Gadais Père et Fils, 2018 Update
The Gadais family have been making wine in St-Fiacre-sur-Maine for at least a century. In recent times the domaine has been the responsibility of the fourth generation of the family, in the shape of Christophe Gadais, but this is changing. Today it is increasingly the fifth generation, Pierre-Henri Gadais, who has hold of the reins, having begun working with his father in 2016. This he did after first studying viticulture and oenology at the lycée viticole in Briacé, appropriate enough bearing in mind both his father and grandfather Michel Gadais were educated there, and his great grandfather Louis Gadais was one of the lycée’s founders.
Afterwards Pierre-Henri sought out some practical experience, first not too far from home at Domaine de la Pépière in Muscadet, and then with Famille Bourgeois in Sancerre, as well as stints in Savoie, Burgundy, New Zealand and Bordeaux. If you know Pierre-Henri’s story the fact he spent some time with the Bourgeois family will perhaps come as no surprise. Before taking over the running of the family domaine his father Christophe Gadais worked for the Bourgeois family, and for many years he ran Domaine Laporte, a large and particularly flinty slice of the Bourgeois empire. Indeed, as Christophe married a Bourgeois daughter, Pierre-Henri Gadais (pictured) is descended from both the Gadais and Bourgeois families.
The Wines
Pierre-Henri Gadais is quick to point out that he works exclusively with Melon de Bourgogne. He describes the domaine’s location, between the courses of the Sèvre and the Maine, as being the “cradle” of the Muscadet Sèvre et Maine appellation. “There are a lot of people in the Nantais working with Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay”, he says, “but we have no knowledge of those, and we work exclusively with Melon. Around St-Fiacre-sur-Maine we have the steepest slopes in the appellation, and very thin soils, because of the proximity of the rivers. And the orthogneiss, which is organised in layers, is easily penetrated by the roots of the vines”. Melon de Bourgogne vines, obviously.
