A Visit to Pierre Ménard, 2023
The cellars of the Loire Valley are some of the most atmospheric in which I have walked. Those of the old (and the new, for that matter) Clos Rougeard, for example, the walls blackened with decades of mould, a variety of coins pressed into the soft limestone by visitors keen to leave an oblation to the Wine Gods, or perhaps some evidence of their visit. Or there are the great caverns recently excavated at Château Beauséjour, and the impressive extension to the cellars at Bernard Baudry, both on the right bank of the Vienne, minor cathedrals to the Cabernet Francs of Panzoult and Cravant-les-Coteaux.
But not all cellars of note resemble these great temples. Not every barrel lives in a cavernous basilica visited by wide-eyed acolytes who come to worship at the altar of Bacchus. Or Dionysius. Or the Foucaults.
The cellars utilised by Pierre Ménard, in Faye-d’Anjou on the banks of the Layon, are a case in point. This is no purpose-built shrine to the vine, but a repurposed building, evidence for which is there for all to see. The windows, for example, not the norm in any Loire cellar, which once looked out onto a kitchen garden, but now open into a recently added (and much-needed) extension. And is that a door through to a kitchen or bedroom at the far end, sandwiched between foudre and stoneware jarre? Even the little table lamp, complete with tasseled lampshade, hints at this space’s previous life.
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