Clos de l’Écotard: Vineyards
Clos de l’Écotard is located in the commune of Courchamps, which lies at the centre of a triangle of which the three corner-points are Saumur (north), Doué-la-Fontaine (west) and Montreuil-Bellay (south). This places the domaine firmly on the limestone of the western reaches of the Paris Basin, and that much is evident when visiting the region. It is not just the lumps of limestone you trip over in the vineyard, but every house, barn, mansion, cellar building and roadside wall is built from near-white limestone.
The domaine can be found on the western edge of Mihervé, a thin, stretched-out hamlet of residential dwellings, cellars and caves dotted along the at the side of the road. It is the penultimate building on the left-hand side as you exit the village westwards; beyond there lies an expanse of agricultural land, of which about one-quarter is planted to vines. This is the Clos de l’Écotard for which the domaine is named. It was where I met Michel Chevré, during my vineyard tour.
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