NV Manoir de la Tête Rouge "Tête en l'air", Crémant de Loire, Loire Valley, France

ABOUT THIS WINE

Sparkling Chenin Blanc from Loire Producer Guillaume Reynouard.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

On the hill of Puy Notre Dame, a majestic collegiate eleventh century overlooks the vineyard. Le Manoir de la Tête Rouge was built in 1649 at the foot of the hill. The "Domaine de la Tête Rouge" is located on one of the best clay-limestone soils of Saumur. Guillaume Reynourad took over the management of the estate in 1995 and decided to orientate the work of the vineyard by following the practices of integrated agriculture. He then adopted the principles of organic agriculture and obtained an eco-certification in 1998. Biodynamics is above all a "good farming sense", which takes into account the astral influences and the rhythms of nature. If it often seems young to the general public, it is important to know that its fundamental principles were defined in 1924 by the philosopher Rudolf Steiner.

In order to bring the Domaine to its current level, Guillaume Reynouar did not skimp on his efforts. When he took over the vineyard, the soils had not been worked for more than 30 years and were therefore very hard. The vines were not very easy to work either, since they could not bear the cutting of the superficial roots at the beginning. Today the yields of the vineyard are regular on a soil in great shape thanks to Guillaume's work. But they remain limited because Guillaume insists on making a very "elitist" selection of grapes in order to obtain high quality wines.

Recently, Guillaume gave a new lease of life to his estate by planting 30 hectares of Pineau d'Auris, a forgotten and denigrated grape variety - wrongly for him - in the Saumur region.