Les Capriades, Pascal Potaire et Moses Gaddouche, Loir et Cher
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AOC: Vin de France, Touraine
Varieties: Chenin Blanc, Menu Pineau, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Côt, Cabernet Franc, Pineau D’Aunis
Viticulture: Organic
Size: 7 hectares (2.3 domaine; 4.7 purchased fruit harvested by Capriades from organic growers they work with virtually every year)
Production: 3,000 cases annually
Terroir: Clay and silex over limestone
Varieties: Chenin Blanc, Menu Pineau, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Côt, Cabernet Franc, Pineau D’Aunis
Viticulture: Organic
Size: 7 hectares (2.3 domaine; 4.7 purchased fruit harvested by Capriades from organic growers they work with virtually every year)
Production: 3,000 cases annually
Terroir: Clay and silex over limestone
Pascal Potaire – caviste at the dawn of his career – worked for others for much of his winemaking life: for Noëlla Morantin in the Touraine and for Nicolas Renard in Vouvray. He began his own label in the early 2000s, and was joined by his good friend and business partner Moses in 2011. Obsessed with balance, low alcohol, and high acidity, his mission became to bring the elegance and finesse of great Champagne to the world of naturally fermented sparkling wine. Happiest in the cellar, Pascal can be found daily monitoring his juice and maintaining his impeccable cellar, the quotidian tasks that make Les Capriades the pinnacle for méthode ancestrale sparkling wines. Moses, a logistician before he entered the wine world, handles marketing, and is in many ways the public face of this domaine.
Pascal and Moses are located within the Touraine appellation, in the town of Faverolles-sur-Cher. Designated “négociant vinificateur,” they buy the majority of their grapes, which they harvest themselves from a handful of local organic growers around Faverolles. The soils here feature silex and clay with limestone subsoil, which of course helps the wines attain their crunchy mineral backbone.
The process of making méthode ancestrale sparkling wine is both incredibly simple and incredibly difficult to execute well. First, there’s extensive sorting in the vines. Because the wines are made without sulfur, the grapes have to be perfect; flaws in the grapes will mean bigger flaws in the wine. The juice begins to ferment in tank, and at the opportune moment mid-fermentation, the wines are bottled to complete their fermentation under a crown cap, trapping carbonic gas and giving them their soft, frothy bubbles. It’s both an art and a science bottling at the right time to create wines of varying levels of sweetness, not to mention stability in a category noted for instability and bottle variation.
The wines are riddled before disgorgement using a giropallet, and are disgorged by hand, in some cases twice due to the large amount of deposit in the bottle. Les Capriades maintains unassailable status as the best Domaine at making this style of sensitive yet highly satisfying sparkling wine.
The process of making méthode ancestrale sparkling wine is both incredibly simple and incredibly difficult to execute well. First, there’s extensive sorting in the vines. Because the wines are made without sulfur, the grapes have to be perfect; flaws in the grapes will mean bigger flaws in the wine. The juice begins to ferment in tank, and at the opportune moment mid-fermentation, the wines are bottled to complete their fermentation under a crown cap, trapping carbonic gas and giving them their soft, frothy bubbles. It’s both an art and a science bottling at the right time to create wines of varying levels of sweetness, not to mention stability in a category noted for instability and bottle variation.
The wines are riddled before disgorgement using a giropallet, and are disgorged by hand, in some cases twice due to the large amount of deposit in the bottle. Les Capriades maintains unassailable status as the best Domaine at making this style of sensitive yet highly satisfying sparkling wine.
WINES
Pet Sec
The driest and most mineral driven of the range from Capriades is “Pet Sec” made from a majority of Chenin Blanc with a small percentage of Cabernet Franc. This is an oyster-appropriate wine with intense limestone minerality. |
Piege a ....
Fruitier still is Capriades’ “Piège à Filles” Blanc, made from Chardonnay, occasionally with small percentages of other grapes such as Sauvignon or (at least in one case) Petit Meslier. In 2013, this wine has 30 grams of residual sugar, balanced by the riveting acidity of the 2013 vintage. It offers notes of lychee and white flowers, and can be served before, during, or after a meal. |
Bulles Rouge
Bulles Rouge is a riper, darker sparkling rose that is 100% Gamay teinturier (Bouze, Chaudenay, Fréaux) grown on Sablo-loam with flint, clay-limestone. 40 - 70 year old vines |
“Pepin à Bulles” is also made from Chenin Blanc. This wine has a light sweetness and sees a minimum of three years of élèvage.
Capriades’ “Piège à Filles” rosé is mostly Gamay, with small additions of Côt, Cab Franc, and Pineau D’Aunis. Generally the sweetest of the lineup, it’s a wine that also offers deep savory notes.