Sébastien Riffault: Vineyards
One feature of the Sébastien Riffault portfolio that is immediately apparent, as I alluded to on the previous page, is the slightly challenging nomenclature; nowhere else in Sancerre, or perhaps in all France, will you find cuvées named Skeveldra or Akméniné. It is a fairly straightforward concept; each cuvée, save for the domaine cuvée, originates from a specific lieu-dit, and they are named for these lieux-dits…..it is just that they are named in Lithuanian, in honour of Sébastien’s wife who hails from that country.
The vines Sébastien tends are largely planted on south-facing slopes, with gradients of up to 35% on some. Underfoot the soils are largely limestone and clay (the terres blanches and caillottes terroirs) but there is flint (silex) as well, over bedrocks of both Kimmeridgian and Portlandian limestone. The soils are ploughed occasionally, for a portion of the domaine (perhaps one-third of the 12 hectares) with the help of Ophélie, Sébastien’s horse, but on the whole ploughing is restricted in order to encourage the growth of natural greenery between the rows, and because of Sébastien’s concerns about its drying and disruptive effect on the topsoil.
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