Champalou: Vineyards
Although the Champalou domaine is located in Le Grand Ormeau, and they have a small plot of vines on their doorstep, planted in the clay-on-limestone soils that dominate here, the Champalou family own a multitude of parcels scattered across all three of the Vouvray communes, mostly in Vouvray itself admittedly, but they also have a few parcels in Rochecorbon downstream, and in Vernou-sur-Brenne upstream. As you would imagine, therefore, they have vines on several different terroirs.
One distinguishing feature of Champalou when compared to their top-rung peers Domaine Huet, Domaine du Clos Naudin and Domaine des Aubuisières, is that the Champalou family do not own any vines on the première côte, the highly valued strip of land on the edge of the limestone plateau, before it falls down to the alluvial flood plain below. Nor, with the exception of Le Portail (previously called Clos du Portail), do they make any site-specific cuvées. The schema here is based on blending within the distinctive terroirs in order to create a small and well-ordered range of wines.
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