Alexandre Bain: Vineyards
As indicated, the domaine is located not far from Tracy-sur-Loire, lying just a couple of kilometres north-east of this town. There are 11 hectares some of which are situated right next to the cellars, other plots are more distant. On the vineyard there are two principal terroirs, both based on clay and limestone as we would expect, being well within the zone where soils and rocks originate from the Bassin Parisien. The larger part is Portlandian limestone (pictured), overlaid with a stony topsoil; Alexandre believes these stones are very significant as they warm up during the day, and the emitted heat after sunset aids in the ripening of the grapes. This part accounts for about 8 hectares of his domaine, with what remains being Kimmeridgian limestone, with clay over the top, giving an overall picture very like that which we would see in Chablis which is, after all, only about 100 kilometres to the north-east.
As mentioned in my introduction, the acquired vineyards were farmed conventionally before they came into Alexandre’s possession, but were immediately converted. The soil is worked by plough, pulled by Alexandre’s horse, which is a Percheron draft horse named Phenomène. Alexandre does also have a tractor, however, as he acknowledges that not all tasks can be completed by horse alone. The viticultural philosophy is biodynamic, Alexandre making good use of herbal infusions and other preparations in an effort to reduce his dependency on copper mixture and wettable sulphur; both are permissible within organics and biodynamics, but Alexandre clearly prefers other methods whenever possible. As is the case with many environmentally-conscious vignerons, Alexandre is generally using much less than the 6 kg/hectare per year of copper sulphate that is permitted.
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