proved previously dense, but by adding the Cabernet Franc to already fermenting Chenin that he might avoid the brett problem in 2018 and 2019 - the Chenin yeasts would drive the fermentation. He also urged me to temper my enthusiasm, emphasizing that with such limited experience that this was a wine that would likely not be repeated and indeed the 2021 was going to be very different after the frost devastation last spring. He has also begun to co-plant Grolleau and Pineau d'Aunis, which will ultimately change the overall character of the wine considerably.
Regardless of whether this wine is a one-off or not, it is exciting to watch a young grower work through challenges and create something delightful in the process. This is a perfect red for stocking up on as we move into spring. You could easily drink this well into rosé season and have a happy summer.
-Sam Ehrlich
