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.
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