Domaine de Pallus, Chinon, Pensées de Pallus, Cravant-les-Côteaux, Touraine, Loire, France, 2019

Producer Profile

We first met Bertrand Sourdais when he was the winemaker for Dominio de Atauta, one of the finest wineries in Ribera Del Duero.

Now at the helm of this family-run 18 hectares domaine in Chinon, Bertrand is already changing and improving the vineyard management and has brought new techniques to the cellar. As a result, he is expressing the true potential of Domaine de Pallus: silky, deep rich Cabernet Francs without any of the green vegetal character so often showing in the lesser wines from this region.

Viticulture

Cravant Les Coteaux, proud of its outstanding terroir, of its ideally exposed hill and its old vines inherited from an ancestral heritage, is the jewel of the Chinon wines. Les Pensées de Pallus comes from the best vines of this terroir and has always been the finest cru among the wines of Chinon. In 2013, searching for a better quality and looking for perfection, Bertrand Sourdais decides to stir this wine up and concentrate only on the exceptional vines on the side of the hill, just a few hectares. The wine, which used to be the assembly of various plots, becomes a terroir wine that provides a stunning and undeniably dense mouth-feel. The quality of this sandy, calcareous soil, its exposition to hours of sunlight on the hill and the wine making procedures make Les Pensées de Pallus the “premier cru” of the Domaine!

Winemaking

Fermentation and maceration in concrete tanks for 21 days using indigenous yeasts followed by 12 months in Burgundy barrels and then 6 months in concrete wine tanks.

Food Matching

Roasted game birds, such as pheasant or squab, with a berry reduction. It also pairs nicely with ratatouille or roasted vegetables.