- Wines in Portfolio -
TSOIN TSOIN
Type: Dry red
Appellation: Bourgueil
Site & Vines: 25 year old vines of Cabernet Franc from Clos de la Gaucherie.
Vinification & Elevage: carbonic maceration (entire bunches - unseeded) in tanks saturated with carbon dioxide. The fermentation will start inside each grape (enzymatic degradation pellicle). Bottled after a slight filtration degrading.
Age-ability:
Suggested Pairings: As an aperitif, with charcuterie. On Italian or sweet-salty dishes.
With a dry goat cheese.
Notes:
CINTRE, VDF
Type: Dry red
Appellation: Vin de France
Site & Vines: 25 year old vines of Cabernet Franc
Vinification & Elevage: Blend of bleeding rosé (juice obtained by bleeding from a vat containing destemmed grapes) and pressed rosé (direct pressing of bunch of grapes) which ferments in barrels of 400 liters aged 4/5 years.
Bottled with residual sugars (~ 20g / l) and gas from alcoholic fermentation (CO 2 ).
Crémant type bottle with "beer" capsule.
Age-ability:
Suggested Pairings: aperitif or for dessert with red fruits
Notes:
ILLUMINATIONS
Type: Dry red
Appellation: Bourgueil
Site & Vines: 35 years and over 60 years of Cabernet Franc from Parcels of Champs Colesses (50 ares) on Chouzé sur Loire and Marcé (26 ares). Sand and gravel soils.
Vinification & Elevage: Manual harvest in crates. 1st sorting on the vine by the picker. A second sorting is done at the end of the destemmer by 6 to 8 people on a sorting table of 2.70m.
The maceration took place in fiber vats during about twenty days with light pigeages. Once the alcoholic and malo-lactic fermentations are finished: de-vatting of the grapes, pressing and beginning of the breeding. No filtration before bottling.
Age-ability: can last up to 10-12 years
Suggested Pairings: Red meats and cheese
Notes:
FROSTMAN
Type: Dry red
Appellation: Vin de France
Site & Vines:
syrah, grenache, mourvèdre
Vinification: Fermented with native yeast in tank.
Notes: What Laurent refers to as his “business cuvée, SOS Frost”. As so many other growers, Laurent lost nearly all his fruit in 2016 and so he had source fruit from elsewhere in order to make wine and stay in business. It’s juicy, spicy and imminently drinkable.
ELECTION-LIBRE
Type: Dry red
Appellation: Vin de France
Site & Vines: Syrah, Grenache, Carignan
Vinification & Elevage: Fermented with . native yeast and aged in neutral wood for 10 months.
Notes: What Laurent refers to as his “business cuvée, SOS Frost”. As so many other growers, Laurent lost nearly all his fruit in 2016 and so he had source fruit from elsewhere in order to make wine and stay in business. This has all the classic garrigue notes and is nicely structured.
Laurent Herlin
Bourgueil
Certified Organic
Laurent Herlin found his domaine in 2009. After a successful career as a computer engineer, he felt his life-long passion for wine and ecology and the Loire Valley’s Cab Franc calling. He studied in Beaune and interned in a few places before settling on a small farm in Bourgeuil with 1 hectare of Cab Franc.
Today he farms 6 ha of vineyards organically and biodynamically including a small 4 hectare clos. Soils are made of sand, gravel and clay-limestone. His wines are lively expressive like the soils they come from, and outright delicious.