Saumur-Champigny Hureau Lisagathe

I always link wine to fine memories.
Take now the Château du Hureau cuvée Lisagathe. After spending a marvellous time in the US, I was really looking forward to a great wine. Wine in the US is ridicilously expensive. Bought a Beaujolais in a New York City for about 18 dollar. Since our budget was not unlimited, we decided to postpone enjoying good wine (except at one occasion when we bought a Santa Barbara Qupé Chardonnay which we had to drink - alas - in plastic cups in our hotel room).

So when we got back I gladly opened this great Saumur-Champigny. I got to know ths wine way back in 1996, through a rare Belgian importer who is also master of wine.
When we were in the Loire region in 2008 visiting M. Vatan in Dampierre was high on my wish list, and I was really lucky to have been able to buy one of the last boxes of the 2005 vintage. We received a warm reception by Philippe Vatan and his mother, une grande dame, and I could not help but sense some profound sadness underneath the gentle surface. or is this just because I read in a magazine that Philppes brother Georges had died in 1987 in an accident? Anyway, the classy label continues to mention Philippe et Georges Vatan.

As to the wine, this cuvée from a superb vintage has it all - power, fruit, depth, finesse and pronounced but very fine tannins. This is a wine to enjoy now, but it will continue to shine in the years to come. The grapes come from two lots, one planted in 1991, the other in 1953.