Moulin Touchais: Vineyards
The domaine is located only a kilometre or so from Doué-la-Fontaine, which as many visitors to the Loire will know is home to one of France’s most impressive zoos. Those even more familiar with the local geography, however, will immediately recognise that this is almost directly south-west of Saumur, and it is not a town I would immediately associate with the Coteaux du Layon appellation. Nevertheless, the Moulin Touchais vineyards are only just a short distance to the west, around Martigné-Briand and Tigné, two of the lower communes of the Haut-Layon, just before the transition to the Bas-Layon (Martigné-Briand being the ‘border’ between the upper and the lower waters of the Layon). The Haut-Layon vineyards of the Coteaux du Layon appellation have more gentle slopes, and tend to have less botrytis and thus less concentration on the vine than the more famed vineyards of the Bas-Layon which is where the ‘village’ appellations of Faye-d’Anjou, Beaulieu-sur-Layon and the like are found. This ties in perfectly with my experience of the wines, which tend toward a rather gentle style, often suggesting concentration through passerillage rather than rampant botrytis, and which have a correspondingly modest (for a moelleux) level of residual sugar.
The Touchais vineyards are spread across about 150 hectares, although of this only about 35 hectares are dedicated to the production of Moulin Touchais, the remainder being dedicated to the production of dry wines under the Vins Touchais label, which I do not discuss here. It is only the sweet wines from the 35 hectares that are bottled and marketed by Vignobles Touchais. As noted on the previous page, the wines produced from the fruit of the other vineyards are channelled into the rosé Cuisse de Bergère, or sold off in bulk. Much of it has tended to travel a short distance north-east to Saumur, where it is used for the production of sparkling wines.
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