Domaine de la Noblaie

"Les Temps des Cerises”

A trip to Domaine de la Noblaie is like stepping back in time.

For starters, the Crusaders used to live in their backyard. It is still called “The Place of the White Coats” to this day, as this parcel of vines was once home to a taxing station used to finance the Christian crusades. The house was started sometime in the 15th or 16th century. They still use a chalk vat that was dug around the 16th or 17th centuries. From the top of the Les Chiens-Chiens parcel, you can look out across the river to the Château de Chinon, where Joan of Arc asked Charles VII for the chance to lead his army. Things didn’t work out so well for her.

Today, the Domaine is home base for four generations (grand-mère usually holds court in the living room while holding her new iPad.) It is Jérôme Billard, the son of François and Madeleine Billard, who leads the property now. Jérôme was fortunate to earn an internship at Château Petrus in Bordeaux while still in school and at Dominus in California. He returned to his home in Chinon in 2003 and has been at the helm ever since.

Noblaie sits at one of the highest points of the Chinon appellation and is essentially two long, sloping hillsides covering 24 hectares. The soil is mostly limestone (some of it quite deep) covered with clay and limestone shards. The property is certified organic by Ecocert and has been working this way since about 2005. All harvests are carried out by hand (rare in Chinon) and in multiple passes through the vines. Unlike many other properties that hand harvest, Noblaie has the same team year after year, and the vineyard and winery triage is quite severe. The point is not to produce green or vegetal Cabernet Franc but to find that perfect razor’s edge maturity that privileges the varietal’s earthiness and spiciness while showing off the fruit and elegance at the same time.

Vinifications are long and slow, with indigenous yeasts used exclusively. Some of the wines are fermented in stainless steel, some in barrel, and some in chalk. Yes, chalk.

Cabernet Franc + Rocky Soil + Rocky Tank = Happiness.

THE ESTATE VINEYARD

Consisting of beautiful plateaus and clay/chalk hillsides, our vineyard shelters 20 hectares of cabernet franc and 6 of chenin, the only varieties permitted in Chinon AOC. Our vines are surrounded by woods which protect them from frost and storms, and are studded with plots of cereals, peas and sunflowers, all cultivated organically.

The wildlife, both wild and domesticated, is important too. Chickens run constantly among the vines near the cellar. A little further away, beehives have been humming for decades. A flock of ewes graze the grassland and fallow plots in summer and feed on the vegetation among the vines during winter.

As lovers of the local tuffeau stone and of our heritage, we have restored the buildings surviving from the past. Besides those for general farming, they include the cellars and their presses, witnesses of wine-making activity stretching back centuries.

La Noblaie, several centuries ago, was part of a mixed agricultural estate where the land surrounding the farm buildings was already dedicated to the cultivation of vines, as the Cassini map of 1765 shows.

Presses, cellars and vats carved in the tuffeau are further witness to past activity.

This long-standing wine culture gave its name to our hamlet: Le Vau Breton, which in the language of Rabelais meant Valley of Cabernet Franc – the only grape variety in red Chinon wine.

THE GRAPE: CABERNET FRANC

Cabernet Franc is a parent grape of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Carménère and gives them a hint of mint or green bell pepper. Depending on where it grows, it can be lighter or bolder, but it is always tasty.

Cabernet Franc has proven to be very robust and produces good quality wines in a range of climates. This is a clue to its diversity of tastes, from tart red fruit flavors from cooler climates to more dried fruit flavors and fuller-bodied wines from warmer areas such as Tuscany and California. You’ll also find a mixture of savory, tart, and herbal flavors in moderate climates like Bordeaux.

On the nose, Cabernet Franc has a distinctive herbaceous and bell-pepper aroma. It can also smell like red fruits and sometimes even pencil lead. In cooler climates, you’ll find violet notes, and in warmer climates, expect dried fruit flavors and cayenne pepper notes.

On the palate, Cabernet Franc has high levels of zesty acidity. It also can have relatively high tannins, though less than Cabernet Sauvignon. Wines from cooler climates have slightly lower tannins; you’ll find more tannins in warmer climates.

Perhaps most famously, Cabernet Franc is a parent to Cabernet Sauvignon. The crossing occurred sometime during the middle 1600s around Bordeaux, France.

  • One of the most treasured Cabernet Franc wines comes from the Saint-Émilion appellation in Bordeaux, made by Château Cheval Blanc.

  • The herbaceous character in Cabernet Franc is caused by a group of aroma compounds called methoxypyrazines or “pyrazines” for short.

  • The specific methoxypyrazine that contributes to the distinct flavor is 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine (IBMP), which is also found in Sauvignon Blanc. (Think “green bell pepper”).

WINEMAKING AT NOBLAIE

Everything begins in the vineyard, specifically around each vine

Our objective: to return life to the soil, to encourage the proper balance of the vines while controlling their vigor and yield. All we do in the vineyard is carefully thought out to meet the needs of the plants on each of our terroirs.

Harvesting by hand

As harvest approaches, we keep careful watch on the aromatic development of the grapes on each plot. We select and harvest them by hand at the correct maturity needed for each of our wines. On the same plot, we can harvest several times to separate bunches from individual veins of soil and with differing maturity.

A gravity-flow cell, source of finesse

The closeness of our cellar to all our vines reduces unwanted crushing of the grapes during transport. Thanks to its position at the foot of the hillside, using the natural slope, our cellar ensures that both damage to the grapes and oxidation is minimal during transfer to the vats.

An ancestral vat, carved in the rock

Dug in the tuffeau centuries ago, this vat has been used exclusively for the vinification of our cuvée Pierre de Tuf since 2003. We have rediscovered such historic practices as punching down by hand and emptying the vat with buckets, alongside natural temperature control thanks to the thick walls of tuffeau.

Oenology and aging

We see the work in the cellar as accompanying the grapes during their metamorphosis. We believe that healthy grapes create the freedom to avoid unnecessary additives. Fermentation is from indigenous yeasts.
Aging from 6 to 24 months is carried out in the cool temperatures of our natural cellars, without any need for topping-up. Aging must not impose on a wine but discover its different facets. Whether it is in vats, in barrels or in amphoras, it contributes to revealing the characteristics of our terroirs. Use of sulfur is minimal. These tiny additions preserve our wines from oxidation but also allow them to retain their identity.

Les Temps des Cerises, translated as “Cherry Time!” is Jérôme’s calling card and represents a cuvée blended from vines averaging 30 years old on a variety of tuffeau soils – sandy, clay and rockier limestone. Bright, forthright and varietally pure Cabernet Franc, it is fermented and aged in tank to preserve its charm and vigor.

  • 100% Cabernet Franc from 30 year old vines.

  • Hand harvested, natural yeast fermentation in tank.

    Aged for 5 months in tank, no SO2 until bottling. Certified organic and vegan.

  • Bright and robust aromas of raspberry, cherry, rhubarb, and strawberry. Silky tannins lead to a palate that is awash in cigar tobacco and dusty earth, with a peppery finish.

Fun Historical Fact:
It is in the village of Chinon that Joan of Arc famously met in February 1429 and joined forces with Charles VII during the Hundred Years’ War.