Domaine Jaulin-Plaisantin: Vineyards
The domaine boasts 15 hectares of vineyards, and as indicated in my introduction these are all managed using organic methods. The domaine has done an almost complete U-turn under Yves Plaisantin’s direction, from a point where the wine was exclusively sold to négociants to being almost 100% estate-bottled. They still occasionally sell a small mount to what Yves calls the viti-négoce, small growers that do a little bit of négoce work on the side, such as Nicolas Grosbois or Jo Pithon. This they do if they have a good crop, such as in 2015 when they brought in 38 hl/ha, but Yves has found numerous vintages simply 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 is almost entirely Cabernet Franc, from a pragmatic point of view anyway. In truth they also have a tiny parcel of Chenin Blanc, just 0.3 hectares. Although this is planted on the slopes, with deep tuffeau rock beneath, it is excluded from the appellation simply because there were no vines planted here when the appellation boundaries were drawn up. Yves planted in 2015 and the vines will start yielding fruit in the next couple of years, but to begin with this will have to be marketed as a Vin de France.
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