La Folle Berthe: Vineyards
David’s cellars are located in a small hamlet, Doué-en-Anjou, located just a few kilometres west of Le Puy-Notre-Dame. Coincidentally, the cellars are very close to L’Austral, another relatively new domaine founded by Pauline Mourrain and Laurent Troubat who have also taken on some of the old Philippe Gourdon vines.
David has just 4.5 hectares of vines, scattered around Le Puy-Notre-Dame. This includes 1.7 hectares of white varieties, solely Chenin Blanc in fact, and about 2.8 hectares of red varieties; these latter parcels include 1.7 hectares of Cabernet Franc and close to 1 hectare of Pineau d’Aunis. He has vines in some of Philippe’s most renowned parcels, including Amandiers and Les Fontenelles, both planted with Chenin Blanc, and worked by David on a fermage agreement. Others are in Vigneaux, another old Gourdon plot.
The work in the vineyard is organic, continuing the cornerstone of the philosophies adhered to by Philippe for more than 20 years now. With just 4.5 hectares all the work in the vines is completed manually, by David, although to nobody’s surprise Philippe still helps out from time to time.
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