Fabien Duveau ‘La Hunaudière’ Saumur Blanc 2020

Location: France, Loire, Saumur

Winemaker: Fabien Duveau

Grapes: Chenin Blanc

Soil: Silex, limestone, cailleux

Winemaking: Fermented with native yeasts in 80% cement vats / 20% old oak barrels, followed by 6 months on the lees in neutral barrel.

‘La Hunaudière’: This “basic” bottling from Duveau is anything but. Sourced entirely from the vineyard La Hunaudiere located in Saint-Cyr, this wine is bursting with energy and mineral grip.

From the importer Schatzi: Fabien is the 8th generation of the family to make wine in Saumur-Champigny. Fabien regards his region, distinguished by its tuffeau bedrock and singular microclimate, as “one of the jewels of the Loire.” Here he holds some 40 parcels of chenin blanc and cabernet franc, a pair of varieties that enthrall him. As Fabien observes, “We always do better and with rigor the things that fascinate us.” Lately, that has meant drilling into the character of his single parcels.

Having worked among these parcels his whole life, he intuits the temperament and inclinations of each. Since taking over the domaine from his father in 2008, he has converted all of the family holdings to organics, a move he regards as his decisive thumbprint on the domaine. His “desire for clean farming and the preservation of the natural heritage” extends to his cultivation of biodiversity in and around the vineyards. In the cellar, his minimalist approach results in wines that express “the complex nature of the land and the know-how of its winemakers.” His intuition, dedication, and innovative perspectives infuse his wines with a freshness and delicacy that mark them as vibrant, eloquent examples of what Saumur-Champigny wines are at heart.

Growing up, Fabien “always knew” he wanted to be a winemaker. Since childhood, he worked alongside his father and grandfather since childhood. He studied at the nearby lycée, then left home for a stage in Bergerac, four years at Château Grand Corbin-Despagne in St. Émilion, and later a harvest internship at Rutherford Hill in Napa. He returned to Saumur-Champigny to take over winemaking from his father, guided by a shared view that “wine is first and foremost a pleasure and a generosity.” Now Fabien and his wife, Emmanuelle, jointly manage the domaine, supported by a two-person vineyard crew.

Fabien makes his wines in a cave dug in the 14th century from the same stone that later went to build the great Loire chateaux. The caves were first used as dwellings for the Saumurois, but the constant chill and humidity levels they harbor are friendlier to winemaking and storage than human habitation. The domaine, in Fabien’s family since the late 18th century, now spreads over 20 hectares within the roughly bounded triangle of Saumur-Champigny — to the north by the Loire, to the west by its tributary the Thouet, and to the east by the Fontevraud forest. The appellation is divided into communes, “very precisely grouped, according to strict geological criteria,” Fabien notes. He and Emmanuelle live in Chacé, and their vines are there and in the communes of Varraind and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg.

A low plateau of tuffeau, the yellow-white calcareous rock so distinctive of the central Loire, rises at the eastern edge of the town of Saumur and continues southeast, running under Fabien’s holdings. Tuffeau retains water as other limestones do, but drains more effectively, protecting against hydric stress while releasing water to the vines as needed. Overlaying the tuffeau is a mix of clay and limestone. Fabien attributes the velvet tannins, vivid fruit, and arresting freshness of his cab francs and the radiant intensity of his chenins to this soil composition. His aim is to allow the personality of each parcel to come through clearly in his wines.