Producer: Domaine de la Pépière - Marc Ollivier
Region: Muscadet Sèvre et Maine - Loire Valley, France
Grapes: Melon du Bourgogne

"The vines are cultivated according to organic farming or in conversion. Therefore, we have banned weedkillers and our soils are ploughed and scraped. To protect our vines, we use sulphur, copper and various plants, but no synthetic molecule.

The subsoil consists of gneiss and foliated rock, which allows a good deep-rooting. The soil is clayey-siliceous, and quite deep. The vineyard is planted at the top of a hill on a south-facing slop overlooking the river Maine.

Grapes are harvested manually then carried to the wine cellar which much care. The pneumatic press is filled by gravity, the grapes are not crushed. There is a very light must settling then the juice is pumped into an underground vat for one to two months without any yeast addition. The wine is matured for 9 months on its fermentation lees with a few stirrings of the lees."