ARCANE 2020 - CHATEAU DE FOSSE-SECHE

CHATEAU FOSSE SECHE

It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the history of an almost millennial estate... The first writings talking about "Fossa Sicca" date exactly from 1238, but the Benedictines would have planted the first vines long before. Today we even find the oldest vats in France dating from the Middle Ages. A certain Paul Taveau even invented Cabernet d'Anjou there in 1905! The history of Château de Fosse-Sèche continues to be written today and more than ever. In the middle of a 45 hectare ground, the vines cover only a third of the total surface: "a third for the man and two thirds for the nature". Six hectares in white with Chenin and a beautiful plot of Chardonnay, eight hectares of Cabernet Franc and one of Cabernet Sauvignon. At the end of the Brossay plateau, not the slightest trace of tuffeau (the local limestone), but rather of the gravel of flint and iron oxide in a pretty hilly hillside. Harvests at full maturity, no inputs during the vinification, indigenous yeasts and very long ageing in ovoid clay concrete amphorae are required. Located in Brossay in Anjou, Fosse-Sèche today represents the quintessence of the Saumur appellation. It's hard to make a more natural wine than in Fosse-Sèche. Guillaume has only one word in the mouth: biodiversity... Before wine, Fosse Sèche is a place where flora and fauna flourish, which directly impacts the vines and therefore the wines.