Domaine Grosbois, 2017 Chinon ‘Clos du Noyer’
Cab Franc du Jour #123
The history of viticulture at Domaine Grosbois can be traced back to the 15th century, though for most of that time the domaine thrived as a polyculture farm with viticulture playing only a minor role. In the 1990s, Jacques and Jocelyn Grosbois began to shift focus more deliberately toward wine, and the domaine as we know it today started to take shape. Nicolas returned from several years of making wine abroad to take over the estate in 2006, and his brother Sylvain joined him full time in 2019.
Today Nicolas and Sylvain farm 20 hectares of Cabernet Franc vines, primarily in the commune of Panzoult, with a small newly acquired parcel in the neighbouring commune of L’Île-Bouchard. The estate remains, as it has for centuries, a true polyculture farm, with biodynamics and biodiversity at the heart of its philosophy. They raise cows and pigs, maintain a variety of fruit and nut trees and truffle oaks, keep beehives, and tend a large vegetable garden that also supplies the local school.
From their 20 hectares of vines, the estate produces several expressions of Cabernet Franc, including the Gabare, their largest-volume cuvée, and the Clos du Noyer, the estate’s top expression. More recently, they have isolated a small 60-are parcel of vines planted in 1905 from pre-phylloxera material, now vinified separately as the cuvée Clôture. These vines also serve as the source material for all new plantings and replantings across the domaine. In addition to their estate wines, Nicolas and Sylvain work with vigneron friends to produce a small négoce range, including La Cuisine de Ma Mère, long one of the most charming early-drinking wines from the Chinon appellation.
The Commune of Panzoult
The domaine’s 20 hectares are located in the commune of Panzoult, situated just east of Cravant-les-Côteaux on the north side, or right bank, of the Vienne River. Panzoult is the second largest producing commune in the Chinon appellation after Cravant-les-Côteaux, which accounts for around 50% of the appellation’s total production.
There are three main viticultural zones in Panzoult. The first is the alluvial plain very close to the Vienne, only around 500m from the river, an extension of the alluvial terrace in Cravant-les-Côteaux, with deep soils made up predominantly of sand and silt with very little clay or gravel. The second is a pocket of alluvial terroir further east, about 2km north of the Vienne around the hamlet of Roncé, where a sandy-silt mix carries a higher proportion of gravels and pebbles ranging from 25 to 100% stoniness in the topsoil, over a gravelly subsoil. The third, and most distinct, is a narrow band of vineyards on the slopes, set back 2 to 3km north of the Vienne, arcing along the edge of the forests to the north. These slopes carry either a full south or slight southeast-facing exposure, with tuffeau-derived soils that are either Middle or Upper Turonian tuffeau depending on elevation. Where the Upper Turonian tuffeau is present, pockets of millarges also appear, the fine limestone-derived sands that are less fertile and have better water-holding capacity than the alluvial sands closer to the river.
The Lieu-Dit and Clos du Noyer
Domaine Grosbois and its vineyards are located in the western part of Panzoult, just a few hundred metres from the eastern boundary of Cravant-les-Côteaux. Their vines are planted within a single lieu-dit, Le Pressoir, on a gentle south-facing slope about 2km north of the Vienne. Within this lieu-dit, the brothers have identified and isolated 19 individual parcels based on soil composition and vine age. Across the board, the soils are primarily derived from the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau, with shallow topsoils ranging from sandy to clayey-sand in texture depending on the parcel.
The Clos du Noyer comes from a 1.2-hectare parcel located toward the top of the slope, very close to the forest. The name was given by Nicolas and Sylvain’s great-grandmother Thérèse, in reference to the walnut trees that were historically planted near this plot. The upper portion of the vineyard was planted in 1994, and the lower portion of about 0.7 hectares was replanted in 2020 by massale selection. At the top of the slope, the parcel sits on an outcropping of millarges, with approximately 50 to 100cm of clayey-sand topsoil over the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk bedrock. The first vintage of Clos du Noyer was 2005.
In the Cellar
The fruit is hand-harvested, hand-sorted, and destemmed, then fermented as whole berries in concrete with ambient yeast, reaching a maximum fermentation temperature of 24C. Total skin contact is 28 days, with gentle pump-overs as needed to homogenize the must and encourage a soft extraction. Aging takes place in concrete for approximately 12 months, preserving the freshness and clarity of the fruit.
Wine Details
Producer: Domaine Grosbois
Appellation: Chinon
Commune: Panzoult
Lieux-Dits: Le Pressoir
Soils: 50-100cm clayey-sand topsoil over the Upper Turonian yellow tuffeau chalk (millarges)
Alcohol: 13.5%