Bellivière

  • Jasnières, Loire, France
Domaine de Bellivière

Thank you to importer Louis/Dressner for this estate profile:

(Click here for Louis/Dressner's detailed Bellivière notes and here for Bellivière's own website)

The AOC Jasnières and Coteaux-du-Loir were, until very recently, languishing; the vines had been all but wiped-out by the intense frost of 1956, and only a handful of tenacious owners held on to their vines, usually keeping the wine they made for their personal consumption, while making a living thanks to other agricultural revenues.

Located about 30 miles north of the city of Tours, these small AOC's (37 and 48 hectares respectively) are isolated at the edges of three provinces: Maine, Anjou and Touraine. They are also the most northern viticultural areas in the west of France (in the east, only Chablis, Champagne and Alsace are further north). Fortunately, the river Loir replicates some of the micro-climactic conditions of its big sister, the Loire (watch your French: le Loir, along with la Sarthe and la Mayenne, form le Maine, a tributary of la Loire which it joins in Angers.)

In the 1970s, the winemaker Joël Gigou pionneered a renewal of Jasnières and Coteaux-du-Loir as viticultural areas. Eric Nicolas, a city kid without any roots in either the region or in agriculture, developed a passion for vines and wines, and after studying oenology, he looked in the Loire to acquire vineyards, mainly because he had met several passionate winemakers there.

Eric and his wife Christine found an estate with some vines, but mostly grazing fields, trees and grains. They nurtured the existing old vines and did a lot of planting, to get to their current 14 hectares, scattered over 65 parcels within 6 villages (sounds more like Burgundy or Champagne than a tiny, obscure appellation!) They use sélection massale rather than clones, and plant at a density of 9,300 vines per hectare. They also planted an experimental plot where the density is 40,000 vines per hectare, to observe the development of the root system and the influence of terroir on botrytized grapes (one grape per vine). Though organic from the start, the Nicolas came to be firm believers in biodynamic viticulture and have been certified since 2011.

Chenin Blanc represents the vast majority of the Bellivière production. Grapes are diligently picked by hand, some years in passes if the vintage is suitable for botrytis. In the cellar, each parcel is vinified individually in barrels of various shapes and sizes, permitting Eric and his son Clément to make judicious blending choices each vintage. Fermentations are always done with native yeasts, and often they will not finish all of the grapes' sugars. Eric has chosen to embrace this reality, letting the vintage decide how dry each cuvée will be. Occasionally the wines can be demi-sec, but more often they are off-dry, with perceptible sugars that integrate seamlessly and add complexity.

For years, the barrels lived in the four little cellars carved out of the tuffeau limestone mountain behind the house. In 2015, an impressive and modern winemaking facility was built out. Futuristic in aesthetic and forward thinking in design, its three floor layout permits immaculate precision for working by gravity. The grapes are pressed on the second floor and racked by gravity to two floors (one subterranean) to barrels for fermentation and long élevages.

In Jasnières, only white wine from Chenin Blanc is produced. Prémices is a barrel selection of the most fruit forward wines and fermented in old barrels. Les Rosiers is the "middle" cuvée with vines anywhere under 50 years old, fermented in old barrels and about 1/4 new oak. Calligrame is the old vine selection (50+ years old) and vinified with a small proportion of new oak.

In Coteaux-du-Loir, the white cuvées are L'Effraie ("The Owl") and Vieilles Vignes Éparses ("Scattered Old Vines") and made in the same spirit as Les Rosiers and Calligrame. The indigenous and almost instinct Pineau d'Aunis is the only red grape permitted in in the appellation, and from this the Nicolas produce the highly sought after Rouge-Gorge. In exceptional years, a single vineyard Pineau d'Aunis will be produced from 100 year old vines called Hommage à Louis Derré. In addition to the appellation wines, some offbeat Vin de France are produced, including a sparkling Chenin Blanc called Les P'tits Vélos and a Gamay called Pollux.

In 2017, following the arrival of Eric and Christine's son Clement to the business and a series of very difficult bouts with frost, the Nicolas family started a négociant label called les Arches de Bellivière. Sourcing from biodynamic vineyards in the Loire and beyond, they have so far produced three wines from the sub-label: a Chenin from Anjou called Confluence, a Cabernet Franc from Anjou called Castor and a Carignan/Grenache blend from the Southern Rhône called Raisins Migrateurs ("Migrating Grapes").

Image Producer PRODUCT Description Country / Region

DB8809-20A
Biodynamic
Bellivière "Les P'tits Vélos À Pignon Fixe"
NV
Chenin Blanc
100% Chenin Blanc. P'tits Vélos is Bellivière's only sparkling Chenin. The Nicolas family makes very small quantities of it, out of what...
France

DB4505-22
Biodynamic
Bellivière Les Arches de Bellivière "Bille en Bulle"
2022
Grenache
95% Grenache/5% Pineau d'Aunis. "Bille en Bulle" is a new entrant to Bellivière's second line of wines, Les Arches de Bellivière, created...
France

DB0382-22
Biodynamic
Bellivière Jasnières "Prémices"
2022
Chenin Blanc
100% Chenin Blanc. Certified-biodynamic Bellivière owns and farms 18 hectares across 60 parcels in 5 villages in the Jasnières and Coteaux-...
France

DB0547-21
Biodynamic
Bellivière Jasnières "Les Rosiers"
2021
Chenin Blanc
100% Chenin Blanc. "Les Rosiers" is from Bellivière's younger Jasnières vines, across 24 parcels totaling 5 hectares. The vines are planted...
France

DB8415-21
Biodynamic
Bellivière Coteaux du Loir "L'Effraie"
2021
Chenin Blanc
100% Chenin Blanc. "L'Effraie" is from Bellivière's younger Coteaux du Loir vines, across 11 parcels totaling 3.5 hectares. These gobelet-...
France

DB8399-20
Biodynamic
Bellivière Coteaux du Loir "Eparses" Vieilles Vignes
2020
Chenin Blanc
100% Chenin Blanc. "Eparses" is from Bellivière's oldest Coteaux du Loir vines across 5 tiny parcels. These gobelet-pruned, 80-100-year-old...
France

DB3713-21
Organic
Bellivière Les Arches de Bellivière "Astrancia"
2021
Grenache
80% Grenache/20% Aubun. Aubun is a rather obsure local variety in the Ventoux that brings freshness to the Grenache base. Astrancia is part...
France

DB4516-22
Biodynamic
Bellivière Les Arches de Bellivière VDF Blanc "Caragouille"
2022
Grenache Blanc
50% Grenache Blanc/25% Viognier/25% Vermentino. 2021 is the first vintage of Bellivière's first macerated white wine, which is part of...
France

DB9925-21
Biodynamic
Bellivière Les Arches de Belliviere "Pollux" (Gamay/Pineau d`Aunis)
2021
Gamay
50% Gamay/50% Pineau d'Aunis. Pollux is usually all or at least mainly Gamay, but Gamay is hard to ripen so far north (hence Pollux not...
France

DB0409-21
Biodynamic
Bellivière Coteaux du Loir "Le Rouge Gorge"
2021
Pineau d'Aunis
100% Pineau d'Aunis. The Nicolas family's gobelet-trained Pineau d'Aunis vines are scattered across 14 parcels and range in age...
France

DB0435-21
Biodynamic
Bellivière Coteaux du Loir "Hommage à Louis Derré"
2021
Pineau d'Aunis
100% Pineau d'Aunis. The Nicolas family bottles a Pineau d'Aunis called "Rouge Gorge" annually; in some vintages, they single out the very...
France