"With 27 hectares in production, you have to pay attention to the smallest detail and be convinced that nothing is left to chance..."
Frederic Mabileau

A soil personnality

It is the earth made up of mostly sand and gravel that gives wines from St. Nicolas de Bourgueil their fruity and floral character. The gentle slopes give birth to wines which are more opulent and structured. The neighboring Bourgueil shares its soils with more clay thus creating a more fleshy wine.

The King of vine and His Prince

It is the Cabernet Franc that wins without dispute, but the Cabernet Sauvignon also lends its charms to our cuvee from Anjou.

Mature Vines

A large portion of our vines are between 35 and 50 years old which allow us to benefit from their deep root system drawing from the very heart of our soils.

Working the Vines

A quality wine starts at the vine; maintaining their height, systematic thinning in order to limit the yields, manual leaf removal in order to expose the grapes to the sun, having plentiful foliage in order to optimise photosynthesis, and working of the soils which forces the roots deeper so that they may best tap into the summer water supply.  All of these elements provide us with more fleshy grapes which ripen better and bring back into balance the acids and the many other elements that allow for a wine which is supple, round and concentrated.

Manual Harvesting

Wishing to respect the integrity of the grape from the vine to the tank, we harvest all of our vines by hand and inspect the grapes on two consecutive sorting tables, before and after the de-stemmer.The final step taken to reduce any extraneous abuse to the grape is seen with the use of conveyor belts to move them from last sorting table to the tank. The quality of the grapes is preserved during this gentle treatment which allows only entire fruit to enter into the tanks.

Our Shift to organic production

As seen in the adjacent document (click to enlarge), we began in 05/10/2007 to use only organic production methods.
After three years under the surveillance of the organic certification group, Ecocert, we will be able to claim the title AB (organic agriculture). To produce organically contributes to a lasting world preserving the biodiversity and the soils’ fertility but it is also optimizes the maturity and obtains a better quality organoleptique (taste, aroma, texture).
In practice, organic wine guarantees the natural treatment of the vines and soils, without pesticides or herbicides. Therefore, we protect our vines only with natural products such as sulfur and copper sulfate against different types of mildew. Already for years we have practiced weeding and working the soil between the rows. Which removes the need for all toxic chemicals and on the other hand allows for the vines to regulate themselves and maintain reasonable, more optimal water demands.
This choice, in line with winemaking, is motivated by the desire to obtain a high quality grape with a perfect maturity: essential elements for acquiring a pleasing, pure fruit flavor in a wine.