Chinon
Grower Profiles
Bertrand
Sourdais
Domaine des Pallus
The
Sourdais family are to Cravant-les-Côteaux what the Mabileaus are to
Bourgueil with their name recorded locally as far back as the 8th Century.
In Cravant they say that if someone offers a greeting as you enter the
village café, if you were to respond 'Bonjour Monsieur Sourdais' you'll
most probably be correct.
Domaine des Pallus, located on the communal boundary between Cravant and
Panzoult, has been in this particular branch of the Sourdais family since
1891. The current incumbent, Bertrand represents the 5th generation. He
took over when his parents, Jean-Bernard and Josette, retired in 2005. He
studied in Montreuil-Bellay and at Blanquefort in Bordeaux where he met
fellow student Ricardo Perez Palacios, the nephew of the much celebrated
Alvaro of Priorat and Rioja fame, and which ultimately led Sourdais to
make wine in Spain. Before this, in 1996, he spent the harvest in the
cellars of both Mouton-Rothschild and Léoville-Las-Cases, and in 1998
headed south to work the vintage at Santa Rita in Chile. With a sense of
wanderlust, it was in the late 1990s that he decided to make Spain his
home, developing his own project, Dominio de Atauta in Ribera-del-Duero,
with Miguel Sanchez, a respected Madrid-based wine merchant. Even by the
time he had returned to Pallus to take over from his parents, Bertrand was
still dividing his time equally between his vineyards on the banks of the
Vienne and those of the Duero. Today, he is commited solely to his
interests in Chinon.
There are 18 hectares of vineyards; twelve on the coteau just
across the road from the house, with the balance rented from a grower
down in the hamlet of Briançon. Apart from a couple of barrels of Chinon
blanc, everything produced here is red and solely from Cabernet
Franc.
Whilst his father harvested by machine, today Bertand elects to harvest by
hand. The vineyards are also in the process of being converting to organic
farming methods, although there are no plans to certify them. Yields too
have been drastically reduced, down to around 30hl/ha for the two
principle wines.
Sourdais places his main focus on Pallus, a 3,000 bottle
cuvée that is sourced from four roughly equal-sized parcels: Les
Tiriots, Les Tois Piliers, La Rougerie and Le Clos, planted
between 1952 and 1974 and all located immediately around the domaine. The
wine sees 18 months ageing in 70% new French oak and is bottled without
fining or filtration. At around 40 Euros a go it makes something of a
statement. Les
Pensées de Pallus is a miniature version of Pallus which,
until the 2009 vintage, was also committed to new oak. The wine is sourced
from three parcels with an average vine age of 40 years. Production of
this blend stands at a significant 60,000 bottles a year. A third label, Le
Coq de Pallus, is rather dismissed by Bertrand who sees it as a
legacy of his parents. It is only sold off the farm to long-standing
customers of Jean-Bernard. Production, however, is a respectable 10,000
bottles a year.
It's not hard to see where Bertrands influences originate; dense, black,
deeply concentrated wines with vivid packaging and a heavy-weight bottle
that is supposed to seduce consumers into thinking they are buying into
something serious. He is a young, committed, bright and immensely
passionate guy who is completely motivated to make only great wines. But
is Pallus and its younger sibling authentic? No. They are very good
wines, but they are not, for me, representative of Chinon as a
whole.
Bertrand
Sourdais
Domaine des Pallus
CRAVANT-LES-CÔTEAUX
T:
+ 33 2 47 93 00 05
F: + 33 2 47 93 05 06
P:
+ 34 6 29 94 53 88
jeanbernard.sourdais@free.fr
www.domainedepallus.com
www.lespenseesdepallus.info