Jasnières, Loire Valley, France
Jean-Pierre hails from the Vallée du Loir - which is in the "Vallée de la Loire", the "Vallée du Loir" is the valley formed by the banks of the "Loir" river, a tributary of the "Sarthe" river, taking its source west of Chartres, north of Illiers-Combray. The "Loir" joins the Sarthe river in Briollay, a village north of the city Angers, which in turn joins the Maine river that finally fall into the Loire.”
The vineyards of the Loir Valley begins with the AOC Coteaux du Vendôme, through the AOC Jasnières ending with the AOC Coteaux du Loire. The production area consists now of 400 hectares, while many centuries ago, 5,000 hectares of vines were planted and used; but with time, some sites were abandoned and most others were mainly destroyed by the Phylloxera plague between 1860s and 1930s.
Before becoming a natural winemaking superstar, Robinot was proprietor of likely the first natural wine bars in the world. He opened l’Ange Vin in 1987. The French do like their puns - “Ange Vin” literally Angel Wine was also the name of the local aristocracy around Angers.
In 2002, he started to acquire quite a few plots of fallow lands in the appellation Coteaux du Loir, not planted over a century for some. Within the first few years, and the intention to slowly and gradually build his Domaine and after a first clearing operation, it already planted two hectares of vines in the appellation Coteaux du Loir. It also took care of some other vines planted on AOC Jasnières and AOC Coteaux du Loir red. Now, he possesses about 10 hectares of lands on steep slopes, which include great Terroirs.
Viticulture and vinification:
The objective he set for himself is ambitious: organic farming and natural winemaking and vinification processes, with yields limited to 25 / 30 hectoliters per hectare to obtain great complexity.
All his vines are fed with natural composts and weeding chemicals are banned. Additionally, his Pineau d’Aunis comes from a patch of pre-phylloxera vines, so they sit on their own roots.
For vinification, fermentation is super slow, lasting almost all winter. He never adds sulfur during any stage of the process.
For the whites, which are from Chenin Blanc, he presses them very gently and they are aged on their lees in oak barrels for at least 12 months. His red wines are from the Pineau d'Aunis grape variety. After a long fermentation, they finish their ageing on the lees in oak barrels for at least a year. The wines are stored in long tuffeau tunnels, he listens sometimes puts an ear to the cask to listen for yeast activity.
Other notable facts:
He is crazy for cuvees! He separates wine into batches, based on vineyard location, or whim and labels them each differently. Names and labels will change from year to year, though, he will have some “series,” such as the Opéra des Vins or Les Vignes de l’Ange Vin, nnames for his old wine bar.
His wines are within Appellation Jasnières, but he decides whether to use it or not. And it’s mostly not. One should consider the style of wine and its typicité before declaring a particular wine a part of an appellation.