DOMAINE PIERRE MENARD

Faye d’Anjou

From a family of winegrowers, Pierre Ménard studied agricultural engineering in Anger. Prior to coming back to his roots and his parents’ vineyards in Anjou, Pierre went exploring and working in other wine regions. He spent time in Portugal in Douro, worked in Pauillac at Chateau Latour, and traveled to Canada and New Zealand. Pierre finally spent a full year in Hungary in Tokaj.

After his travel, Pierre began working alongside his parents in Faye d'Anjou, where his parents own 13 hectares of Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc. They farm the vines and sell the grapes to the local cooperative.

In 2013, Pierre took over a few vines for himself and started vinifying and bottling his own wine. He started with less than half a hectare of vines: a plot of almost century-old Chenins in the lieu-dit of Le Quart des Noëls, and another plot of 50-year-old Sauvignon Blanc vines located at the top of Clos de la Roche, a local hillside made up of schist.

Since his first vintage, Pierre has added vines to his care almost every year: a plot of Sauvignon in 2014, a plot of Chenin in the Clos des Mailles in 2016, and in 2017, two small plots of Cabernet Franc. Pierre Ménard now owns a little over 1.5 hectares of vines.

Pierre attaches the greatest importance to details, he designs all his labels himself and each bottle is waxed and numbered by hand. These details speak volumes of his working ethic and his dedication to his craft.

In the Vineyard

The vineyards are farmed organically and everything is done according to the lunar calendar.

Pierre Ménard uses plant preparations such as herbal teas and decoctions to treat the vines. The soils are ploughed to control grass but also to aerate and help nourish them. Work in the vineyard such as thinning and trimming is done by hand.

Pierre is also now experimenting and is not trimming a few rows of vines in the Clos des Mailles.

Harvest is carried out manually.

In the Cellar

Pierre Ménard has set up his cellar in an old farmhouse that he partly renovated. The place is used for both the vinification and the aging of the wines.

Pierre has a pneumatic press, he likes to perform very long but light pressing programs, sometimes the press runs all night. The juice is then transferred into old barrels to ferment with indigenous yeasts. Pierre does not use new oak at all and prefers using 1 to 3-year-old barrels.

Fermentations are slow and generally last until spring. There is no racking on the whites during the entire aging period. Bottling normally takes place before the next harvest.

AOC Anjou
Le Quart des Noëls

The Quart des Noëls cuvée is Pierre's first cuvée. This sublime wine comes from very old Chenins planted in 1920 on the Faye d´Anjou. The vines are planted on a sandstone quartz slate slope facing south towards the Layon.

AOC Anjou
Le Clos des Mailles

The Clos des Mailles is located on the banks of the Layon, near the top of a slope running down to the water’s edge. The soils are thin and are laid over a bed of schist with blue-green veins of phthanites. Some vines were planted in 1920 but most of the vines were planted in 1993.

AOC Anjou
Pluton

In the Clos des Mailles, Pierre Ménard decided to push the plot selection even further by isolating rows planted on the part richer in phtanite, the blue rock present in the soils here.

This cuvée is named after Pluton (Pluto) the “other” blue planet in reference to the Phtanite-rich soils.