{"id":14468,"date":"2026-01-25T15:06:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T14:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.loire-gourmande.fr\/produit\/the-epistolary-clos-crystal\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:53:26","slug":"the-epistolary-clos-crystal","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.loire-gourmande.fr\/en\/product\/the-epistolary-clos-crystal\/","title":{"rendered":"THE EPISTOLARY CLOS CRYSTAL"},"content":{"rendered":"
Grape variety<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Cabernet franc<\/div>\n
Soil<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
The terroir of Clos Cristal is composed of a tufa chalk bedrock whose origin comes from the Cretaceous era. In terms of soils, we gradually move from one terroir to another, sandy and clay-limestone soils, which allow us to have a great complexity in terms of structure, balance and aromas in the wine. This complexity is reinforced by the vines that grow along the walls and pass through the walls, offering grapes with very particular characteristics and great maturity. Finally, all these terroirs are surrounded by walls and protected from the north winds by a wood, which offers us a very specific microclimate that can only be found at Clos Cristal. <\/div>\n
Winemaking<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

Plot selection of low-yielding vines in organic farming. Tasting of the berries daily to choose the harvest date. The harvest is manual and carried out by teams of pickers who carry out an initial sorting on the plot. The grapes are picked in whole bunches and transported to the cellar in crates to prevent the bunches from settling and preserve the quality. In the cellar, the grapes are carefully placed on a sorting table before being vatted by gravity. The vinification is carried out without the addition of sulphur and a delicate extraction is carried out with a few pumping over at the beginning of the maceration and then by infusion. <\/p>\n

After alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, the grapes are devatted and pressed using a small vertical press. Part of it is put into barrels and another part continues to age in vats. The wine is aged for a year and then bottled without being fined or filtered. The bottles are kept for 2 years in underground freestone galleries away from light and at 12\u00b0C throughout the year. In these galleries, the humidity is constant, which offers ideal conditions for the maturation of this wine. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
To the eye<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
A pretty pronounced garnet colour with discreet copper reflections<\/div>\n
Nose<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
The first nose is intense, rich and greedy. Raspberry and strawberry aromas blend with vanilla and peppery notes. The 2nd nose is more refined and presents a nice bouquet of freshly picked violets accompanied by the spicy freshness of the cloves <\/div>\n
To the palate<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n

The attack is round, silky. This wine has a fresh structure that reminds us of the garrigue with notes of boxwood, thyme, rosemary and sage. The fruit is concentrated, intense and greedy and is reminiscent of a red fruit marmalade slightly spiced with a smoked paprika specific to Cabernet Franc. The finish is long with cocoa notes and finishes in greediness with aromas of small fruits. <\/p>\n

Food and wine pairing:<\/strong> The 2020 Les Epistolaires cuv\u00e9e is the perfect accompaniment to the arrival of autumn. This wine for laying down, which can be enjoyed now, after decanting, can be enjoyed with guinea fowl skewers with curry, bluefin tuna tartlets with chard<\/a>, duck breast with fresh figs<\/a>, rack of lamb in a pistachio crust<\/a>, beef fillet in a crust with black trumpets<\/a>, pork tenderloin with spices<\/a>…<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Clos Cristal, named after its inventor, Antoine Cristal, produces a confidential and rare Saumur-Champigny: numbered bottles are only available on allocation. While now a second, more accessible wine is from it, it is an opportunity that is shared. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It is the correspondence, begun a century ago between Antoine Cristal and Georges Cl\u00e9menceau, the Tiger, that inspires the name of the cuv\u00e9e, the Epistolaires, a tribute to the lively verve of their exchanges. We gain access to their colourful heritage through their writings: “It has been decided, on July 12 at 10 a.m., I will come to your house with a hunger to devour everything <\/em>” warns Cl\u00e9menceau. A wine-growing heritage that is still alive and maintained thanks to the Robert et Marcel cellar, whose care of the vineyard has been entrusted to the Hospices de Saumur<\/a> , owners since 1928. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14153,"template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[334,540,343],"product_tag":[796,795,793,794],"class_list":{"0":"post-14468","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-anjou-en","7":"product_cat-loire-valley","8":"product_cat-red-wines","9":"product_tag-a-filet-mignon","10":"product_tag-beef-tenderloin-in-a-crust","11":"product_tag-duck-breast-with-fresh-figs","12":"product_tag-rack-of-lamb-in-a-crust","14":"first","15":"instock","16":"taxable","17":"shipping-taxable","18":"purchasable","19":"product-type-simple"},"yoast_head":"\nTHE EPISTOLARY CLOS CRYSTAL - Loire Gourmande - a tasty stage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.loire-gourmande.fr\/en\/product\/the-epistolary-clos-crystal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE EPISTOLARY CLOS CRYSTAL - Loire Gourmande - a tasty stage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Clos Cristal, named after its inventor, Antoine Cristal, produces a confidential and rare Saumur-Champigny: numbered bottles are only available on allocation. 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