Mariette et Albéric
Rablay-sur-Layon, Loire

Gaining experience with Cyril Le Moing and Michel Guignier before embarking on their own project in 2016, the young couple have pieced together a modest 2.5ha of vines around the storied villages of Rablay-sur-Layon, Beaulieu-sur-Layon and Faye D'Anjou. Their Cabernet Franc, Grolleau and Chenin Blanc vines are aged up to 75 years old and are planted on varying mixes of clay, schist and gravelly soils on sites surrounding the nearby Layon river.

Their approach in the vineyard mirrors that of their mentors, a careful and tender hand embracing the philosophies of organics with certain biodynamic principles also employed. Yields are kept intentionally low, aiming for between 15hl/ha and 20hl/ha but it is not unusual for them to harvest as low as 10 hl/ha.

In their small cellar just off the main road in Rablay-sur-Layon, the pair were in the midst of bottling their 2020 wines when we knocked on their door last September. The space, in a converted old garage, is mostly taken up by their ancient basket press, the rest by barrels. Their cellar work is highly influenced by their time with Cyril Le Moing, and so they have no machinery and barely any electrics in the space - everything from bottling to labelling is done by hand. Grapes are processed gently and all wines see a year in old barrels.

The husband and wife team exclusively handle all tasks in the vineyards and cellar. Working on such a modest scale enables them to maintain a meticulous and concentrated approach to tending to their vineyards and winemaking process. Their dedication to employing traditional techniques in both vineyard management and winemaking is a laborious endeavour born out of passion, yielding wines that are genuinely remarkable, rich, and intricate.