Domaine de la Marinière, 2017 Chinon “Vieilles Vignes”
The Desbourdes family purchased this farm at Marinière in the commune of Panzoult in 1965. It required several years of work to prepare the land for viticulture, and by 1971 Domaine de la Marinière was born.
Renaud Desbourdes takes over from his parents in 1999, and today, Renaud's son Boris has joined the estate. And if you aren't following Boris on Instagram, you must. For a behind the scenes look at some of the necessary but less glamorous aspects of being a vignerons, but also Boris's eclectic collection of socks, he is absolutely worth a follow.
So today's wine is taking us to Panzoult, a commune on the right bank, or north side of the Vienne in Chinon. And this wine might be the first in a series of wines exploring some of Chinon's communes in a little more depth.
So, the commune of Panzoult is just down the river east of Cravant-les-Côteaux, and is the second largest commune of production in Chinon after Cravant-Les-Côteaux, which accounts for about 50% of the appellations production.
There are more or less three main area for viticulture in Panzoult - we have the alluvial plain very close to the Vienne, only around 500m from the river, which is an extension of that in Cravant-Les-Côteaux, this is where we find soils that are deep, and made up predominantly of sand and silt, with very little clay and gravel.
Secondly, there is a pocket of alluvial terroirs further down the Vienne in and around the hamlet of Roncé, where we find sandy-silt mix, with a higher percentage of gravel and pebbles ranging from 25% to 100% stoniness in the topsoil.
Then finally, we have a small, narrow band of sloped vineyards set back 2-3km from the Vienne that arc and hug the border of the forests to the north. The slopes can have either a full south, or slight south-east facing exposure, and the vineyards are on either the Middle Turonian or the Upper Turonian bedrock depending on where you are on the slope.
Today's wine is coming from about 3-4ha of vines planted between 1975 and 1985 across three neighbouring lieux-dits, Les Ribotées, Bordebure and la Galippe. All of these lieux-dits are situated on the slopes, and butt up against the edge of the forest. In terms of soils here, the bedrock is predominantly the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau, and the topsoil is a mix of sand, silt and clay. And Boris explained that microclimate where their parcels are, they tend to see less frost risk, and the terroir helps to contribute to a slightly more marked tannic structure in the finished wines.
For the winemaking, it is a combination of hand-picked and machine harvested fruit, everything is destemmed. Fermentation takes place in concrete tanks. Maceration lasts three to four weeks, with some pump-overs during that time. The wine rests in concrete for a couple of months, then its transferred into older 400L oak barrels for about 6 months prior to bottling.
Key wine facts below:
Producer: Domaine de la Marinière
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Panzoult
Lieu-Dit: Les Ribotées, Bordebure, la Galippe
Soil: Sand-silt-clay topsoil atop the upper Turonian yellow tuffeau
Alcohol: 12.5%
