Domaine de Noiré: Vineyards
Domaine de Noiré is located on the Rue de l’Olive, which is the main route running eastwards out of the town of Chinon towards Cravant-les-Coteaux. Head far enough along this road and you will pass the domaines of Bernard Baudry and Pascal Lambert, among others. Domaine de Noiré is one of the first properties you pass along this road; it sits just past the Clos de l’Olive, the source of one of the top cuvées at Couly-Dutheil.
Jean-Max and Odile have about 16 hectares of vines (15 hectares of Cabernet Franc and 1 hectare of Chenin Blanc) to work with, an area which Jean-Max feels is a good size for a domaine, allowing him to balance his need for both quality and quantity. At the outset the management of the vineyards was conventional, but as I mentioned Jean-Max has changed his approach to the work in the vines during his time here. He began by working the soil and planting cover crops, to encourage greater microbiological diversity in the soil, before moving to more organic methods. Eventually he began a period of certification in 2011, and thus the domaine was certified (by ECOCERT) as organic in 2014. Today he also utilises some approaches that are more in the biodynamic vein.
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