From: Loire Valley, France
Varietal: Cabernet Franc
Taste: If you’ve had this sparkling rosé in the past, it has gone through some changes! Previously a blend of both Cabernets, the latest release of this gorgeous sparkler’s fruit is 100% Cabernet Franc. It comes from Lambert’s chalkiest soils in the lower part of Clos du Midi and vinified using the méthode champenoise. (Aged 24 months sur-lie.)
This fresh and vibrant crémant rosé is loaded with flavors of red currants, strawberry skin, citrus rind, and crushed rocks. In previous vintages, this rosé showed just as beautifully but more savory (with pronounced peppery notes) in nature; you’d want food to accompany the wine. In contrast, all the red currant and strawberry skin notes over crushed rock minerality give more of a lifted, ethereal vibe without losing any of the food-friendliness beloved in Loire Valley sparkling wines. Lambert has somehow managed to make this wine more accessible without losing its crunchy, rocky soul, and we couldn’t be more thankful for his efforts!
Pairing: If you ever look up sparkling wine rosé pairings online, you’ll find so, so many mentions of dessert as pairing options. With this wine, at least, don’t do it. We recommend going the savory and fresh route as an alternative. Seafood and fresh produce, in particular. More specifically, some great pairing ideas include salmon rillettes, roasted salmon or tuna with ginger, scallions, and soy, poisson en papillotte, scallops served with garlic and lemon or with brown butter, fish and chips, crab/scallop/fish cake (check it out below) and even the most humble (yet absolutely delicious, check out the recipe below) tuna mayo rice bowl.
Fish Cakes With Herbs and Chiles
By Melissa Clark
Tuna Mayo Rice Bowl
By Eric Kim
“These are precise, crystal sharp wines in their youth, with enough snap to shock the tongue, but still possess the weight and resonance to expand and slightly soften with age While differences in each vineyard lead to wines of distinctive character, Lambert’s style arcs toward grace. His wines are stripped down and elemental, ripped with acidity and verve. They plug into the electricity of Brézé’s limestone soils.”
- Rajat Parr, The Sommeliers Atlas of Taste
About. Arnaud Lambert doesn’t have a long history of winemaking in his family. His father came to wine in his late 40s, creating Domaine de Saint Juste in 1996 after moving from Normandy to purchase some land on the hills of Brézé and Saint-Cyr in Saumur in the Loire Valley. Though these hills are slowly becoming well known today, Brézé has been famed for its wines for over 500 years. In the past the wines of Brézé were regularly exchanged, barrel for barrel, with Chateau d’Yquem, the nectar like sweet wine from Bordeaux that sells for thousands of dollars a bottle. They were a favourite at Versailles under the Sun King, Louis XIV. Today, out of 400 hectares, only 4 producers are bottling wines as Brézé, accounting for about 10% of the vineyard area – the rest is farmed conventionally with high yields and is sold to co-ops, destined for supermarket shelves.
By the early 2000s Arnaud’s father had acquired the vineyards of Chateau du Brézé, and in 2005 Arnaud came aboard to make the wines at both domaines after studying and working abroad, including 2 years at a cooperage in Bordeaux. In 2009 they converted to organic farming. In 2011, Arnaud’s father suddenly passed away, leaving him at the helm of both domaines that were slowly gaining recognition worldwide. In 2017 Arnaud combined all his vineyard holdings together to create Domaine Arnaud Lambert and in 2018 converted the estate to biodynamics.
Brézé, with its castle a world UNESCO heritage site, and Saint-Cyr are both unique in the world of wine due to relatively high elevation and diverse geological profiles. The significant presence of tuffeau, (the Loire’s famous chalky limestone used in the construction of Loire Renaissance architecture) results in finely mineral Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc with ample acidity. Clay and sand are also found, giving body to the reds and richness to the whites. Arnaud’s driving ambition is to truly understand and reveal the distinctions within his extraordinary area. Arnaud farms only 2 grapes: Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc.
Arnaud has 40 hectares in total and makes stunning single vineyard wines from numerous different parcels. Though his holdings are large, he has many small sites, almost all of them clos, and each site is treated differently in both farming and vinification. Arnaud is helping to drive a revolutionary movement in Saumur and Saumur-Champigny. His goal is to rediscover each individual terroir and to realize its potential through natural viticulture and natural winemaking.
Harvests are by hand, pressing and extractions are very gentle and wines spend their whole lives on their fine lees. Fermentations are with natural yeast. During the aging process many different vessels are used and Arnaud approaches Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc how a Burgundian winemaker would with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Arnaud’s Burgundian inspiration is clear in the style of the wines too, which tend towards delicate fruit, elegance and acidity rather than richness and power. There is no sulfites used during vinification, only a small dose at bottling, usually 15-35ppm.
The two hills of Brézé and Saint-Cyr gave inspiration for the label, with its soft hill shape.
