Domaine des Echardieres Le Becassou Touraine Rouge 2019 75cl

Tasting Note

Producer

Luc Poullain bought Domaine des Echardières and its 16 hectares of vines as a going concern in 2000 from one of the many divisions of the local Launay clan. He was 30 years old at the time. An interesting career path, he’d studied as an agricultural engineer in Bedfordshire in the early 1990s (which rather explains his excellent grasp of the English language), before returning to France to sell, ironically, chemicals to the wine industry.

Although the cellar is situated in the village of Angé, the vines are located on what is referred to as the Premier Côte between here and the neighbouring commune of Pouillé – where Luc and his family live. Split almost equally white and red, there are seven hectares of Sauvignon, planted on two different soil types (both flint and limestone) and which are vinified apart.

Named after the famous Renaissance château, the appellation came into effect in 2011 and exists for red and white wine, selected from the best vineyard sites spread across 27 different communes on both sides of the Cher. As the current President of the growers’ syndicat, Luc is a proud defender of what the producers of Touraine-Chenonceaux appellation sets out to achieve.

_{Country: France | Region: Loire Valley | Alcohol: TBC | Grapes: Cot Malbec, Cabernet Franc}