2018 Saumur-Champigny, Domaine des Sanzay

Just because you can drink the Cabernet Franc red wines of the Loire lightly chilled, it doesn’t mean they should be confined to summer (not that I’m giving up on summer yet, as I said last week).

With a floral perfume, succulent raspberryish fruit and Cabernet Franc’s hallmark graphite undertow, Domaine des Sanzay’s Saumur-Champigny is supple and rounded enough to drink on its own but also goes well with foods as varied as lamb, salmon and goat’s cheeses, not least Cabécou, a delicious but hard to match goat’s cheese from southwest France. You don’t have to chill this wine but make sure it’s cool. And drink it young – by next summer, the next vintage will be bottled.

It’s one of several Saumurs, red, white, rosé, sparkling and pet nat, from a 28-hectare family-owned estate now being run by the fifth and sixth generations, and this wine is unoaked, fermented with indigenous yeasts and comes from vines with an average age of 40 years.