Domaine 7
Plume
In French, the word Plume means 'Feather' and this wine has a feather-light quality to it that communicates the terroir wonderfully. A lot of the cab franc in this area of France is from heavier clay soils but this is top of the hill schist. Most growers would have ripped these up and planted Chenin but Abel loves this site and saw the potential of Cab Franc here. The vines were planted in the 60's and produce small quantities of super concentrated fruit. Abel sells half of the grapes from this vineyard to Domaine Helicon, who may be familiar to those who like to chase unicorn's in the Loire. So if you are drinking Helicon's red, you partly have Abel to thank for that.
We have two vintages at the moment:
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2020 - This was a very special vintage of Plume as Abel was able to leave the grapes to hang until October. Excellent ripeness but has the freshness from the cool site. Abel describes it as a kind of 'cool pre-fermentation'.
2021 - This vintage was cooler and there's more classic Cab Franc minerality and crushed rock aromas. As the name suggests, it is as light as a feather.
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