Producer Domaine de la Paleine

FRANCE, LOIRE

Historic domain of Saumurois, in the beating heart of the Loire, the Domaine de la Paleine has its roots in local history. However, it was in 2003 that its current physiognomy began to take shape, daughter of the skilled hands of Laurence and Marc Vincent, who began a tenacious work of renewal. In 2010 Bureau Veritas organic certification arrives, the result of the total elimination of chemicals in the vineyard. But you don't pay for the results, Laurence and her husband aim for a biodynamic dimension (Demeter 2017 certification), which allows them to best express the potential of the clayey-calcareous-chalky terroir of the Puy-Notre-Dame sector, a very promising sector of Saumur which, since 2009, has emerged an autonomous designation of origin, with a more rigorous specification than the others. After a manual harvest, the respectful approach begun in the vineyard continued with the same savoir-faire in the cellar, the reign of the winemaker Patrick Nivelleau. Of course, all oenological additives are banned, with the exception of small quantities of sulphites. Fermentations are entrusted to indigenous yeasts and bacteria, and take place with precise temperature control. The sparkling wines carry out the second fermentation in the bottle and the autolysis of the yeasts takes place in the cellars dug into the subsoil gypsum, where the second fermentation in the bottle takes place at a constant 12 ° C and away from light. In this way, the Chenin blanc, the Cabernet franc and the other grape varieties grown in the Paleine give the best of themselves, for purity, personality and precision.