2016 Château de Fosse-Seche Saumur Arcane - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur (1/2/2020)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over a couple hours –
NOSE: rich fruit; hint of fennel bulb.
BODY: rich, maize color; medium bodied.
TASTE: a bit watery/tight — I was expecting a lot more, based on the Nose — maybe this just needs air?; medium acidity; didn’t unfurl over the course of a couple hours; lacks tension/energy. Solid-but-uninspiring, although perhaps this just needs time. Gut impression score: mid 80s.
Had a bottle of this the other night and it was singing after an hour decant. Honeyed fruit backed by acid; great minerality. The Fosse-Seche wines often need time.
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Thank you for your comment, Chris. I’ll give them another shot sometime and see if a decant doesn’t unlock some magic.
I’ve had three vintages of this - very different every single time. Once lovely, once OK and once meh:
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2011 Château de Fosse-Seche Saumur Arcane - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur (16.9.2014)
Quite deep golden color. A little restrained nose with aromas of honey, sweet citrus fruits and ripe yellow apple with slightly smoky nuances. Crisp and off-dry on the palate with flavors of bitter herbs, stony minerality, green apple and lemon. Medium-bodied and crisp, even a bit austere, but very lively. Herbal and mineral mid-length finish that is light and a lot drier than the midpalate, with flavors of apple peel, lemon pith and slight bitterness in the aftertaste.
Nice Chenin with lovely minerality and charming freshness. A little straightforward and simple stylistically and a bit too austere on its own; worked best with light-flavored, fatty entrées. Refreshing stuff, but nothing spectacular. (86 pts.)
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2012 Château de Fosse-Seche Saumur Arcane - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur (14.9.2015)
A biodynamic Chenin Blanc that has been fermented spontaneously and very slowly over 13 months. After the wine is fermented dry, it is transferred to old oak barrels in which it is kept for another 12 months before bottled unfiltered and unfined.
Very intense golden yellow color. The nose feels very rich and expressive with intense and rather developed aromas of honey, pronounced pineapple character, some smoke, a little bit of mushroomy character and a hint of beeswax. The wine is medium-bodied, incisive and very mineral with dry-ish to off-dry flavors of steely minerality, lemony citrus fruits, ripe red apples, some honeyed tones and a hint of apple peel bitterness. Racy acidity. The finish is bone-dry and rather lean with pronounced stony minerality, quinine bitterness, tart citrus fruits like pink grapefruit and key lime, some apple peel bitterness and a hint of honeyed richness.
A lean, racy and mineral Chenin Blanc with surprisingly developed, layered complexity. The wine feels like a conundrum: it is both surprisingly developed and very youthful at the same time. Overall this vintage feels less straightforward and more substantial than the previous vintage, although still showing that same kind of unwelcoming leanness and austerity. A unique and interesting Chenin that might need some years before that tightly-wound texture starts to resolve. Nice! (90 pts.)
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2015 Château de Fosse-Seche Saumur Arcane - France, Loire Valley, Anjou-Saumur, Saumur (18.4.2018)
Pale yellow color. Quite savory nose that is a bit all over the place, showing vague aromas of dried autumnal leaves, some chopped nuts, a little bit of beeswax and a touch of hay. Very little in the way of fruits here. The wine is dry, pretty neutral and light-to-medium-bodied on the palate with rather austere flavors of tart green apples, some almondy nuttiness, a little bit of grapefruit, a hint of apple peel bitterness and a touch of quinine. Overall the wine feels somewhat smutty and uninteresting. The finish is quite crisp and bitter with unfocused flavors of apple peel bitterness, some citrus fruits and a hint of hay.
Meh. Somewhat smutty, uninteresting and perhaps even a bit unclean Chenin. In a tasting of mainly Chenin Blancs, this was by far the least impressive effort. If memory serves, I didn’t hear one single positive word on the wine. This is a mediocre Chenin Blanc at best. Feels quite a rip-off at 21€. (74 pts.)
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Surprising to see 2015 as the clunker of the bunch.
You’re not the only one. I wonder if 2015 was just a poor vintage for them? Anyhow, thanks to their varying quality, I’m not particularly keen on seeking the wines out. I’m always happy to test them whenever I get the chance, just to see how they perform, but they’re not something I’d buy for myself anymore.
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