2023 Les Poyeux Saumur-Champigny, Domaine des Sables Verts

• Style: Loire Cabernet Franc, silky & structured
• Taste: Blackcurrant, blueberry, charred pepper, bright acidity
• Food: Roast dinners, stews, cured meats, game, beef
• Occasion: Sunday lunch, date night
• Serve: 13% ABV, serve cool; now through 2027

In the Glass — Tasting Notes

Blackcurrant and blueberry open the show, trailed by charred pepper and eucalyptus. The palate reveals the fingerprint of terroir: silica-limestone and green sand create a velvety texture that never feels heavy, while sweet spice threads through bright acidity to keep the wine alive on the finish. This is a wine built for now—silky through the middle, with enough structure to stand up to a proper meal without austere edges.

The Winery — Domaine des Sables Verts

Caroline Meurée and Hervé Malinge, trained winemakers from Bordeaux, purchased Domaine des Sables Verts in 2019 and immediately began interpreting their new terroir. Their 16-hectare organically farmed estate spreads across five communes in Saumur-Champigny, planted on the distinctive soils that gave the domaine its name: tuffeau limestone and 'sables verts'—a green sand found nowhere else. Les Poyeux, their 1.8-hectare single-vineyard parcel in Chacé, represents their confident inaugural statement. The 2023 vintage benefited from winter rains that replenished soils, spring frosts that stayed away, and a long dry summer completed by September showers. Hand-picked fruit fermented with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel, sulphites kept minimal, then matured 16 months in barrel before light filtration. The result: naturally made wine that tastes neither precious nor over-handled.

At Your Table — Food Pairing & Serving

This is an excellent introduction to Cabernet Franc as a soloist—that floral, lifting quality speaks clearly here. Pair with roasted duck, braised beef, rillettes, or aged goat cheese. At 13% alcohol, it sits comfortably alongside the rest of our Medium Bodied Red Wine selection, making it perfect for Sunday lunch or an intimate dinner. Whether you're discovering Saumur-Champigny for the first time or already know the territory, this wine rewards the care taken in its making. It represents exactly the emerging talent we seek from France.