Le P'tit Domaine Saumur Champigny 'Le Coup d'Douze' 2022

The talented and quality-driven Richard Desouche is the winemaker and vineyard manager and for the famed Clos Rougeard in Saumur-Champigny, and also has an excellent reputation for his own great Saumur wines under this label, Le P'tit Domaine. From just 4.5 hectares of organically farmed vineyards, Desouche crafts tiny quantities of a few different cuvées, vinified very gently; what he calls “infusion.” Desouche searches for the essence of fruit from his very old vines (some 100 years old), not high concentration. And he is known for adding very low, if any, sulfites.

Richard Desouche arrived in Saumur in 1990, animated by a passion for wine. In 2006, he bought the first hectare of vines for his P'tit Domaine. On his plots, the vines are planted 1.7 to 1.8 metres apart, with a small hectare at 2 metres. Richard believes that the ideal spacing is 1.85 metres. The vines are pruned using the Guyot simple or Val de Loire method - supposed to be less traumatic for the vines: it improves the sap flow and therefore limits the occurrence of wood diseases. He has been certified organic in his vineyards since 2013.

Produced since 2012, this Le Coup d'Douze cuvée is a blend of the estate’s various parcels, located in three villages: Dampierre, Champigny, Varrains. The grapes are fully destemmed. Fermented and aged in concrete and Vaslin fiberglass – a fiber, sand, fiber “sandwich” that Richard finds behaves like concrete – tanks. Remontage is performed about 3 times a month, for 3-5 minutes at a time – Richard favors “infusion” rather than extraction. Micro-oxygenation is another tool to keep the natural yeast going. A smooth but textured red, with great balance and a lovely straightforwardness thanks to very pure, perfectly ripe fruit.