Saumur rouge AOC 2022 1500ml Magnum

Cabernet Franc in a cool, clear style: cassis and violet up front, fine-grained tannin, with oak serving only as a frame. The 1500 ml magnum slows the ageing process and keeps the wine youthful for longer.

Domaine Guiberteau works on pure limestone. Its heart is the hill of Brézé near Saumur — not a village surrounded by vines, but a single limestone ridge that rises noticeably above the surrounding countryside. Beneath the thin topsoil lies tuffeau, the porous, chalky limestone of the Turonian age: it stores water like a sponge and releases it slowly to the vines during dry summers. Over half of the estate's roughly nineteen hectares lie on this hill, with vines ranging from four to eighty years old.

Cabernet Franc accounts for half of the estate. Romain Guiberteau, who renegotiated the family vines — leased out for two decades — plot by plot, and who trained under Nady Foucault of Clos Rougeard, keeps a light hand in the cellar: full destemming, spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, ageing in foudres and used barriques. The vineyard has been farmed organically since 2000. Interventions stay minimal, so the limestone speaks rather than the barrel.

Dry at 13.0% vol., taut and clear, dark berries over fine-grained tannin, with a chalky freshness that keeps the finish cool.

Brézé was famous in the 19th century before falling into near-total obscurity; Domaine Guiberteau is among the estates that brought it back. Robert Guiberteau bought the first plots on the hill in 1954. In 2024, Romain Guiberteau founded the négociant project Chai de la Dive together with his daughter Camille.