Saumur Champigny Clos Cristal 2017

On the edge of the Saumur-Champigny AOC, founded by Antoine Cristal in 1890, behind its surrounding walls and gate, 10 hectares of vines are hidden and more than 3km of walls have been erected within the estate in which, for 130 years, the vines have passed and flourished. The vine planted to the north grows along the wall through a hole. The shoots, foliage and bunches of grapes grow along the wall, facing south. With the vines in the cooler position and their heads in the sun, they can gain up to a month in maturity!

The Clos Cristal terroir is composed of tufa chalk bedrock, which originated in the Cretaceous era. In terms of soils, we move progressively from one terroir to another, from sandy to clay-limestone soils, which allow for great complexity in the structure, balance and aromatics of the wine. This complexity is reinforced by the vines that grow along the walls and pass through the walls offering grapes with very particular characteristics and great maturity. Finally, all these terroirs are surrounded by walls and protected from the northern winds by a wood, which offers us a very specific microclimate that can only be found at Clos Cristal.

The grapes are harvested by hand and then sorted again on a table to eliminate bunches of uneven maturity. All the selected bunches are gently de-stemmed to keep only the berries and eliminate the stalk. The berries fall by gravity into small vats to be vinified. No sulphur is added during the vatting process.
During maceration, which lasts on average about thirty days, some pumping over is carried out to extract the colour and the delicate tannins, then the grapes are infused into the fermenting wine until the end of the maceration to give it structure, fatness and finesse. The malolactic fermentation is carried out in vats and then the Clos Cristal is filled into 500L French oak barrels.
The wine is aged for 18 months, allowing the already delicate tannins to develop a patina and bringing a nice complexity. After these 18 months of maturing in our troglodyte cellars, it is time for bottling.
The wine is gently racked from the barrels into a tank where it will rest for 2 to 3 weeks. The wine is not filtered before bottling.