Domaine Leduc-Frouin Anjou 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 themselves individually each vintage. La Seigneurie rouge is sourced from the parcels of Les Prés Yaux in the village of L'Enclos at La Fosse de Tigné, on clay-siliceous soils over clay subsoil — terroir that imparts both structure and a lovely freshness to the 100% Cabernet Franc fruit, hand harvested in September. 

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