Domaine Saint Nicolas, 2024 Update
Following a spate of Muscadet updates (and with a few more tasting notes coming – at pace, I promise – down the pipeline) now seems like the right moment to pause for a moment, and to take a look south to the little-known Fiefs Vendéens appellation.
These tiny islets of viticulture are scattered along the Atlantic coast, not far from some well known beach resorts including Les Sables-d’Olonne and La Rochelle. Their exact origins lie shrouded in the mists of time, the vineyards already established here by the 11th century, part of a broad swathe of vines that ran down the coast, from Brittany, through modern-day Muscadet, to Cognac, Armagnac, Bordeaux and beyond. The Fiefs Vendéens was no small part of this vinous highway; during the Middle Ages the vineyard grew at a remarkable rate, thanks principally to the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu (1585 – 1642), and by 1880 there were 18,000 hectares planted here.
And then came phylloxera.
Today just a few hundred hectares survive, but they remain an important part of the Ligérian vinous jigsaw, bringing something unique to the table. This distinctive character principally reflects the combination of varieties usually associated with more southern climes (such as Négrette) or continental territories (including Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir) with the cool, salty, Atlantic climate. Quite simply there is no other Loire appellation which gives you what the Fiefs Vendéens has to offer.
Which, I suppose, makes it all the regrettable that arguably the region’s leading vigneron, Thierry Michon of Domaine Saint Nicolas, felt obliged to leave the appellation and work entirely in Vin de France.
