Chevalerie - (Archived)

Domaine de la Chevalerie has been in the Caslot family since 1640. Their house, office, and winery sit upon one of Touraine’s largest cellars —a great cavernous affair dug out between the 11th and 13th centuries to provide stone for the local village of Restigné. Today son and daughter team Emmanuel and Stéphanie are running the domaine with the help of their father Pierre. These dynamic siblings have been instrumental in upgrading the winery equipment and converting the domaine to organic farming. They work 81.5 acres of vines, of which 59 grow around the house and cellar and constitute the heart of the domaine. The other acreage is on top of the hill that marks the northern boundary of the appellation, and wine from that parcel is sold to négociants. Here the soils are relatively heavy with clay and limestone, without much sand, making for robust Bourgueils. These vineyards are always harvested below 40 hectoliters per hectare (the legal permitted maximum yield is 55 hl/ha), and the wines are made with indigenous yeast, and bottled without fining or filtration. The result is a deliciously meaty, dense, and age-worthy Loire Cabernet Franc. Galichets produces the fruitier style wine. The Chevalerie has the intense fruitiness of the Galichets along with a more intense and serious structure.

Wines

• Bourgeuil “la Chevalerie” 2005
• Bourgeuil “les Galichets” 2006