domaine des hauts baigneux
Nicolas Grosbois & Philippe Mesnier
azay-le-rideau
touraine - Loire valley - France
story…
Founded in 2012 by two long time friends, Nicolas Grosbois and Philippe Mesnier. Nicolas grew up in nearby Chinon where his family has an estate that he continues to work at along with this newer project of his own. The Hauts Baigneux estate and holdings are not far from the Grosbois estate, located in Azay-le-Rideau. This tiny sub-region of Touraine has long been overlooked by the larger wine community but locally has always been highly regarded for the incredible Chenin Blanc grown here as well as the local rosé produced from the hyper local Grolleau variety along with Gamay.
The project was started with intention of shining an international spotlight on the incredible terroir of Azay-le-Rideau and the quality of wines that can produced here. Their holdings consist of 12 hectares of vines that are mostly in the lieux-dit of “Hauts Baigneux” but they also own a 2 hectare plot in the town of Saché that consists of two vineyards; “Mézardière” & “Clos des Brancs”, both consisting of old vine plantings of Chenin Blanc over silex heavy clay/limestone soil.
philosophy…
The guys focus on minimal intervention in both the vineyards and the cellar. After purchasing the plots they quickly converted to organic viticulture and became ECOCERT certified in 2014 for all of their holdings. The cellar practices are exactly as you would expect; all native yeasts, no additives outside small amounts of SO2 which rarely goes above 50 ppm total for any of the bottlings. Fermentations and aging are carried out in a mix of stainless steel, concrete, & larger old wood demi-muids & foudre. None of their wines are fined however, most go through a very gentle filtration with the use of diatomaceous earth filters.
Vineyards…
Although the majority of the wines are produced with fruit from their “Hauts Baigneux” lieux-dit, their two most prized sites are “Mézadière” & “Clos des Brancs”. Within the “Hauts Baigneux” site there are several smaller parcels that are often times bottled separately or used for specific cuvées.
Hauts Baigneux
a single lieux-dit made up of several vineyards including: “La Surprise”, “Les Pentes”, & “Clos de la Cour” | planted to a mixture of mostly Chenin Blanc along with Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Grolleau, Cabernet Franc, & Côt | vines here are around 25 years of age | soils consist of mostly clay with limestone bedrock | portions in the southern part of the lieux-dit have a heavier flint/silex content
Mézadière
one of two vineyards they have in the town of Saché | planted entirely to Chenin Blanc on silex heavy soils | 60 year old vines
Clos des Brancs
their other vineyard site in Saché | planted entirely to Chenin Blanc on silex heavy soils | the vineyard is 1.64 hectare plot that is surrounded entirely by woods and is planted with a southeast exposure | 40 year old vines
