Noella Morantin Les Pichiaux Sauvignon 2017

Noella Morantin is originally from Brittany, but has been making wine in the Loire since first taking interest in the wonderful world of fermented grape juice. A random encounter with a professor of viticulture inspired her to start learning about wine, and this hobby quickly became an obsession. In 2001, she quit her job and started viti//vini school, where she interned with Agnès and René Mosse until 2003. In 2004, she met Junko Arai, the owner of the now defunct Touraine estate Les Bois Lucas. The two hit it off and Noella was eventually hired as head overseer of the estate.

Bois Lucas's vines had previously been owned by Catherine Roussel and Didier Barrouillet of Clos Roche Blanche. Working in close proximity to each other served as a natural way for Noella and Didier to get to know each other, and the two became friends. In 2008, the decision was made to downsize CRB in half; this coincided with Noella's plans of starting her own estate, and she jumped on the opportunity when Didier proposed she rent some of his vines.Today, Noella rents 8 1/2 hectares of vines from the lieu-dit Clos Roche Blanche, as well as recently acquiring 4 hectares of ex-Bois Lucas land. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Gamay, Côt and Cabernet Sauvignon are grown; the vines are tended organically (certified by Ecocert in 2008), and the wine is vinified without intervention or manipulation. Almost everything ferments in large wooden vats. The two Gamay cuvées macerate whole cluster:Mon Cher is full carbonic maceration, and grapes are treaded for La Boudinerie. The Côt is a blend of wine fermented in wooden vats, whole-cluster and destemmed grapes ("like a millefeuille"). Other than the Marie-Rose (a Cabernet Sauvignon rosé named after Noella's grandmothers), all wines are aged a year to a year and a half in old barrels, which differs from the vast majority of Touraine wines, which get released in the early Spring. Not wanting to deal with AOC politics, Noella intentionally declassifies all her cuvées to Vin de France. - Importer Note