Domaine de la Combe, 2022 Update
In today’s journey into Muscadet country we come to one of the more recent additions to the local wine scene, and one of its youngest vignerons. Pierre-Henri Gadais hails from a family of Muscadet-makers, the fourth generation to take on the running of the family domaine, one which was created when great grandfather Louis Gadais switched from small-scale polyculture to cultivating purely the vine.
Louis handed the domaine down to his sons, Marcel and Michel, and it eventually came to the next generation, Pierre-Henri’s father, Christophe. During the past two decades it is Christophe who has held the reins at Gadais Père et Fils, but control is now gradually being passed to Pierre-Henri, who has chalked up an impressive resume working in Burgundy, New Zealand and Bordeaux, among other places.
While you might think taking on the running of the family domaine to be enough for most young vignerons newly returned to the fold, this does not seem to be the case here. Not long after his return to the region Pierre-Henri Gadais also took over the running of a neighbouring domaine, Les Grands Presbytères; the proprietor Nelly Marzelleau had handed over the reins to Christophe Gadais in 2009, but with Pierre-Henri’s arrival the family took over the estate completely, renaming it Domaine de la Combe in the process. He quickly converted the entire 9 hectares to organics, with a sprinkling of biodynamics.
The Vintage and the Wines
As I have also described in my Loire 2021 vintage report, 2021 was beset with frost. “We had four bad nights” Pierre-Henri told me, “and on the first three we had no damage. But then on the fourth night the frost came after rain during the day, and as a result the damage was extensive, running most of the way up to top of hill, which is not usually subject to frost. In the end we lost 75%”. This is very typical figure for the vintage in this part of the Loire Valley in 2021, with many vignerons reporting losses between 70% and 90% of the crop.
