Manoir de la Bellonnière, 2020 Chinon ‘Les Battereaux’
The Moreau family have been farming vines in the commune of Cravant-les-Côteaux for three generations. The story begins with Yves Moreau who established his polyculture estate in 1976 with just a handful of vines. Yves was later joined by his nephew Patrice in 1982, and then they added an additional 10 hectares of vines in 1992. Since 2008, Patrice's son, Alexandre, has joined the estate, and this marked an important shift in the domaine's history, as it is with Alexandre's presence that they have begun producing and bottling their own wine, rather exclusively selling their grapes to other producers. The family is farming around 27 hectares of vines in Cravant-les-Côteaux. Their vineyards have always been farmed without chemical treatments, and since 2022 they have begun the process towards organic certification.
Today's wine is one of the family's two cuvée parcellaires from Cabernet Franc, and it is coming from the lieu-dit Les Battereaux, which has some of the domaine's oldest vines that were planted in 1929.
It's been a moment since I featured a wine from the commune of Cravant-les-Côteaux, and more specifically the alluvial terrace in Cravant-les-Côteaux, so I will take a moment to highlight some of the key features of this part of the commune.
Firstly, the commune of Cravant-les-Côteaux is the largest commune of production in the Chinon appellation, representing about 50% of the appellation's production. And much of the reason for this is because of this large alluvial terrace that dominates the commune. So, east of the Chinon village itself, the alluvial terrace on the right bank, or the north side, of the Vienne River covers the communes of Chinon, Cravant-les-Côteaux and Panzoult, and stretches about 9km from west to east, and of this 2/3 of this area is in Cravant-les-Côteaux. And the vineyard area of the terrace begins very close to the Vienne River and stretches inland about 1.5 to 1.75km towards the côte.
Because of our proximity to the Vienne River, and the many tributaries that weave their way across the alluvial terrace, access to water is generally good, so these vineyards will tend to naturally yield a little more.
This terraces is also more or less flat, and sits at a low elevation of around 30 to 38m above sea level. Because of this flat topography, the vineyards here are easier to work, and doesn't require all the vineyard work and harvesting to be done by hand, as is often the case on the slopes. This flat topography means the vines will enjoy uninterrupted sunshine during the day, which is good for ripening.
In terms of soils, the alluvial soils of this terrace are actually much more complex than meets the eye. So much so that the Chinon appellation has defined three groups of alluvial soils of the terrace: the recent alluvium of the very low terraces, the recent and ancient alluvium of the low terraces, and the ancient alluvium of the middle and upper terraces. Now, for most of us, this is a rather granular level of detail, so there are some generalizations we can make.
For the most part, these soils are predominantly sandy or sandy-silty soils, with the odd pocket with a higher proportion of clay. They are relatively deep, and they sit a top the Lower Turonian tuffeau bedrock. On the alluvial terrace, the texture and the depth of the subsoil, which what we find from 70 to 120cm, this can vary widely. In general we are either dealing with a subsoil that is sandy or a clayey sand, or in we are dealing with a very gravelly subsoil.
Because of the lighter texture of these soils, as well as good access to water contributing to higher yields, the fruit from these vineyards on the alluvial terrace tends to be better suited to producing, lighter, softer, less structured, early-drinking styles of Cabernet Franc, but there are, of course, exceptions to that rule.
So, looking a little closer at today's wine, the lieu-dit of Les Battereaux is a fair size, about 67 hectares, and there's about a dozen vignerons that have parcels here. The lieu-dit is located in the eastern part of Cravant-les-Côteaux, and we're set back about 1km from the Vienne, and the north end of the lieu-dit, there's a canal and tree line that delineates the area of the alluvial terrace at the lower elevation from the start of the slopes.
The family has a total of 3.5ha of vines planted in the lieu-dit of Les Battereaux, of which Alexandre will do a specific selection of about 3ha for this cuvée.
Now in terms of soils, the soils across this lieu-dit vary widely, and where the Moreau family's parcels are here in Les Battereaux, they have a little more clay and silt in the topsoil, with a moderate amount of gravels in the topsoil as well. We have about 60cm of topsoil followed by shallow subsoil that is mostly gravels. Their vines range in age, with the youngest being 50 years of age and the oldest being over 90 years. The combination of the older vines, coupled with the nature of the soils, means that these parcels will naturally yield a little lower, about 30hl/ha.
From a winemaking perspective, the fruit for this wine is all hand-harvested, and hand-sorted. Fermentation is whole berry, with indigenous yeast, in unlined or untreated concrete tanks, with a temperature not exceeding 26C. Alexandre approaches the maceration very gently, with no pumping overs. He ensures that the tank is completely filled, so that 100% of the juice is in contact with the berries, which prevents the cap from drying out and the need for pumping over. The total time on skins is about 12 days. After de-vatting, the free run wine and press wine will be reassembled, and aging will take place in concrete tank for about 1 year before the wine is bottled.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Manoir de la Bellonnière (Patrice and Alexandre Moreau)
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Cravant-les-Côteaux
Lieux-Dits: Les Battereaux
Soils: Gravelly, silty-clay to clay topsoil, with a gravel subsoil of 60cm, over the Lower Turonian tuffeau chalk bedrock
Alcohol: 13.0%
