Alcohol: 12%
Grape(s): Gamay
Localization: Loire Valley, France
Tasting Notes: This wine is classified as a Vin de France and Hervé says it is “frais et gouleyant, a boire d’une traite”. Essentially he is saying it is fresh and should be drunk in one go!
Notes: This wine is a special bottling of Hervé’s silky red. He thinks it is so drinkable that a standard bottle may not be enough! Therefore he is using a 1 litre bottle for this vintage making it excellent value for money.
Made from 100% Gamay, the grapes are sourced from a a vineyard in the Cher Valley and harvested entirely by hand and placed in small baskets.
The Domain: Hervé Villemade adopted organic farming and natural winemaking practices in the 90s, for his 22 hectares of vines in the Cheverny appellation of the Loire. His vineyards are planted to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Menu Pineau, Romorantin, Côt, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Chenin Blanc. Soils here divide roughly between sandy-flint and clayey-flint. Vines are spaced relatively wide at two meters, and even wider for the older vines that comprise the historical heart of the estate.
His chief concern, as he’s expanded over the years, has been minimizing frost risk. It was frost losses that impelled him, in 2002, to partner with sommelier-turned-winemaker Olivier Lemasson to found Les Vins Contés, a négoçiant business that Lemasson continued after the pair parted ways in 2006. Villemade founded his own négoçiant company in 2008, which he continues to this day. Not all purchases have organic certification, although he emphasizes that all grapes are farmed organically.
Buy 6 bottles of regularly priced (not on sale) wines and receive 5% off.
Buy 12 and receive 10% off.
Email sale wines do not combine nor count towards the above discount.
We would consider all wine to be "Natural". The term "Natural Wine" has the connotation of lacking a touch with nature. The winegrowers we champion are those who are farmers first. They seek to capture the uniqueness of the site (terroir) in the purest way possible. The product is as pure as possible and without wine-making flaws (brettanomyces, mercaptans, volatile acidity, etc.
Raw, in this case, we define as realistic and not manipulated. The winemakers use the least amount of intervention as possible. Wine should be made in the vineyard, not the cellar. The winemaker's job is to get the wine into the bottle in the purest form possible. There are additives that go into making wine, some are essential and some are not. Wines in this category do not have extra additives. They are free of added sulfur, or have the most minimal amounts possible in order to provide shelf stability for the consumer to experience the wine as the winemaker intended it to be.
