Château de la Roulerie: Vineyards
Wine begins in the vineyard, and so has Philippe’s programme of developments at Château de la Roulerie. There has been a dramatic expansion, Philippe having purchased part of the nearby Domaine de la Grande Brosse in 2010. He acquired 8.5 hectares of the domaine, and began renting the remaining 9.5 hectares en fermage (in which Philippe will tend the vines and bring the wine to market, paying the owner of the land a fixed rent per annum over a long contract, usually ten years or longer), and so his domaine now amounts to 42 hectares in total. The new vineyards include parcels of Gamay and Grolleau and will facilitate the production of a greater volume of rosé, not the domaine’s grandest wine but one which is certainly of commercial importance to Philippe. They also come with some useful buildings.
These new vineyards augmented a domaine already blessed with several notable terroirs, the most remarkable of which is undoubtedly Les Terrasses. Directly behind the château (both château and terraces are pictured), running alongside that bubbling brook from northwest to southeast, before turning the corner and running to the northeast, these vines are rooted along wide terraces and they yield some of the highest-quality fruit to be found at this domaine.
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