Maunoury - Blanc Vdf “Le Petit Alphée” 2022 750ml (13% abv)

WINE CLUB SELECTION - DEC 2024

Puy-Notre-Dame in Saumur, Jonathan Maunoury. Puy-Notre-Dame is a little hill of chalk 20 kilometers south of the city of Saumur, sort of on the border of between the more limestone bedrock of the greater Saumur region, and the more superficial soils of Anjou noir. In 2015, after studying with such illustrious vignerons as Marc Angeli, Vouette and Sorbée, Pierre Gonin, Chandon de Briailles, and -naturally- Melaric, Jonathan settled in this little goldilocks zone of truffeau vineyards. (Truffeau is this sort of wet and crumbly bedrock that makes up all the caves of Saumur including the ones you walked through at La Dive! It's alluvial like schist, but not so much, and it produces a lot of power, but not as much as pure limestone). 

Jonathan Maunoury has a PhD in Chemistry and spent 10 years as a researcher for next generation smartphone displays (UK and Belgium) before he felt the need for more open space and a life outside the lab. He went to wine school in Beaune and cemented his experience at a variety of biodynamic domaines in Burgundy (Chandon de Briailles), Champagne (Vouette et Sorbee), the Rhone (Gonon) and the Loire Valley (Mark Angely, Melaric, Maisons Rouges). In 2017 he struck out on his own, taking over 5 hectares of vines around the hill of Puy Notre Dame, just southwest of Saumur in the Loire Valley. His vineyards sit on the local limestone 'tuffeau' subsoil. The vines had been farmed organically for 20 years and Jonathan started working biodynamically in 2017. Most of his plantings are Cabernet Franc and he has a little Chardonnay, Carbernet Sauvignon and Pineau d'Aunis. He harvests by hand, ferments with natural yeasts and doesn't fine or filter. His goal is to make genuine wines that are as natural as possible with little intervention as possible.

60% Chardonnay / 40% Cab Franc blanc de noir

TERROIR: Puy Notre Dame hill, clay-limestone soil on tuffeau. Cabernet Franc plants of 20 and 40 years old, Chardonnay of 40 years.

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farming/cellar bioynamic, hand picked, zero zero wine, Cabernet Franc not de-stemmed only the first part of the press is used to make Blanc de Noir, spontaneous fermentation, maturation on lees for 10 months, of which 15% in used wooden barrels of 400 litres.

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