Domaine de la Noblaie Retrospective, 2018
Chinon is a large appellation, with well over 2,000 hectares eligible, and of course it is getting larger, the boundaries having been expanded (appropriately in my opinion) in the 2016 vintage. And while I try to taste widely, I have to admit I have a few favourite domaines that I call in on more frequently than others. Some I have known for a very long time, while some have come on to my radar much more recently. Somewhere in the middle is Domaine de la Noblaie.
While all of the wines made by Jérôme Billard (pictured, during a visit I made to the domaine a year or two ago) hold my interest (and that is quite rare, even in Chinon) his three upmarket red wines are particularly interesting. Two are site-specific, Les Blancs Manteaux (from a limestone terroir) and Les Chiens-Chiens (from soils richer in clay) while the third – which we should regard as the top cuvée – is Pierre de Tuf.
Pierre de Tuf is distinguished from its peers by its fermentation in tuffeau vat, essentially a large egg-like cavity cut into the tuffeau rock in the Domaine de la Noblaie cellars. This is, to the best of my knowledge, a unique practice in the region, but one that has been ongoing here at La Noblaie for many centuries. Jérôme Billard destems fruit selected from the vineyard, after which the berries are then lifted by forklift truck and deposited directly into the limestone vat. Here they undergo alcoholic fermentation, and after a long maceration the wine is run off into 500-litre barrels for the malolactic fermentation and an élevage lasting at least twelve months. Thereafter the wine is assembled in stainless steel where it rests for another eight months before bottling.
