Hureau (Vatan) Saumur-Champigny Tuffe 2018

93+ points John Gilman (View From the Cellar): "The 2018 vintage of Tuffe from Philippe and Agathe Vatan is a fine, fine bottle of Saumur-Champigny. The wine comes in nicely ripe at 13.5 percent octane and offers up a deep and complex bouquet of cassis, cigar ash, a touch of meatiness, a lovely base of chalky soil tones, tobacco leaf and a lovely topnote of juniper berry. On the palate the wine is bright, fullbodied, focused and complex, with a lovely core of fruit, fine soil signature, ripe, buried tannins and excellent balance and grip on the long, very classy finish. This is so well balanced out of the blocks that it is certainly approachable in its youth, but will be even better if given five or six years in the cellar to fully blossom. Fine juice. 2021-2050.. (May/Jun 2021)"

The historic property of Château du Hureau is among the top producers of Saumur-Champigny. The château has been in the family for generations, and today, is run by fifth generation vigneron Philippe Vatan and his daughter Agathe. The Cabernet Francs of Château du Hureau are dark, intense and sappy, with plenty of lovely fruit balanced by acidity and minerality from the underlying tuffe soils. This underlying tuffeau (a soft chalk from the Cretaceous Period) is the common thread that gives the Saumur-Champigny its distinctive quality. Hureau's "Tuffe" is a delicious entry-level red, blended from 14 tuffeau-dominant parcels. Since the implementation of organic viticulture, Philippe has found the wines to be more pure, transparent and texturally complex.