Brendan Stater West Saumur Rouge 2023
Grapes: Cab Franc
Region: Saumur, Loire, France
Viticulture: Organic
Soils: Clay + Sand + Loam + Limestone
Yeasts: Native
Vinification: De-stemmed, no pump overs
Aging: Aged on the lees in stainless steel tanks for 6 months
Fining or Filtering: None
Notes from the Importer: A little over a decade ago, young ex-pat Brendan Stater-West, then working as a waiter in Paris, had an "aha!" moment drinking a bottle of cult-producer Romain Guiberteau's top white, Brézè. Soon after, he talked his way into a job at that venerable Saumur address, where he still works as Guiberteau's assistant winemaker.
Stater-West has been making his own wines in recent years, though, and they're seriously good in their own right. Stylistically, they're somewhat less oaky and tannic that those he makes at Guiberteau, and a bit more delicate and saline.
This budding domaine has access to some truly exceptional terroirs. Astute Loire lovers will recognize the names Ripaille and Brézè – two of Saumur's very best sites for Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc, respectively
Brendan’s personal story and background in wine (in his own words)…
“I arrived in France 10 years ago, originally to be an English teacher in Paris. In my second year of teaching, I became hooked on wine, thanks to a coworker of mine. Fortunately, it was someone who had a good palate and took me to several professional wine tastings. This sparked the flame for my love of wine that has not yet died out! I then decided to stop teaching in order to learn wine and enter the profession. I went to a school in Paris to learn the trade, more on the retail side of things. I worked in a small and beautiful store, Spring, in the 1st arrondissement for an American chef, Daniel Rose, who has an amazing gastronomic restaurant.
During this period, we were selling the wines from Domaine Guiberteau. I remember tasting the wines for the first time and immediately being hit by a divine revelation of limestone terroir, through Chenin! I was hooked... thanks to Brézé 2008! I already knew that retail wasn't for me in the long-haul, so after tasting this wine, I felt like it was time to make the move out of the city and get back into a more rural context where I could learn to grow grapes and vinify. I therefore harassed Romain Guiberteau and other winemakers in the area for a month, when finally, Romain gave in and accepted to take me under his wing as an apprentice. I enrolled in a BTS Viti-Oeno program and worked full-time at the domaine. My only time working outside the domaine was for a short 3 months where I went to the Clos Cristal, the hospices de Saumur, to learn how to work exclusively in the vineyard with horses. This is a future project of mine by the way...
In 2015, I insisted that I wanted to find some vineyards to start making my own wine. Romain proposed one hectare of a vineyard called Les Chapaudaises to me, and I knew it was a terroir that could make the style of Chenin that I am crazy for: elegant, pure, vertical, with salinity from the limestone. What a wonderful vintage to begin with as well! Beautiful ripeness and satisfactory yields after a very easy growing season.”