Domaine des Roches - Alain and Jérome Lenoir 1989
Domaine des Roches is located in Beaumont-en-Veron in the Chinon appellation. Alain and Jérome Lenoir (father and son) inherited 3.5 hectares from Jérome's great-grandfather. The Cabernet Franc vine is around sixty years old and the soil only offers the vine 20cm of soil, the roots seek nutrients in the very hard parent rock for which the Chinonais is famous. The Chenin Blanc plot was purchased at the end of the 1950s. Customs recently assessed the vines as pre-1900 and probably pre-phylloxeratic. Surrounded by woods and land without grape varieties, this plot could have escaped the insect.
The harvest is done manually and the grapes are destemmed even before returning to the cellar, which is then carried out very quickly to minimize the risk of oxidation. The Cabernet Franc is transferred to very old (around 40 years) and large wooden barrels where the berries are punched down with a pestle. Fermentation takes place with native yeasts then aging lasts 3 to 6 years in barrels . The level of added sulfur is 10 times below the current standard for so-called natural red wines.
Domaine des Roches sells ready-to-drink vintages. The 1989 vintage is an exceptional vintage for Chinon wines. It is considered the vintage of the millennium , particularly for Chinon reds.
The bottles from this estate are delivered to us directly from the estate, from stocks in their underground cellar. The condition of the labels is not always perfect. There are sometimes red marks on the latter due to friction of the labels in the racks and in the boxes. Levels are sometimes slightly low. This natural wine cannot be replaced or refunded in the event of organoleptic defects. A photo can be sent to you upon simple request.
Grape variety: 100% Cabernet Franc
