Domaine Leduc-Frouin Anjou-Villages La Seigneurie 2020

Domaine Leduc-Frouin has been cultivating the La Seigneurie estate since 1873 — one of the longer unbroken family tenures in the Loire — and is today managed by fourth-generation siblings Antoine, who trained in oenology at Avize, Dijon and Bordeaux, and Nathalie, who returned to the family estate after a decade in finance. The 30-hectare domaine is farmed under the Terra Vitis sustainable agriculture framework, with manual harvesting and parcel-by-parcel vinification that allows the diversity of terroirs — falun, schist and clay — to express their individual character each vintage. Anjou Villages is the appellation that demands the most of the Loire's Cabernet Franc, requiring lower yields and greater ripeness than basic Anjou rouge, and La Seigneurie is drawn from the parcels of Les Prés Yaux in the village of L'Enclos at La Fosse de Tigné — clay-siliceous soils over clay subsoil that deliver both structure and the freshness that defines great Loire red wine.

All fruit, this very pretty wine born on the Angevin schists delights without detour — melted tannins, a fleshy, expressive and jovial palate built on red berries, forming an ensemble already ready to drink yet marked by the very real character of its appellation. Magnificent notes of over-ripe red fruit on the nose; the palate generous and suave, with a fresh and generous finish. Dark red in colour, with notes of black fruits and spiced aromas alongside a well-rounded and powerful palate — this is Cabernet Franc in its most expressive Anjou Villages register, with the Loire's signature freshness keeping everything lively, persistent and entirely convincing.