La Noue Blanchard 2021

The prelude to the adventure of  Stéphanie Debout and Vincent Bertin in wine production is really common to many young producers in the twenty-first century: a bike vacation through a region (the Loire), and the wish to go back to a natural life.

They resolved, therefore, to leave their Parisian life and after a period of apprenticing with farmers and producers from Anjou, with a training in the highschool at Montreuil-Bellay, in 2012 they settled definitively somewhere between Faye D´Anjou and Beaulieu Sur Layon where, with the precious and indefatigable help from Anatole and Rebecco, two Percheron and breton horses, they are taking care of the biodiversity of seven parcels of land, making up 3 hectares, working the soils with neither the usage of machines nor burning fossil fuels.  Since last year, however, an old and beautiful tractor (1961!) helps them.

The workload and decision making are determined individually in accordance with each vineyard, and this approach allows them not only a more meticulous observation but also a much deeper knowledge of the vines. In the cellar, white grapes are slowly processed in a vertical press, whereas the red grapes are footrodden in maceration tanks. The juice is moved by gravity and all fermentations are with indigenous yeast. The wines are neither fileted nor fined. From the vine to the bottle no product is added and everything is handmade.