Domaine Andrée
Saint-Georges sur Layon, Anjou, Loire Valley, France
Stéphane Erissé
It is not an accident that in a relatively short amount of time Stéphane Erissé has been able to put together such a compelling range of wines from Saint-Georges-sur-Layon. Far from being a career winemaker, Stéphane was a builder for 15 years before he decided to switch gears in 2008. Fortunately for him, he knew exactly who to call for a wine apprenticeship. Stéphane spent the next three years under Antoine Foucault at Domaine du Collier and that being his only “experience” before setting out on his own, it deeply informs his approach.
“The vineyard is a compact 3 hectares, chosen carefully to focus on a certain idea of wine. Purity, finesse, depth. Rather like the man himself, who is sensitive and precise both in his words and in his actions. When you taste his wines everything quivers. It is simultaneously a boisterous outpouring and a concentration of everything that a vine can draw from the terroir and the man who tends it. A tribute...”
— Etienne Rigourd & Bernard Reeves, Anjou Untamed
Stéphane is always searching and relentlessly thinking, yet relying a lot on his intuition. The wines remarkably achieve an impressive serenity for such a young domaine, with the range showing a beautiful mix between limestone structure and schist aromatics.
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Working for more than 15 years in the international construction business, Stéphane Érissée decided in 2008 to change career and life to be closer to his daughter Jade.
In 2011, Stéphane launched Domaine Andrée (named after his grandmother) by acquiring 3.7 ha of multiple plots of vines farmed organically for the last 25 years by the previous owner, in Saint-Georges-sur-Layon, a commune between Martigné-Briand and Montreuil-Bellay, just at the edges of Anjou Noir and Anjou Blanc. -
Here, in Saint-Georges-sur-Layon, just at the edges of Anjou Noir and Anjou Blanc, the terroir is very special: it is a vein of charcoal crossing the Layon, inspiring the names of two of Stéphane’s Cabernet Franc cuvées, Les Mines and Carbone.
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Stylistically, Stephane is trying to work as closely to nature as possible. He prides himself on his non-interventionist farming and insisted on staying small, only working with three hectares, so he could have a direct connection to all of his vines.
When the time came to find vineyards, Stéphane selected three hectares from a grower who had been organic for over twenty-five years. Many of the parcels are of old vines.
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Stéphane vinifies in a beautiful underground tuffeau cave, located about thirty minutes away from his vines, in Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg near Saumur.
He uses a vertical press and everything is put into barrel by gravity. He ferments in carefully selected larger oak formats from different coopers (some new), he believes a great wine takes time and trusts in an appropriate length of aging (12 months for the grolleau, at least 18 months for the Cabernet and the Chenin) on fine lees. Reds are 100% destemmed.Stephane's holdings are on very schistous soils so there is the potential for the wines to have hard tannins. He prefers no maceration and very little extraction to avoid excessive tannin. The goal is infusion, not extraction.
He uses minimum sulfur, when pressing (max 15-20 ppm), after settling (max 15-20 ppm, if any, depending on the vintage quality) and if needed at bottling.
Wines
L'Envolée
L' Envolée is Stephane Erisse's way of telling you that Grolleau should not be taken lightly. It is a blend of both Grolleau Gris and Grolleau Noir of approximately 20 years of age planted in the schistous soils Saint Georges sur Layon.
Carbone
Despite being very close to each other, the difference in the age of the vines and the geology of the "Carbone" and "Les Mines" parcels produces two very distinct expressions of Cabernet Franc. Both parcels have a lot of clay in the soil but Carbone comes from a darker soil, rich in coal and granite. Carbone comes from a parcel of 70 year old Cabernet Franc vines. Carbone is aged in barrel (30% new) for one year before being bottled.
Les Mines
The wine is named “Le Mines” (The Mines) because the color of the soil looks like a coal mine. Stephane believes the particular variety of metamorphic rock is black from its high coal & graphite content. That particular geology imparts a unique sense of minerality in the wine.
Les Mines is a parcel of 45 year old Cabernet Franc vines; it’s aged in barrel (30% new) for two years before being bottled.
Anjou Blanc Les Faraunières
Stephane's Anjou Blanc comes from 1.4 hectares of 100 year old Chenin Blanc planted in schistous soil with yellow clay and quartz. The wine goes through malolactic in barrel and finishes with a pH of 3.10 to 3.15.
The wine is aged for approximately 10 months in oak (30% new) on its lees without being touched.
Starting with the 2015 vintage, Stéphane put the name of the parcel (Les Faraunieres) on the label.
IGP Val de Loire Blanc, Etreinte
100% Grolleau Gris from a 50-year-old vines planted on a sandy-clay soil. Aged in vats on lees for 18 months. Etreinte, or "the embrace."