Chançay, Vouvray area (Loire)
Here I am on the outskirts of the charming village of Chançay, sitting against the slopes lining the Loire river valley.
Anne-Cécile and Tanguy who started their domaine in 2009 were initially teachers at the wine school of Amboise (Lycée Viticole) where they met. Longing for the vigneron life instead of merely teaching the skills, they ended making the step, first training their hand on a small
parcel (0.5 hectare) all the while
keeping their day job at the technical school, then later quitting for good as the domaine grew in surface (it now makes about 8 hectares with 7 hectares in production).
Before that, Anne-Cécile (who is from Tours) had done her training in Montpellier [Languedoc] where she got her oenology degree (DNO) and Tanguy (who is from Brittany) got his viticulture/oenology degree in Bordeaux. Otherwise they had no family in winemaking or growing, so their domaine was created from scratched, beginning with a few rentals.
I asked why they chose this area close to Vouvray (and Amboise as well), Anne-Cécile says that Tanguy had worked at Clos Baudouin in Vouvray where one of the staff there [Jean Penillot, not sure of the spelling] who had himself a few parcels lended him one of his own, that's how he and Anne-Cécile started working near here. They looked for other parcels to rent around, bought a few others when possible and that's how they grew step by step, to one hectare, then 2 hectares, then jumping to 4 hectares and so on.
Like often in this region, the parcels are located on plateaus above the Loire river, and the villages are nestled along the slopes leading to these higher-elevation plateaus, on ground high enough to be safe from flooding. The Loire river has always been an erratic, unpredictable river with wild flooding and even change of course, the dikes of the historic Levée de la Loire were built from late 17th century to the 19th to contain these floods but the villages remained of course on high ground. Anne-Cécile and Tanguy's wine farm sits even higher than the village along a cute road going up to the plateau, there's little traffic here, and many trees, it's such a peaceful place to live and raise a family.
As said, both kept their day job as the domaine's vineyard surface quietly grew, and when they reached something like 7 hectares they gradually quit (at the end Tanguy was teaching a few hours at the wine school now and then) in order to work full time on their parcels and finetune the facility (there was some remodeling of the farm buildings and cellar to do). Anne-Cécile kept her job longer, turning to part-time in 2018 because that's when she set up a négoce for their red wines, ending up teaching only two days per year now. Asked if there's a turning point when they're frightened of leaving a safe, secure teaching job for the moving grounds of a grower/winemaker's career, Anne-Cécile says that yes a bit but on the other hand they set up their winery over time and felt they could do it safely and bear the weight of the investments.
The biggest investment was to remodel the buildings and add extensions to the existing ones. The house had already its cellars right behind in the depth of the hill, plus a couple of outbuildings that were not really suitable if left unremodelled. At first they rented this farm and bought it in 2011. When they moved in here, it had been 10 years since the place had been a working winery, so they had a lot of work to do including for the cellar part. They added the white extension on the left (in 2019) as well as another extension on the other side of the barn, because with 7 hectares they were really in need of additional storage/vatroom surface.
Of course buying their own tractors was also an investment, even when good old second-hand tractors like these are pretty cheap compared to the modern equivalents on the market. Right now they keep them along the road in front of the farm but they plan to build a storage barn in the middle of their parcels, this will shorten the distance each time they need to do something in the vineyard. And it's also better to keep them under a roof, rain will not make them younger. Plus, they kind of regrouped their parcels in roughly the same area, dropping the ones which were far-off among their then-23 parcels, thus shortening both the commute and work time. In the past the grower here had his parcels just above atop the plateau but when they bought the farm they were already purchased by someone else.
They also got this cellar which opens behind the extensions, this particular cellar was used by a local group of hunters to gather, eat/drink together after hunting outings [and from my own experience in the field they certainly cut the game here outside to share it among themselves]. They bought this cellar as well, they'll arrange it inside for a tasting room and occasional lunch/dinner venue for buyers and staff later.
In front of the old cellar they dug up the ground and moved tons of earth away in order to have enough flat surface for an outside chai, the press sitting outside with just a roof over it, this looks simple and functional, making best use of the topography of this narrow valley. The grapes arrive here in boxes or bins and they load the press with the belt conveyor.
I have no trouble visualize the Berlot (called Paulée in Burgundy) at the end of the harvest, this joyous and pantagruelic meal gathering the vigneron, family and pickers, this small cellar has the perfect vibes. You can notice on the right where the basket press would stand a century ago, with the low wall all around to retain the juice. But she says the room is not ready, they'll work on it when the priority works will be carried out. I hope they'll not do too much, seems to me perfect as is...
The ceiling of this cellar is just amazing and tells a lot on the soil on which the vineyards of the region grow : this tuff-stone (tuffeau in French) a chalk-like soft limestone is literally scattered with fossils, mostly large-size seashells dating from the Late Cretaceous (don't ask me how many years ago, that was long, long time ago when a sea was covering all the place...).
We walk inside the new extension next to the brick-and-mortar barn, it's whole new and cleanand already full with vats and pallets. They had it built with a good passive insulation and the temperature is pretty stable. Initially the building was designed for storage but when she decided to set up a négoce to make reds, it became also the vat room for these reds. Her first cuvée of red was a try from an exchange of grapes she made with Olivier Bellanger, it was her first Gamay, in 2017. Then the real start was in 2018. Now they have themselves started planting red parcels (Gamay and Côt) but the vines are not yet productive. She also found a grower ready to sell her some red grapes, Julien Moreau of Domaine Cambalu and there's a good partnership with this domaine, she's sure of getting the same parcel year after year, plus he farms his vines very well.
Really many different shapes of fermenters, I love that. Here if I remember we walk through the door to the old barn, with more vessels in here. Anne-Cécile says that they she works directly in table wine (Vin de France) for here red wines, this way she's not bothered with the limitations of the appellation requirements, for example she likes making single-variety wines and this is not always allowed when you get the Touraine appellation. Plus you get the prospective hurdle of the tasting agreement, these tasting panels being usually manned by mainstream vignerons who, even tasting blind, may spot the nature wines and block their way on alleged defects. Thus choosing the Vin de France label was obvious fro:m the start : more flexibility and less constraints, this way they could work more freely on the wines they wanted to make.
The fermenters on the left are used for the whites, they're made in Italy by Vetroresina Toscana, they bought them new when they had their extension built. They wanted tanks that weren't too tall, with medium size volume and these 25-hectoliter ones made the job. They took 2 with front openings and 2 without and regretted the latter, it's much more practical with the wide openings when you want to clean them. They got the two white tanks on the right from Olivier Bellanger, very useful for storage, they very easy to move when empty.
This bottle cleaner is really an old winery tool from the time bottles were re-used, its plaque says it's made in West Germany in 1974 [Baujahr 74] by Otto Sick Metallwarenfabrik, Mindingen/Baden (Werk Nr 1477)...
At this point of the visit Tanguy Perrault joined us and we look at the 4 cement tanks that were already in place when they settled in this farm, these 30-hectoliter tanks were quite old and not in very good condition, so they had the two on the left (one on top of the other) renovated, especially the inside where a new epoxy lining was put in place. Cement tanks are very convenient to store the wine, with a very good temperature stability even in summer. In the future they may renovate the two other tanks as well.
From there if I remember the chronology we walked to the passageway leading to the cellar under the hill, the place is still dans son jus like we say in French, you feel the successive generations of winemakers hovering above us, with as well the multiple layers yeast history hiding behind this brownish soot on the walls and ceilings, this place has a soul, no doubt about it, and the clean cement slab is the only modern fitting I see here...
There's a pallet full of bottles on the way, so we reach the barrel cellar through another passageway on the right, walk along old concrete bottle racks and reach the main room (there are several rooms in here, all interconnected).
This year there's not a lot of wine in the barrels, presumably I guess because of the difficult conditions of last year. They vinify the whites here in the back of the room and on the front part they do the élevage of the reds. Working in these small rooms means that they have to move barrels and stuff quite often but it makes the job. the temperature also is very stable here deep under the hill, something like 14 C (57.2 F). Speaking of their winemaking philosophy, they use of course only organic grapes, be it from their own parcels or when they buy grapes) and in the cellar it's natural fermentation with the native yeast and about the sulfites they're diminishing its use year after year. Apart from a problem with a particular batch (for example at the end of the malolactic) they add sulfur only before bottling. They also test the wines at the open air to see if it's fragile or not. For the reds they proposed the cuvées to their existing buyers who followed up.
It's still dirt ground in this room, I guess it's better for the humidity balance. They get their barrels second-hand, some from Henri Bourgeois, Tanguy checks one of the barrels for its fabrication year, it's 2011, not as old as it looks, but that's the mold imprint of the cellar, barrels often get dark stains in real cellar and it makes them look older. About the sales I'm told that there was a rebound in 2021 and they got good orders from professional buyers, presumably because thye cavistes and restaurants had seen their bottle reserves dwindle along the lockdowns and after postponing their orders to refill their stocks they all sent their orders in 2021 when they felt business was back, Anne-Cécile says this rebound was impressive, they sold much more than a normal year, and to this day they don't see the end of this rebound.
Jumping on the opportunity with our walking through the cellar, Tanguy moves around a few petnat bottles quietly sedimenting their fine lees on a bottle rack. I asked about the wine fairs and events they go to, Anne-Cécile says they may do the Levée de la Loire (even though this year they didn't attend), they do Les Affranchis in Montpellier (and sometimes in Paris as well). they also do the salons off at the time of the Angers wine fairs at the turn of january/february, last time they did it at Olivier Bellanger and in spite of the location being quite far from Angers there was a large crowd of professionals and importer, Anne-Cécile daid they saw many foreigners there. They also did Biotyfoule. They attended also Vinaviva but they think this year will be the last time they go. Anne-Cécile says she also attends the Salon des Vins Naturels de Mortemart (in Limousin). They also go to Natura Vini in Poitiers which is a very nice one, open to the non-pros (that's quite many small natural-wine fairs I never heard about...). For the sales they also have agents who help sell their wines, like Gauthier Mazet of Green Cork for export (mostly the United States). In the U.S. they have an importer per state, like Field Blend Selections for New York, or Potomac Wines & Spirits in Washington D.C. In Australia they sell through Ludovic Deloche of Halle Aux Vins. They sell also a bit to Norway, Quebec (both monopoly and private importers). Right now they sell 1/3 of their wines abroad but it's growing.
At one point we were outside and ready to taste a few wines together when a fellow grower stopped by to lend their old Renault 60 for something to do (It seems to me it's fitted with a tool to mow the grass), and I watched as Tanguy was explaining how it worked. The Renault 60 is one of these typical tracteurs vignerons, light-weight and narrow, easy to work when rows are close to each other, in short, the "modern" equivalent of the horse for artisan vignerons. Renault 60 tractors were made from 1968 to 1977.
I azsked how many cuvées they were doing now, Anne-Cécile needed to think about it twice because they're having quite a lot for their small operation, especially with the reds they added recently. For the whites they have a petnat and 4 still dry whites, a demi-sec, a moelleux and a liquoreux, most of these whites are labelled with the Vouvray appellation. For the reds (which they started to produce in 2018), they have a petnat rosé and 4 still reds, makes a total of 13 cuvées.Asked how they found their first customers for the whites, they say they attended professional wine fairs (they started the winery in 2009 but only began to look for selling their wines in 2011).
Tanguy first opens a petnat (méthode ancestrale) 2018 which they leave sur lattes at least 18 months. They bottle it with around 18-20 grams of residual sugar so as to have something not too bubbly. I learn that in this regard, this petnat would be in the category "pression mousseux", with a pressure at disgorgment of a bit more than 3 bars, this translates into the bubbling volume, but the finesse of these bubble will depend of the élevage length. Here at Perrault Jadaud they disgorge over time (usually batches of 600 bottles) and here what we're drinking went through a 3-year élevage sur lattes.
This Chenin petnat goes down gently, there's an enjoyable richness, Tanguy says that 2018 indeed was good for ripeness. Nice fruity feel, roundness. Anne-Cécile says that on this particular wine half of the wine fermented in barrels, the rest in tanks, and when they began to reach the proper density they blended the two wines, made a few racking and bottled. Bubbles not on the front seat, nice vinous petnat. I'm told that with the indigenous yeast here the fermentation is quite slow which is good to anticipate and take time. Oddly in winter the fermentation doesn't stop though, it just a bit slower before restarting in spring.
Here is Haut les Choeurs !this is a dry Chenin labelled under the Vouvray Appellation. Speaking of the labels, many are made by someone they like the work of, Annelise Bordreuil who is working in another field in Paris but they saw what she could do (without having met her in person) and loved it, so they contacted her to design their labels. Sometimes they contact her for yet another label and she responds gently, they also feel a common sensibility with her label creations, there are good vibes between them, she understands without need for many words what Anne-Cécile and Tangy want in a label for a particular cuvée.
Anne-Cécile and Tanguy have a single hen (if I remember they had a few others but a fox got them) and this charming poultry really loves wine, not only Chenin but also the reds of the négoce. I check that by myself with pouring some Vouvray in a cup, it can't stop, that's crazy. They have to limit her intake because it would pass out as it doesn't need much to fall into ethylic coma... A drunk hen in French would be une poule saoule or une poule soûle and what I witnessed with this video fits well with the following cuvée's name...
Les Grives Soûles 2019 (means "the drunken thrushes") is a Chenin Vouvray on clay/limestone soil like the petnat and the vines are about 45. The wine is filtered here, with a white-earth filter. This vintage (2019) was quite rich but there was volume and acidity, and the wines thus are not heavy. Goes down well, very enjoyable. I learn it makes 14 % in alcohol but that still goes down well. Typically they pick after tasting regularly the grapes. This was bottled in 2021 because it took lots of time to ferment.
La Grande Grive 2019 is a dry Chenin made from a parcel selection (3 parcels mostly) all located on first slopes, with less deep-clay soils compazred to the Grives Soules, here it's more surfacing limestone, rocks come quicky underneath the surface, which means there's water stress in summer. On top of that, the vines are older, like 70 or 80 years old. The wine feels indeed more structured with possibly a solid minerality, quite impressing difference. Vinification took place here in 400-liter demi-muids with the fermentation lasting 2 years. Total volume here is small, like 1000 bottles, with yields of 25 hectoliters/hectare (on a normal year) on small parcels. They got another parcel which is very qualitative and on a nice terroir (near another they were already having) and which will allow them to make a bit more bottles, it's located near their friend Thomas Puechavy, it's abit outcentered from the rest of their parcels but Thomas can help by using his tractor there when needed.
Speaking of the frost risk, Tanguy says they prune à la Malbrough, meaning that in winter they make a first cut on the vines and come back at Easter (that's why the name of this technique, it's related to the poem Malbrough s'en va en Guerre). In the first cut they cut all they don't need and leave the full length of the wood they plan to keep. Then at Easter they come back after the vines have begun to grow buds at the end of the canes, and they cut these ends, thus preventing the potential frost damage on these fragile buds.
Speaking of their sweet cuvées (demi-sec, moelleux & liquoreux) lined on the picture here, they don't make them every year, the weather conditions and maturity of the grapes are the factors that will make them consider this wine style. The last time they did some for example was 2018. Of course sweet wines don't sell as easily than the dry whites, but Anne-Cécile says that the sommeliers may be the culprits as they don't communicate on the pleasure and qualities of these types of wines, and when they take part to wine fairs open to the public, they witness an intense interest for these wines.
__ Les Fauves, Vouvray 2017, a demi-sec fermented in barrels. 23 grams of residual sugar. The feel is just of a light sweetness, I'm told because of two reasons, the acidity of course, and also because since 2017 the sugar had time to somehow integrate in the wine. At this stage Tanguy feels evolution notes on the range of violets, which is typical of Chenin after a while. Sometimes they pass several times in the vineyard, picking for different types of wines, first for the dry then for the sweet, for example in 2011 they did 4 pickings in the same parcels.
__ Les Ménades, Vouvray 2018, a moelleux fermented in neutral fiber tanks. Tanguy notices some vanilla notes, which is surprising as there's been no oak, no wood at all for this cuvée. Very nice sweet wine, once again I wonder why we don't drink that more while our elders used to have them quite often. Of course, as Tanguy says these sweet wines have been overdosed with sulfites for decades and the public got tired of it. In the 1960s the sulfites reached easily 50 of free SO2 in this type of wine, but today you have the tight filtration (pauvre en germe) which secures the wine without sulfites. The regulation still allows for up to 300 total SO2 for these wines, and of course that doesn't help the reputation of the sweet Chenin. Tanguy says that what is incredible is that you have conventional vignerons who add 50 free SO2 in their wine and on top of that do a tight filtration (pauvre en germe), that's nonsense. I say that this is probably the inertia of having generations of conventional winemakers behind them, but Anne-Cécile says that some technician-consultants are to blame also, with this fear of whatever might happen. Here on the wine we taste there's 2 or 3 grams (per hectoliter) of SO2, which is very little for a moelleux, and with only 2 grams more than that, the wine would be very different.
__ Les Joueurs de Nez 2019, a red blend (Gamay, Cabernet Franc and a bit of Côt) and Vin de France made with grapes purchased to Olivier Bellanger, except for the Côt (it's their own, the first production of their 3-year-old vines). Unfiltered wine (none of the reds is filtered). Elevage in tanks. The color is very light, in the mouth there's an interesting tannin feel that I'm told comes from the Cabernet Franc. The Gamay and the smallvolume of Côt are macerated (carbo) together while the Cab Franc is destemmed with light pumping over and the two juices are blended afterwards. The wine has an enjoyable juicy feel, Anne-Cécile says that she intended to make a wine that would be easydrinking. SO2 is very low, like less of 20 total SO2.
__ Cotillon Rouge, Vin de France 2019, made with Côt coming from Julien Pineau (Cambalu), it's a whole parcel they get each year. The hen turns around to show us she's there but we decided she had enough wine for now, plus mixing sweet white with dry reds won't do her any good... Nose : very exciting, the color is darker and even before tasting I feel there's a velvety style in its appearance. The mouth is in line, I say to the hen that she misses something here ... Velvety wine indeed, glouglou, goes down easy. Anne-Cécile says that here she destemmed the grapes, doing a very very light extraction, she didn't want the carbo style nor getting the stems' tannins. Elevage 8 months in barrels.
__ Et Si... A Gamay Vin de France 2019. Grapes sourced at Cambalu as well, it's a whole parcel as well, and next to the Côt, on the top of a slope along woods. Carbo at the beginning with whole clusters, during 15 to 20 days, then some foot stomping, pigeage and pumping over to get the substance Elevage : 8 months in barrels plus at least one year in bottles to get some sort of patina, which she says Gamay gets easily. Aromas of morello cherries. Volume here like the Côt is about 3000 bottles. Speaking of the prices, the Pro prices are mostly between 7 € and 8,5 €, the sparkling rosé (which I didn't taste) and Joueurs de Nez being below at 6,4 €, and the sweet wines being a bit above.
__ Bacchanales, Vouvray 2018, back to the whites for the sweetest, the liquoreux and its 120 grams of residual sugar. Elevage in barrels. 11 % alcohol. Bottled in 50 centiliter bottles. Golden color, the maturity, and oxidation as well, ans as Anne-Cécile reminds me, the negligible doses of sulfites (high dosages of sulfites gives you colorless whites, that's why commercial sweet wines are mostly colorless, it's because of excessive SO2). Excellent wine which remains fresh in the mouth even with this sugar, there an acidulous feel which is very enjoyable. Anne-Cécile says that the fermentation stops by itself at one point, they don't have to do anything. They often sell this wine in the wine fairs they attend in november or december, when people presumably look for wines to pair with foie gras and other Christmas/New Year delicacies. For me it's a good apéritif wine as well, by itself.
After this tasting, I follow Tanguy on my motorbike so that he shows me one of their parcels, this is Chenin of course, and with pretty old-looking vines, but they were planted in 2000. They make the Grives soules from this parcel. Their wine farm and cellars are located on the Brenne valley side of Vouvray while the parcels are on the Loire valley side.He shows me where the loire flows, somewhere down the slope, with Montlouis on the other side. This visit took place somewhere in late march (sorry, was vey busy lately) and the buds were barely beginning to grow. they have other parcels in the vicinity, plus an empty parcel which they want to replant Chenin. They plan also to plan an orchard to have something else than vines growing. The soil has lots of flintstone (silex) surfacing here and there. The region didn't have a lot of rain this winter and spring, and you can see cracks on the ground.
Speaking of the vineyard work they plow, they're going to do the décavaillonage and the rest of the year they use plades to cut off the weeds, using the enjambeur (the straddle tractor). Here they don't have much frost exposure because of the slope. It's near here that they plan to build a barn in order to store the tractors and tools. There aren't woods in the immediate vicinity but they still have roe deers getting at the grapes, it may be also because the parcels are mostly organic here, with several other domaines farming this way here, Tanguy shows several parcels nearing his, which are also organic.
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