Earliest harvest dates ever in Anjou-Saumur

rowers have never seen anything like it. “I have occasionally started harvesting around August 25 or 26, but never this early, and we could have started a couple of days earlier”, says Laurent Ménestreau. At nearly 61, he has plenty of experience, with countless vintages under his belt at Domaine de l’Epinay, which he runs with his wife Cécile and sons Quentin and Victor. With ripening advancing faster than usual, they had prepared everything and expected to start picking around August 25. “We decided to err on the side of caution and return from holidays on August 10 to put the finishing touches to our preparations”, adds Ménestreau whose winery is located in the AOC Saumur area. Saumur traditionally starts harvesting before neighbouring Anjou but this year, it wasn’t just their location that prompted them to start harvesting on Monday August 18 – their varietal range and wine styles also factored into the equation. This left them with just over a week to put together a team of pickers, ten or so to start with. “We didn’t have too much trouble recruiting because all our arrangements were made at the end of June and beginning of July”, explains the former chairman of the Anjou wine federation.

From a volume perspective, the 2025 vintage is unlikely to break any records. “For the Chardonnay, yields are in the range of 45 hl/ha, rising to approximately 65 for the Pinot noir”, says Ménestreau.

As it happens, that’s good news – Anjou-Saumur is experiencing excess inventories of rosés. For both Cabernet d’Anjou and Rosé d’Anjou, producers have cautiously placed a cap on annual yields, reining them in at 50 and 60 hectolitres/hectare respectively, which is below volumes authorised in production specifications. A similar tack has been taken with sparkling wines, despite their successful sales track record, particularly Crémant de Loire. In this specific appellation, the permitted yield has been set at 68 hl/ha instead of the specifications’ 74. For quality Saumur sparkling wines, the volume has been dropped from 67 to 60 hl/ha.

In terms of quality, the vines are extremely healthy and weather permitting, the vintage will produce extremely high quality wines.