25-04-2017, 07:04 PM
Clery-Saint-André, Loire
At a short distance from Orléans along the Loire there is a discreet wine region which few people know, it's not Cheverny or Anjou, but the Orléanais. A century ago or more it was certainly providing lots of wine for Paris as with the straight road to Paris through the Beauce they didn't even need here to use barges on rivers and canals. The existence of the wines of Orléans is documented as far as in the 5th century with an apogy during the 12th and 13th century when they were poured at the court of the King (source). The total
1reynald_heaule_rue_du_village
surface of the vineyards of the Orléanais is
1reynald_heaule_wine-farm_door
said to have been 30 000 hectares in the 17th century. With the mass production needed for Paris in the 19th century, the quality of the wine went down compared to a few centuries before, and at about that time, with the railroads making Languedoc wines easy to ship to Paris, the production and surface of the Orléans region dwindled, pushing the wines of the Orléanais into oblivion. But there's still a great potential to make excellent wine here, and even though the region today has only 200 hectares, you can find a couple of good producers here to prove that. Reynald Héaulé is one of them.
Reynald Héaulé started from scratch after studying accounting, a field which he didn't feel he'd really consider doing a career in, he worked at several wineries, first in Burgundy then here in the region, particularly at Claude Courtois where he still works part time.
His own domaine makes 2 hectares but with a quite high plantation density, like 12 500 vines per hectare; he grows 15 different varieties on this small surface and 2 years from now you'll find 20 varieties, 10 reds and 10 whites. This doesn't fit really what we call complantation (where vines are planted together randomly) because here he planted whole rows of a given variety (he planted his whole vineyard himself by the way). To tell a few varieties, he planted Pineau d'Aunis, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Gascon, some hybrids, Romorantin, Pinot Gris Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling and Chenin .
Atypique 2015
Blend van Pinot Noir , Pinot Meunier , Gamay en Côt .
Terroir : Silice
18 maand opvoeding in oude barriques
Rood fruit , mineraliteit , gedroogde rozen een zeer finesse wijn.
Zelf tot op het randje fragiele wijn te noemen.
Een hele aparte stijl zoals je die wel meer kunt vinden in de Loire.
Tis schoon op zich , speelse wijn , lichtvoetig 87-88
( kunnen gerust een jaar of 7 verouderen )
Zijn witte wijnen zijn imo nog een stuk hoger van kwaliteit.
Die zijn voor een andere keer
.
De man heeft alleszins de stiel geleerd van een groot meester !
At a short distance from Orléans along the Loire there is a discreet wine region which few people know, it's not Cheverny or Anjou, but the Orléanais. A century ago or more it was certainly providing lots of wine for Paris as with the straight road to Paris through the Beauce they didn't even need here to use barges on rivers and canals. The existence of the wines of Orléans is documented as far as in the 5th century with an apogy during the 12th and 13th century when they were poured at the court of the King (source). The total
1reynald_heaule_rue_du_village
surface of the vineyards of the Orléanais is
1reynald_heaule_wine-farm_door
said to have been 30 000 hectares in the 17th century. With the mass production needed for Paris in the 19th century, the quality of the wine went down compared to a few centuries before, and at about that time, with the railroads making Languedoc wines easy to ship to Paris, the production and surface of the Orléans region dwindled, pushing the wines of the Orléanais into oblivion. But there's still a great potential to make excellent wine here, and even though the region today has only 200 hectares, you can find a couple of good producers here to prove that. Reynald Héaulé is one of them.
Reynald Héaulé started from scratch after studying accounting, a field which he didn't feel he'd really consider doing a career in, he worked at several wineries, first in Burgundy then here in the region, particularly at Claude Courtois where he still works part time.
His own domaine makes 2 hectares but with a quite high plantation density, like 12 500 vines per hectare; he grows 15 different varieties on this small surface and 2 years from now you'll find 20 varieties, 10 reds and 10 whites. This doesn't fit really what we call complantation (where vines are planted together randomly) because here he planted whole rows of a given variety (he planted his whole vineyard himself by the way). To tell a few varieties, he planted Pineau d'Aunis, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Gascon, some hybrids, Romorantin, Pinot Gris Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling and Chenin .
Atypique 2015
Blend van Pinot Noir , Pinot Meunier , Gamay en Côt .
Terroir : Silice
18 maand opvoeding in oude barriques
Rood fruit , mineraliteit , gedroogde rozen een zeer finesse wijn.
Zelf tot op het randje fragiele wijn te noemen.
Een hele aparte stijl zoals je die wel meer kunt vinden in de Loire.
Tis schoon op zich , speelse wijn , lichtvoetig 87-88
( kunnen gerust een jaar of 7 verouderen )
Zijn witte wijnen zijn imo nog een stuk hoger van kwaliteit.
Die zijn voor een andere keer
.De man heeft alleszins de stiel geleerd van een groot meester !
