Domaine Jaulin-Plaisantin: Vineyards
As noted in the introduction to my profile, Domaine Jaulin-Plaisantin is no more, and the information provided below is preserved solely for historical purposes.
The domaine boasted 15 hectares of vineyards, and as indicated in my introduction these were all managed using organic methods. The domaine did an almost complete U-turn under Yves Plaisantin’s direction, from a point where the wine was exclusively sold in bulk to négociants to being almost 100% estate-bottled. They still occasionally sold a small mount to what Yves called the viti-négoce, small growers that do a little bit of négoce work on the side, such as Nicolas Grosbois or Jo Pithon (the latter clearly also of historical interest only). This they did if they had a good crop, such as in 2015 when they brought in 38 hl/ha, but Yves found numerous subsequent vintages too short to sell any fruit. In 2016, for example, they lost between 60% and 70% to the frost and subsequent vineyard maladies.
The vineyard was almost entirely Cabernet Franc, from a pragmatic point of view anyway. In truth they also had a tiny parcel of Chenin Blanc, just 0.3 hectares. Although this is planted on the slopes, with deep tuffeau rock beneath, it was excluded from the appellation simply because there were no vines planted here when the appellation boundaries were drawn up. Yves planted the vines in 2015 and they were yielding fruit by 2018, but to begin with he expected the wine to be marketed as a Vin de France. I note, however, that Yves and Sébastien did produce a white Chinon before they sold up, so perhaps the vines were subsequently admitted into the appellation fold.
