Marie Thibault, Azay le Rideau
AOC: Touraine-Azay-le-Rideau
Varieties: Gamay, Côt, Grolleau, Chenin Blanc
Viticulture: In conversion to organic (2014 will be first vintage certified)
Size: 3.5 hectares
Production: 4000 to 5000 cases a year
Terroirs: White clay, silex with limestone bedrock
Not from a winemaking family, but with degrees in biology and oenology, Marie Thibault began making wine in the early 2000s. She worked for a time at François Chidaine in Montlouis, where she fell in love with Chenin Blanc. In 2011, she founded her own 3.5 hectare domaine in Azay-le-Rideau, a lesser known environ of the Touraine appellation. While in some sense this is a new beginning for Marie, she has over a decade of experience making wine and benefits from strong relationships with many growers in the region such as Noëlla Morantin and Frantz Saumon. It sounds cliché, but her passion and energy are infectious; she’s also humble, learning one year to the next how to progress and improve.
Varieties: Gamay, Côt, Grolleau, Chenin Blanc
Viticulture: In conversion to organic (2014 will be first vintage certified)
Size: 3.5 hectares
Production: 4000 to 5000 cases a year
Terroirs: White clay, silex with limestone bedrock
Not from a winemaking family, but with degrees in biology and oenology, Marie Thibault began making wine in the early 2000s. She worked for a time at François Chidaine in Montlouis, where she fell in love with Chenin Blanc. In 2011, she founded her own 3.5 hectare domaine in Azay-le-Rideau, a lesser known environ of the Touraine appellation. While in some sense this is a new beginning for Marie, she has over a decade of experience making wine and benefits from strong relationships with many growers in the region such as Noëlla Morantin and Frantz Saumon. It sounds cliché, but her passion and energy are infectious; she’s also humble, learning one year to the next how to progress and improve.
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Marie has one contiguous parcel on a gentle, windy slope that is drier than the other vineyards of Azay-le-Rideau, which lie on a plateau. Her vineyard is marked by white clay and limestone. She immediately began to farm organically in 2011 and 2014 will be her first certified vintage.
Marie Thibault’s wines are bold and strong. The best examples need a year or two after bottling to show best, and certainly show potential for cellaring.
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WINES
Rosé Bulles is quite deep in color made from 100% old-vine Gamay and totally dry and earthy. No SO2
Gamay from Azay le Rideau AOC -- mainly from the Domaine (bottom of her parcel that tends to be better for acid as it ripens late) |
“La Roue qui Tourne” bulles is a delicate, totally dry, clawed-from-the-earth sparkling Chenin Blanc that is clean and elegant. No SO2, long lees aging.
Chenin from Azay le Rideau AOC -- mainly from the Domaine (bottom of her parcel that tends to be better for acid as it ripens late) with a little Chenin from an organic vineyard in Cheillé (old vines, argile a silex) |
Le Zeze Rose: No reds in 2020 because of an attack of Japanese drosophilius, Marie didn't want to macerate the reds, so she did direct press Gamay and Grolleau straight into cement for fermentation and elevage. 15ppm at bottling, small fitration sur terre. (2020).
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Premier Nez: 100% Chenin -- Argile a Silex done 3/4 in old barriques 1/4 in Terre et vin amphoraes (grés)
Racked twice but unfiltered. 15ppm at bottling. Amazing wine. (2019) |
Le Grolleau: Marie’s Grolleau (as an aside, Azay-le-Rideau is the origin of the Grolleau variety), is airy and low alcohol coming in at 10.5 degrees, and made using carbonic maceration. More so than her Grandes Vignes blend, Marie’s Grolleau is a vin de soif.
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Les Grandes Vignes is 100% Gamay from 50+ year old vines grown on silex with a very long maceration time (10 months) and décuvage in July.
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