François Cotat: Vineyards
The domaine amounts to approximately 4 hectares, and is based principally around plots in three of Chavignol’s most famed vineyards (although these are not the only vines, not by far, as we shall see).
The vines are mostly (but not entirely) Sauvignon Blanc, planted on terres blanches, the limestone marl that characterises the vineyards of Chavignol. There is a plot just over 1 hectare in size in Les Monts Damnés, the huge sweep of vineyards that look down upon Chavignol, as well as another on the Cul de Beaujeu, the promontory of rock at the western end of the village that was first planted by monks in the 14th century, in order to provide the abbey in nearby Bourges with wine. He has 0.9 hectares in the latter of these two vineyards. Some of these sites have remarkably steep slopes, and they require ingenuity to work them efficiently, from the snowcat of Gérard Boulay to the more common sled-on-a-rope. The third major site in the portfolio is La Grande Côte, just to the south, where François has another 0.9 hectares of vines more than 40 years old.
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