2021 Anjou, Cuvée Violette, Clau de Nell, Loire

Domaine Clau de Nell

The late Anne-Claude Leflaive, a world-renowned Burgundian Chardonnay producer, bought Domaine Clau de Nell in 2008 with her husband, Christian Jacques. Already identified as an up-and-coming Estate, having superb terroir and vines over 60 years old on average with some over 100 years, Anne Claude and her team heightened the Domaine to a new dimension.

The 8 hectares of Cabernet Franc, Grolleau, and Cabernet Sauvignon have been biodynamic since 2000. The team is making four different cuvees: Grolleau (an indigenous variety from the Loire), Cabernet Franc, Violette (both Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon), and finally a Chenin with a Burgundian flair.

Anjou-Blanc

Anjou Blanc is a type of wine produced in the Anjou wine region of the Loire Valley in France. The Anjou region is known for its broad spectrum of wines, including red, white, and rosé produced with varying sweetness levels.

Anjou Blanc is typically made from the Chenin Blanc grape, known locally as Pineau de la Loire. This grape is used for dry, sweet, still, and sparkling wines. The wine is sourced from vineyards that fall along the border of the two sub-regions of Anjou.

The region is geographically divided into two dominant profiles based on soil types. The first of these, “Anjou Blanc,” lies west of the appellation, where chalky limestone soils impart a lighter, more energetic expression of Chenin Blanc.

Cabernet Sauvignon blend

Cabernet Sauvignon lends itself particularly well in blends with Merlot. This is actually the archetypal Bordeaux blend, though in different proportions in the sub-regions and sometimes topped up with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.

In the Médoc and Graves the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend can range from 95% (Mouton-Rothschild) to as low as 40%. It is particularly suited to the dry, warm, free- draining, gravel-rich soils and is responsible for the redolent cassis characteristics as well as the depth of colour, tannic structure and pronounced acidity of Médoc wines. However 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines can be slightly hollow-tasting in the middle palate and Merlot with its generous, fleshy fruit flavours acts as a perfect foil by filling in this cavity.

In St-Emilion and Pomerol, the blends are Merlot dominated as Cabernet Sauvignon can struggle to ripen there - when it is included, it adds structure and body to the wine. Sassicaia is the most famous Bordeaux blend in Italy and has spawned many imitations, whereby the blend is now firmly established in the New World and particularly in California and  Australia.