Domaine des Roches, Alain et Jérôme Lenoir Chinon Blanc 2007

Location: France, Chinon

Winemaker: Alain and Jérôme Lenoir

Grapes: Chenin Blanc

Winemaking: 100+ year old, own-rooted vines. Direct press into a variety of old barrels followed by very long less aging. No filtering, fining.

From us at M&L: This stuff is liquid gold. Jérôme only makes one white and one red wine each year - from a single, 4 hectare parcel of very old vines. There is a lot of interest in rare, cultish wine makers, but Jérôme seems to exist outside of any customary context. He has committed himself to maintaining the same small plot of land that his father and grandparents worked before him. The wines are not easily categorized either, but they all share a finesse that transcends vintage, region etc

From the Importer Selection Massale: Jerome took over from his father Alain in the early 2000s, the exact date isn’t clear, since Alain stayed around the cellar and helped in the vineyard until he passed away in 2014. Jerome makes wine the same way his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather did, starting in 1900. Pure, rustic, traditional Cabernet Franc that sees a very long elevage, often spending more than 3 years in a variety of very old barrels before being bottled and aged a couple more years in bottle before the release.

The domaine’s vineyards are located in Beaumont en Veron, on the same hill as the most famous vineyard of the AOC, Les Picasses, and just above their tuffeau cellar. The soil here is poor, with very little clay, only about 20 centimeters before the hard tuffeau rock (limestone). Most of the Cabernet Franc is over 50 years old, with some vines nearing 100. Most are Franc de Pied, original French rootstock, with a variety of clones added to the mix. The Chenin Blanc parcel is over 100 years old and exclusively Franc de Pied.

With so little land, Jerome makes only one white, in such tiny quantities that it is very rarely imported, and one red. They both see an extensive elevage in a variety of older wood barrels and foudres. Naturally fermented in oak, they tend to be lighter, softer, more feminine than any other in the AOC. They are released much later than anyone else’s in the region, as well.