Clos d’Entre des Murs: a remarkable walled vineyard in the Loire, full of walls inside!
In Saumur there is a very distinctive vineyard, called Clos d’Entre des Murs. I’ve come across walled vineyards before, but never a walled vineyard with walls within it. It’s quite a curiosity.
Back in 1894 Antoine Cristal, who’d made his money in textiles, constructed this clos, which is 0.56 hectares in size. It is surrounded by 2.5 m perimeter walls, and then inside there are 11 walls that are 2 m high running east to west dividing the vineyard into three-row bays. The vine row next to each wall is very curious: the vines are planted on the north face and are then trained through holes 50 cm high, so that the canopy grows on the south face of the walls.
The idea behind this was that the roots were on the cool damp side while the vines basked in the warmth of the south side. Of course, these vines will ripen before the other two rows in the bay. Typically the vines within the clos ripen three weeks earlier than those outside. And these on-the-wall vines ripen earliest.
Cristal has history with alternative vineyard designs, and this is just one of his two special walled vineyards. Clos Cristal, also in Saumur, was built in 1890 and made a red wine that was the favourite of Clemenceau and Monet. This didn’t have the same density of walls, but it did have some of the same walls with holes to plant the roots on the north side and have the vine growing up on the south side. It’s a bigger vineyard at 10 hectares, but there are fewer walls. It’s now owned by the Hospices de Saumur.
Initially, the Clos des Murs, which is 100% Chenin Blanc, was used to make sweet wines. But of late, production has been focused on a dry expression of Chenin aged in barrel.
We got to taste the latest vintage:
Château de Parnay Clos d’Entre Les Murs 2019 Saumur, France
This is from organically farmed vines, with four separate pickings, and wild ferment in small oak. Toasty and rich with nice depth to the pear and peach fruit. Bold, rich and slightly salty, this tastes quite sophisticated and classy with some oak use. A distinctive wine with some depth to it, and potential for long ageing. 93/100
