Restigné, Loire Valley (Bourgueil). Cabernet Franc country.
My first experience with a Catherine & Pierre Breton wine was when B. brought a bottle of Perrières 1997 or 1998 for dinner. She had bought the bottle maybe in 1999 or 2000 and we drank it after
several years in the cellar, maybe in 2002. Lots of maybe, I did not take notes then,
but what is sure is that this was a wine moment of pleasure to the last drop. Intense, complex, velvety, this wine left an enduring milestone in my/our wine experiences.
We became familiar with the Bretons, chatting with them while tasting their wines at various fairs and gatherings. But a personal visit at the winery allows a better understanding of the work behind the wines, and we could find a schedule with Pierre in may. We drop at the winery on a sunny spring day. Restigné is a village next to Bourgueil, on the north bank of the Loire, between Tours and Saumur. On the landscape side, there are some gentle slopes going down to the Loire. The villages of the region, although sleepy, are so beautiful. The architecture of its 18th and 19th century houses expresses the quintessence of harmony and intelligence and remind us that the region_not Paris_ was in the past the heart and head of France. As we park in the courtyard, Pierre Breton walks to us from the vineyard (les Galichets) nearby [see picture on left, at work in Les Galichets]. He has not as much time as he expected : a new worker is debudding the vines today and he has to check his work. So, he offers to go straight to the chai to taste the wines in their elevage. The chai is contiguous to the house, a farm which they bought a few years ago and renovated extensively. This farm sits in the middle of the 4 hectare Galichets vineyard.
We are sad not to see Catherine, but she unexpectedly has to drive to Paris today. The chai is rather small and its fixtures were probably the same 40 years ago. In the room : 5 tronconic wooden vats and 5 stainless steel vats. This is where the grapes (Cabernet Franc) arrive for vinification on harvest day. The grapes are then destemmed. The grapes from the vineyards on gravel soil ( les Galichets) go into stainless vats and the grapes from clay-limestone plots go into wooden vats. There will be a lot of pumping-over so that the indigenous yeasts can develop, the aeration allowing not to loose time for the sugar/alcohol transformation. Cap punching may be done on some millesimes. It has not been done in the last 2-3 years. Can be useful on "small" millesimes, depending on the grapes' ripeness. But sometimes, even when the grapes did not reach correct ripeness, it is better not to punch the cap. The winemaker (Pierre) decides along his tastings of the juice.
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