Here we have the Saget La Perrière Family from the Loire Valley telling us about their history and the wines they will be pouring at the Vancouver International Wine Fest. Enjoy.
A Brief History of the Saget La Perrière Family
Nearly forty years ago, the Saget family set out on a mission to make Saget La Perrière a modern, family-run company specializing in wines from the Loire. Jean-Louis provided the original impetus and his sons Arnaud and Laurent Saget now embody these values, passionately portraying their vision of a company recognized for the quality of its wines and the people who run it every day. They have been rooted in Pouilly sur Loire since 1790, growing and making Pouilly-Fume for over 200 years.
Maison Saget La Perrière is first and foremost a family affair, the story of Jean-Louis and Marie-Claire Saget and their two sons Arnaud and Laurent. Born into a family of wine growers based in Pouilly-sur-Loire for generations, Jean-Louis Saget successfully grew the business from a small firm into Maison Saget La Perrière, one of the most respected companies in the Loire Valley. He also acquired 3 hotels, Le Panoramic and le Clos St Martin in Sancerre and l’Hotel de l’Abbaye in Brittany. He achieved this in just a few decades thanks to his modern vision of the wine world.
Maison Saget La Perrière is also a forward-looking family who in 1990 opened their first underwater cellar.
Saget La Perrière has 6 Estates, each which shows a different rendition of their wine, but today we will cover 4 estates: La Perriere, Le Domaine Saget, Château de la Mulonnière, and Domaine de Terres Blanches. Our most famous estate is Domaine de la Perriere in Sancerre, which gets 40,000 visitors a year.
At the Vancouver International Wine Festival
La Perriere
The Saget family has great respect for the history and identity of La Perrière and decided to turn it into a temple dedicated to the Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir grape varieties. In so doing, it aims to unravel and reveal the mysteries they hold within them, drawing its inspiration from different generations and developing in-depth knowledge of the Central Loire grape varieties. Their knowledge of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir has therefore naturally led them to explore every aspect of the varietals and fully reveal their potential. The Saget family thus set off in search of the finest Sauvignon Blancs and Pinot noirs, armed with both passion and rigour. Their painstaking selection coupled with wine growing expertise have produced wines showing impeccable balance, combining richness and elegance. La Perrière creation wines exemplify a straightforward approach to grape varieties, as evidenced by one of the house’s flagship labels, La Petite Perrière. The Classics, on the other hand, demonstrate the purity and minerality of terroir-driven Sauvignon blanc and Pinot noir from appellations whilst the Icons – namely the Mégalithe & Sacrilège labels – take the grape varieties into the realms of age-worthy fine wines.
Le Domaine Saget
The Saget family’s roots are in Pouilly-sur-Loire. Domaine Saget is the ultimate illustration of a deep-rooted desire by the Saget family to perpetuate traditions coming from nine generations dedicated to the vine’s finest offerings. The Saget family has been growing Sauvignon blanc in the heart of the village of Pouilly-sur-Loire for nine generations. Down the years, the family’s finest vineyards have been gathered together, favouring the purest expression of Pouilly-Fumé. Domaine Saget now covers 10 hectares and embraces prestigious localities such as Les Vaurigny and Les Roches. Its outstanding quality terroirs and meticulous craftsmanship enable Domaine Saget to create wines that reflect the typicity of the Pouilly-Fumé and Pouilly-sur-Loire appellations impeccably. The estate’s wines are grown mostly on clay-limestone soils from the Kimmeridgian stage and then matured for 6 to 8 months on the lees in stainless steel tanks to impart complexity and structure. The resultant wines are mineral, generous and fruity. Domaine Saget produces two Pouilly-Fumé labels from Sauvignon and one Pouilly-sur-Loire from the original Pouilly grape variety: Chasselas. The Domaine Saget is a clear-cut, airy wine with a mineral framework. “Les Roches” is elegant and refined and reveals substantial length on the palate, whilst the Pouilly-sur-Loire “Les Sablons” is rich yet tense and achieves perfect balance.
Château de la Mulonnière
Château de la Mulonnière is located 25 km from Angers in Beaulieu-sur-Layon, a village renowned for its Coteaux du Layon. Bordered by the Layon river on one side and vineyards on the other, this superb early 20th-century property is a perfect illustration of the ‘dolce vita’ lifestyle in Anjou. The Saget family fell in love with the estate and realized the outstanding potential of its soils. They bought Château de la Mulonnière in 2003. Vineyards and soils on the estate are farmed sustainably in order to protect the soils and reproduce their beautiful intrinsic harmony in the wines. Most of the grapes are harvested by hand so that strict multiple vineyard picks can select the finest fruit and single out clusters affected by noble rot, particularly for the Coteaux du Layon wines. Anjou is home to a rich mosaic of outstanding, schist-dominant terroirs where one of the top grape varieties thrives – Chenin blanc. All of Château de la Mulonnière’s white wines – Savennières, Coteaux du Layon, Anjou blanc and Quarts de Chaume – are made from the varietal. The Château also produces an Anjou Villages and two Crémant de Loire.
Domaine de Terres Blanches
Domaine de Terres Blanches, located in Bué-en-Sancerre, is a wine estate with a strong identity. Like a facet rough gemstone, it took expert craftsmanship from the Saget family, assisted in its quest for excellence by consultant Stéphane Derencourt, to draw the quintessential qualities from the estate’s magnificent vineyards whilst showing deference to the soils. While Stéphane Derencourt was convinced of the estate’s potential, the Saget family worked passionately and rigorously to draw the quintessence of the Estate beautiful terroirs succeeding to transcend mineral expression in the white wines and delicacy in the reds. Domaine de Terres Blanches produces three Central Loire appellations, all of which are pure mineral wines from Sauvignon: Pouilly-Fumé, Sancerre and Coteaux du Giennois. Showing a true sense of terroir, the wines are balanced, fresh and span a wide-ranging array of aromatics that mirror the strength, character and secrets of the soils that produced them. Crafted to an extremely high standard, Domaine de Terres Blanches wines offer the ultimate rendition of Sauvignon blanc. The Coteaux de Giennois ‘Alchimie’ labels are the perfect introduction to discover the spirit that drives Domaine de Terres Blanches, whilst the classic Sancerre appellation wines are blended from a variety of estate vineyards and display intense mineral notes. The single-vineyard selections reveal all the depth and complexity of the great Sancerre terroirs.
The Wines We Will Feature at the International Festival Tasting Room
