Domaine des Pothiers
I don’t mind admitting that I am completely enchanted by the wines of the Upper Loire. The vineyards of the Massif Central, once expansive and independent, but greatly contracted since the devastation of phylloxera, have been welcomed into the Ligérian fold with open arms. The region’s modern raison d’être is the combination of granite soils and Gamay, a variety planted throughout the Loire Valley, mostly around Anjou and Touraine. There, however, it is often rooted into gravelly or alluvial soils, occasionally shining when permitted onto more nervous limestone. These wines can be very good of course, but granite seems to breathe new life and fresh energy into the variety.
And here in the Upper Loire appellation of the Côte Roannaise (as well as the nearby Côtes du Forez) we have whole mountains of granite, of course, stretching right the way across to the hill of Hermitage, in the Rhône Valley. The synergy seen here with Gamay seems to me to be no less convincing than granite achieves with Syrah on those famous slopes (although there is no denying the wines are somewhat different in style!). There are several noteworthy domaines to be found here and one, based in Villemontais, in the heart of the Côte Roannaise appellation, is Domaine des Pothiers.
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