2007 L'Arpent Rouge, AC Touraine, Clos Roche Blanche

One of my favourite Clos Roche Blanche wines is their L’Arpent Rouge made from Pineau d’Aunis (also called Chenin Noir). Unfortunately they don’t make it every year as the Pineau d’Aunis rosé has first call. Light bodied, juicy and spicy L’Arpent Rouge is a great summer wine. The 2007 is drinking really well now and has a particularly spicy character – certainly pepper, which is the signature note of Pineau d’Aunis – but also nutmeg and cinnamon. Delicious but I fear this was out last bottle and there was none made in 2008. Let’s hope Didier is able to make some in 2009!


1986 Clos Uroulat, Charles Hours, Jurançon
Made from Petit Manseng this has some similarities with a sweet Montlouis and Vouvray, especially with its clean and refreshing acidity in the finish and its ability to age. Sweet Jurançon is made through passerillage – the sun concentrating the grapes on the vines. The area does not get botrytis. The 1986 has a lovely bright mid-golden colour, rich apricot and honey flavours – perhaps softer toned than a Loire sweet Chenin of the same age. The finish is long and clean.

I’ve never had the chance to taste a really old Jurançon but there is no reason to believe that the 1986 wouldn’t go on for at least another 20 years at least. Served blind I’m sure I would confuse it with a Vouvray or Montlouis.

Charles Hours, Clos Uroulat

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La Grande Maison blogspot has an encouraging report on the green and vibrant vineyards around Le Puy-Notre-Dame.

19th March 2009

2007 L’Arpent Rouge, AC Touraine, Clos Roche Blanche

Only occasionally do Catherine and Didier make a red from their Pineau d’Aunis. This partly depends upon whether the grapes are good enough but also, probably more importantly, is there enough Pineau d’Aunis to make both their rosé and a red. If there is a shortage, the rosé gets first call. In fact I think they have only made three vintages of L’Argent Rouge. I forget which were the other two vintages – I’ve tried to check but the answerphone is on in Mareuil, so will have to add the details later.

Anyway the 2007, which I opened last night as delicious as indeed the other vintages have been. Typically light coloured with the characteristic, spicy peppery nose of Pineau d’Aunis, this is just a delicious and refreshing drink with a reasonable 12.5% alcohol. It’s one of those bottles that surprise you by how quickly it becomes empty!

Long out of fashion, Pineau d’Aunis has of late been making a comeback and not just in the valley of Le Loir, which has tended to be its recent heartland. It is also called Chenin Noir and is one of the oldest grapes of the Loire Valley. Catherine and Didier used to make the L’Arpent from Chenin Blanc, which was decidedly minerally and quite austere. Hence it made sense to call the Pineau d’Aunis – L’Argent Rouge. Unfortunately their Chenin has now been pulled out.

Though made from an old variety, this is a thoroughly modern wine that works with food but also by itself.

(1st August 2008)

Domaine Les Maisons Rouges: Elizabeth and Benoît Jardin (Jasnières, Coteaux du Loir)
Staying overnight in the Hotel de France in the centre of La Chartre-sur-Loir, we head off to Ruillé, on the north bank of Le Loire and about five kilometres away, for our late afternoon appointment with Elizabeth and Benoit Jardin, who make bith jasnières and Coteaux du Loir. Domaine Les Maisons Rouges is on the hillside to the east of Ruillé and has a peaceful view over the pastoral valley of Le Loir.

Jasnières is one of those small Loire appellations that nearly died out between the 1960s and 1980s, despite its renown when the first appellations were being agreed that ensured that it got its AC status in 1937. Furthermore The famous gastronome Curnonsky (1872-1956) declared that "three times a century, Jasnières is the best white wine in the world". As far as I know he never explained how the other 97 vintages might rate. Le Loir is at the extreme north to ripen Chenin Blanc. In cool, difficult years Jasnières can be very austere and can present a challenge even to the most rabid Loire Chenin enthusiast. The vineyards of Le Loir are also now the most northerly of Western France, although in the 19th century vines were grown as far north as Argentan, some 120 kilometres further north. Jasnières stretches in the west from Les Molières above L’Homme eastwards to Sous les Bois, just east of the hamlet of Dauvers.

Sketch map of Jasnières and Coteaux du Loir@Les Maisons Rouges
Yellow is Jasnières and orange: Coteaux du Loir.
Jasnières starts just under the green in line with the MasterCard sign
and describes a crescent westwards stopping just before the nearly vertical road.

The Les Maisons Rouges farmhouse dates from the beginning of the 19th century when it belonged to the Château de Ruillé. It would have been a mixed farm. We were met by Elizabeth Jardin, who explained how they came to be making wine here.

Benoît comes from Flers in the Orne department in Normandy. His training in Tours was in raising horses but he was seduced by wine and he and Elizabeth moved to Les Maisons Rouges in Ruillé in 1994. Today they have seven hectares of vines – three of Jasnières and four in the Coteaux du Loir. In 2000 they started to convert moved to organic viticulture and two years ago became registered organic. Since 2004 they have practised ‘natural vinification’ only using SO2 at the point of bottling – none beforehand. “It is too risky not to use sulphur when bottling,” they say. They are in good company here as the renowned Mark Angeli of La Ferme de la Sansonnière in Thouarcé came to realize after doing without sulphur for a number of years when his potentially wonderful wines showed extreme bottle variation and were occasionally prone to referment.

View across the valley of Loir from Les Maisons Rouges

Elizabeth: “We have been using barriques Bordelais. However in the future, we are moving to 400 or 600 litre barrels. The potential area for Jasnières is 127 ha but there is between 70-80 ha in production. Normally we vinify parcel by parcel but in 2006 and 2007 we grouped them together as those two harvests were small.”

We talked about the soils, in particular Elizabeth told us about les perrons – large stones and how they are particularly large and prevalent at the top of the hillside. Also about patches of schist as well as white clay and the alluvial soils of the valley floor.

Elizabeth: “Our best vines are in the middle of the coteaux where the vine roots go deepest, especially the old vines.”

We taste outside, starting with the soft textured 2006 Dans les Perrons Coteaux du Loir (€9.50) with a touch of honey and good length. 10%-15% of the wine spent 10 months in new oak. Dans les Perrons comes from four parcels at the top of the coteaux.

Next the rich but more mineral and persistent 2006 Clos des Molières Jasnières (€11) – bottled at the end of 2007. Elizabeth: “As the vineyard is on chalk, it takes longer for the aromas to develop.”

Like 2007 conditions in 2008 are proving to be challenging. “Mildew and oidium are present this year. We work with plants but don’t dynamise them as you do in biodynamics. We use powdered fenugreek against oidium before the flowering.”

On to Sur le Nez 2006 (€17) – this comes from vines in the Clos des Jasnières and the Clos de la Gidonière. The vines are old – a minimum of 70 years old and planted between 1900 and 1935. More golden hued, this has an attractive honeyed texture with some floral notes and good length but less marked by minerality.

2007 Les Vieilles Vignes d’Aunis Coteaux du Loir will be a rare bottle as cold during the flowering and little juice in the grapes reduced the crop of Pineau d’Aunis down to 20% of normal. Coulure (poor setting) is a problem this variety.

Elizabeth: “The maximum yields we want from the Pineau d’Aunis are 35-37 hl/ha. If the yields are too high you can get rot at the end of the season – in 2006 rot spread quickly. That year we had 50% of a normal crop. This year we anticipate that yields will be around 30 hl/ha. As it is easy to extract astringency with the alcohol, we use a long cold soak for about 15 days before the start of the alcoholic fermentation. The total maceration time is three to four weeks.”

The 2007 VV is characteristically peppery and spicy. It needs a little time to soften. We learn that some clones of Pineau d’Aunus have long bunches which makes them difficult to ripen, however there is a version that produces small bunches which do mature properly.

We finished with the attractive, rich quince and apricot 2005 Inclinaison Jasnières (€23), which should have the potential to age well. The grapes were picked at the end of October, has 14% alcohol and 29 grams of residual sugar and is fermented and aged in barriques for 25 months.

Between 20%-30% of their production is exported with Holland and japan being good markets.


I came away impressed with Elizabeth and Benoît’s wines and look forward to tasting them again. After a quick wander around the byways of the Jasnières AC we headed back to the Hotel de France with its long association with motor racing at Le Mans and collection of photos of racing drivers, including Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Jim Clark, from the 1960s and 1970s.

Domaine Les Maisons Rouges
26 Route des Hautes Touches, 72340 Ruillé-sur-Loir.
Tel: 02.43.79.50.09
Email: mr@maisonsrouges.com
Web: www.maisonsrouges.com

To come shortly: Joël Gigou and Le Briseau.