Domaine Fabrice Gasnier: Tasting & Drinking
Fabrice Gasnier has taken an old family domaine once run using the ‘modern’ methods of the late-20th century. Jacky Gasnier used chemical herbicides and other products to control vineyard diseases and augment yields, and the fully ripened fruit was eventually brought in using machine harvesters, easily employed here on the gently rolling terraces and plains of Cravant-les-Coteaux and Panzoult. Under Fabrice’s direction, however, the domaine has been transformed. It is run using organic and biodynamic methods, both certified, while come harvest time the fruit is brought in by a crack team of close to 50 pickers. It is a recipe for success.
Where the portfolio is particularly strong here is in the more juicy and accessible style of Chinon, ideal for easy-minded current drinking, or perhaps short-term cellaring. It is a style which of course matches the domaine’s portfolio of vineyards, which tend to be concentrated on more gravelly and alluvial terroirs. Of course such wines can also age well; this is as true of Fabrice’s Vieilles Vignes cuvée as it is of Bernard and Matthieu Baudry’s Les Grézeaux, or Philippe Alliet’s Vieilles Vignes cuvée. And I find the style of wine broadly clean and flavoursome, suggesting the work in the cellar matches the meticulous methods employed in the vineyard.
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