Château de Bois-Brinçon - Terre de Grès 2025
In Blaison-Saint-Sulpice, southeast of Angers, the Château de Bois-Brinçon is one of those historic estates that tell several centuries of Anjou viticulture. The estate, whose origins date back to the 13th century, is today managed by the Cailleau family, established on the property for five generations, with Léandre now joining Géraldine and Xavier. The vineyard has the particularity of extending at the meeting point of the Paris Basin and the Armorican Massif, offering a remarkable geological diversity that the family expresses through parcel-specific cuvées. Managed organically and biodynamically, Bois-Brinçon primarily seeks to preserve the personality of each of these places. Terre de Grès comes from a small 1.50-hectare plot dedicated exclusively to Chenin Blanc. The terroir combines sponge-like sandstones with a tuffeau chalk subsoil, a unique combination that promotes a particularly straight and fresh expression of the grape variety. This cuvée thus constitutes one of the most precise interpretations of dry Chenin within the estate's range.
Terre de Grès 2025 comes from vines planted at a high density of 6,000 vines per hectare, with deliberately controlled yields around 40 hectoliters per hectare. The harvest is entirely manual and carried out by successive sorting to select golden grapes that have reached maturity but are free of botrytis. This pursuit of healthy maturity allows the aromatic clarity and tension essential to the balance of a great dry Anjou white to be preserved. Whole clusters are placed in a pneumatic press for a particularly slow pressing that lasts eight to ten hours. Fermentation then takes place in barrels rather than tanks to gradually build the wine's texture. Aging continues in oak barrels that have already contained one to three wines, with bâtonnage performed only when the wine requires it. The wood thus remains a maturation tool rather than an aromatic marker, leaving Chenin and the sandstone on tuffeau terroir the leading role.
In its youth, Terre de Grès 2025 should favor a bright expression of Chenin, centered on citrus, fresh pear, and white flowers. The palate naturally combines the grape's liveliness with a more enveloping texture brought by fermentation and barrel aging. The terroir imparts a chalky sensation and mineral tension to the whole, giving the wine its personality and extending its finish. Fine citrus bitterness may complement this freshness, while the aging brings more depth than true woody character. Terre de Grès also has the capacity to gain complexity after a few years in bottle, when white fruit notes evolve towards riper, slightly honeyed, and spicy nuances. At the table, its balance between body and tension makes it particularly suited to fish and shellfish, notably saffron monkfish or pan-seared scallops with Espelette pepper. It will also find its place alongside pike-perch with beurre blanc, creamy poultry dishes, or aged goat cheese.
Grape variety: 100% Chenin Blanc
