The vines are organically-farmed on a 15-hectare estate planted on white marl in the hamlet of Quintaine, just north of Clessé. Jean Thevenet and his son Gautier take their time producing their wines and retain traditional methods passed down from generation to generation. Ever since taking over the family estate in 1972 Jean has never been one to follow trends – keeping yields low (between 35-45 hectoliters per hectare) and picking purely on taste rather than relying on any data analytics from the lab. They have never been afraid to pick later than their peers due to their wines' amazing ability to retain acidity and freshness thanks to their unique marl blanche soils.  Even in a warmer vintage like 2015, Gautier says “you don’t feel the heat, the marl soil always providing a bitterness that offsets the fruit. If anything in 2015 the heat of the vintage has only brought a really incredible structure to the wine.” On tasting, its true – the wine is incredibly rich and fresh and finishes with a wonderful mineral salinity. For now, Gautier has not felt the bad effects of climate change, currently the warmer vintages are just bringing more complexity, structure and richness to the wines. For the 2015s, Gautier picked the grapes on the 17th September, which he states is not that much later than others in the region and perhaps just a week earlier than normal. Over the years he has learnt to trust in his terroir and even with such low yields (three times lower than the limits of the appellation) he needs to give the grapes time to reach optimum ripeness. The art of élevage Using no tricks to speed up the process, the wine ferments at a snail's pace under wild yeasts, producing a unique viscous-like texture and thanks to its distinct marl blanche soils a vibrant minerality and laser-like acidity. Grapes are left to hang on the vines until they are ultraripe. The grapes are then gently squeezed in a Coquard press until every ounce of flavour and all the intensely honeyed aromatics have been harvested. The wines undergo ultra-long fermentation and aged on the fine lees, and held back in the cellars at the domaine's expense, only being released when they are deemed ready to drink. These wines have amazing ageing ability too. Just recently William Kelley (Wine Advocate) talked about how the 1989 Viré-Clessé is drinking at its peak now at 30 years of age. Henri Jayer once said that a winemaker needs a chair. Less intervention, more reflection. This is somewhat mirrored in Jean Thevenet’s motto: “Terroir is to wine what a composer is to music. The winemaker being only the conductor.” In the cellars of Domaine de la Bongran intervention is minimal, with fermentations sometimes taking up to two years. Appellation controversy Despite Domaine de la Bongran being the most respected and appraised wine in the region, at the outset of the newly declared Viré-Clessé appellation in 1999, the wines of Domaine de la Bongran failed to qualify. The excuse from the IANO (administrative body) was that the levels of residual sugar were not considered “suitable” expressions of the region. Under these  new appellation rules the wines had to have a residual sugar level lower than 2g/litre, forcing Domaine de la Bongran to declassify down to Macon Villages. Following the extreme temperatures in 2003 all producers in the region produced wines with residual sugar over 2g/litre and therefore collaboratively put pressure on the IANO to increase the allowance up to 4g/litre allowing Bongran’s Viré-Clessé to qualify under the more premium Vire Clesse Appellation. For a body whose aim is to protect quality, specifically against over-cropping, the initial decision to omit the wines of Domaine de la Bongran seemed extraordinary, although it's fair to say the reputation of the winery precedes the appellation and if anything their inclusion has only elevated the status of the appellation. The wines The Viré-Clessé, also known as Cuvée Tradition, is the principal wine made at the estate, offering rich complexity, freshness and power with finesse. The wine is easily a match for the best of Puligny or Chassagne-Montrachet, they are examples of the heights that can be achieved with traditional winemaking methods. The Cuvée Levrouté (or Levroutee) is their off-dry wine typically around 18g/litre of residual sugar, only made in exceptional years, from part botrytised Chardonnay grapes, adding honey and truffle to the flavour profile. Cuvée Botrytis is a stunning rich sweet wine, coming from principally fully botrytised grapes. The conditions necessary to make this wine is are exceptionally rare, the last vintage being 2006. What the critics are saying: "..one of Burgundy’s greatest winemakers… served blind, tasters tend to think they are Grand Cru white Burgundies from Puligny- or Chassagne-Montrachet." Robert Parker  "The quality of what is produced here is mind-boggling." Allen Meadows, Burghound "Thévenet makes some of my favourite whites in all of Burgundy". William Kelley, Wine Advocate "quickly learned to love the wines… [which] are complex and fascinating, as age-worthy as many white Burgundy wines, perhaps even more so… Prices remain a fraction of what you would have to pay for a top Côte de Beaune, and I cannot recommend these highly enough." Neal Martin, Vinous "These are the wines of a genius." Robert Parker "Wine aficionados like to root for a winemaker who lives and breathes his calling. This is the story of a man who inspires just such support. He is Jean Thévenet... He’s obsessed with quality and makes terrific, highly distinctive white Burgundy…. Thévenet puts to shame many other producers in the Mâconnais." Wine Spectator Read more Editorial 

Domaine de la Bongran Vire Clesse is no ordinary Chardonnay from the Maconnais. It has its own particular style thanks to some rather unique terroir and an uncompromising approach to its winemaking. 

Exploring the Domaine de la Bongran Vire Clesse which has its own particular style thanks to some rather unique terroir

Vire Clesse by Domaine de la Bongran

Behind the bottle: Vire Clesse by Domaine de la Bongran

I was hesitant about meeting Ivan Massonnat. The man who created Domaine Belargus seemed to fill easy stereotypes. A background in private equity. Lived in Paris. A passion for wine – and a dream to make it himself. Big scores and some pretty punchy prices for a brand-new estate from the Loire. Reading between the lines, I feared there was a lot of cash and possibly too much polish. Thankfully, I was wrong.  Created in 2018 and based in Anjou, Domaine Belargus has rapidly become one of fine wine’s hottest new names. The first wines were released in 2021, in the midst of the global pandemic, but had already earned serious acclaim. Yohan Castaing wrote in Decanter, “Remember this name, as its production should meet with resounding critical success in the coming years.” The wines received glowing reviews in Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate – where Stephan Reinhardt declared it “one of the most spectacular new entries in the history of [the publication]”, granting a coveted 100-point score for its 2018 Quarts de Chaume Ultra. But that was just the beginning. Ivan Massonnat is a man with big plans – both for his own wines, and the region as a whole.  Wine was a part of life for Massonnat from a young age – with his grandfather farming a small vineyard in their village in the Savoie. But, despite helping at harvest time each year, he didn’t end up drinking wine until he was 20, when he was “instantly hooked”, he says. He fell in love with Burgundy and the concept of “vin de lieu” – wine of place.  Massonnat made his money in private equity, based in Paris but travelling the world, where fine dining – and fine wine lists – only fed his terroir obsession. Two decades ago he was looking for a country house for his family, and – not having a car – settled on the Loire. “The more I was spending time there, the more I realised that the region was totally misunderstood,” he says. Prior to the upheaval of the French Revolution and the subsequent arrival of mildew and phylloxera, the Loire was one of France’s most prestigious wine regions – home to the nation’s kings, the fruit of its vines were the royal court’s natural choice. Post-phylloxera, however, quality was scrapped in favour of quantity. “Its image started to blur,” says Massonnat.  Combine the region’s history with its two great, native varieties – Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc – and Massonnat saw “an incredible diamond in the rough”. Wine had become an increasingly large part of his life – tasting widely and visiting producers as much as possible, especially in Burgundy where vignerons such as Philippe Pacalet and Thibault Liger-Belair friends and mentors. But it wasn’t just a hobby – Massonnat was starting to think this could be more, the adventure that lay beyond the world of finance.  As the adage goes, the world of wine is a brilliant way to make a small fortune – provided you start out with a large one. Massonnat, however, didn’t underestimate the challenges and set about getting to grips with the mechanics of the business. “It started really to become a project 10 years ago,” he says – talking to importers, consultants, journalists and merchants. And, perhaps unsurprisingly given his successful career, Massonnat wasn’t looking to make any wine – he was determined to create something exceptional.  After a failed attempt to buy a Chinon estate in 2015, he turned his attention to great Chenin Blanc sites in Anjou Noir, between the Layon and Loire rivers – low-yielding hillsides where producers were struggling to make money and consequently there was land to buy. More than just availability, it was here that Massonnat saw great potential. The area’s dark, schist soils (cause for the “noir” in the region’s name) were littered with tiny appellations, echoing those of Burgundy, with a much hillier landscape, and the only Premier and Grand Cru vineyards in the region.  Between 2016 and 2018, Massonnat started visiting every vineyard he could find – looking for the exceptional. Then the local winemaker Patrick Baudouin introduced him to Jo Pithon – a legend of the Loire. Pithon had been making wine since 1978, a pioneer of organic farming, crafting fine dry and sweet wines – but the talented vigneron was by no means a businessman. By the early 2000s, his lack of commercial knowhow lost him the rights to his name, along with the majority of his vineyards – all but one plot, the Coteau des Treilles.  Massonnat met Pithon at the Angers wine fair in 2018; they got on well enough and he arranged to see Pithon’s vineyards the following day. The next morning, it was snowing and he regretted his decision . But then, at 8.32am on 6th February 2018, “It’s as if I was struck by lightning,” Massonnat says. Pithon had brought him to Coteau des Treilles. Long farmed organically, it has slopes at a gradient of 70%, embedded in a natural reserve, with a Mediterranean microclimate – and Massonnat knew instantly it was what he had been looking for. He bought the Pithon-Paillé operation that Jo Pithon had created a decade earlier.  Luck continued to be on Massonnat’s side – and he bought two other vineyards over the next six months, adding to his collection of prime sites. He managed to buy a quarter of the Quarts de Chaume appellation – the only Grand Cru vineyards in the region – which amazingly had been on the market for 10 years. “Nobody wanted to buy it… They were looking at it as a sweet wine terroir. But actually, a great terroir is a great terroir… you will do dry wines that are quite exceptional,” Massonnat explains. Then he snapped up a parcel in Savennières – the only plot to have been sold in the last seven years.  He hired a young team and Pithon stayed on to consult – and the real work began. “Belargus is a 100-year project. Everything we do, we have that horizon,” Massonnat says. The vines are all organically certified, but they’re now working towards biodynamic accreditation. Yields are low, and they’re trying gradually to increase them to around 35hl/ha in a good vintage (currently the highest they’ve managed is 29hl/ha). “Our obsession is to have the right maturity,” Massonnat explains. To battle Chenin Blanc’s natural heterogeneity, they pick in multiple passes, minimum two or three but up to six, depending on the year – and that is just for the dry wines. The general approach is minimalist – with stainless steel and mainly larger, old oak, indigenous yeast, letting malolactic fermentation happen (or not), keeping wines on the lees and using only essential levels of sulphur. A new winery is being planned to take things to the next level, with, for example, a Coquard press (allowing especially gentle pressing, commonly used in Champagne).  The project is about expressing the different terroirs of this corner of Anjou Noir. The first release (which sold almost instantly given the hype from the critics, with 80% exported) consisted of 14 cuvées – nine dry wines and five sweet, focusing on nine specific plots across the estate’s vineyards. The dry wines are powerful, tightly wound and intense – as Massonnat says, “It’s not wine for every day,” comparing them to white Hermitage or Corton-Charlemagne, wines that need food and time. Although 90% of production is dry, Massonnat confesses, “We are obsessed with sweet wines.” These, he feels, are what will really set Anjou Noir on the world stage – if, perhaps, what he calls “the sugar pandemic” ever stops.   With Massonnat’s finance background comes a flexibility that few others have. He hopes to hold all the wines back four years eventually, but for now it is between three and four – and he was able to release the 2020s before the exceptional 2019s. It also allowed him to set prices unusually high compared to his neighbours. “I had the luxury to make that choice for the region,” he explains. “I wanted to break the glass ceiling.” And although he thought it would take time – his first release proved that there were plenty of people ready to snap up the value that these wines offered, including many of those now priced out of Burgundy.  And this is his real dream – for the Loire to be recognised as Burgundy is, as “a tier-one region which any collector needs to have in its cellar, that needs to be understood”. It’s easy to imagine other producers might have bristled at an outsider’s arrival, pitching their very first wines at unheard-of prices; but Massonnat is intent on leading the crusade for the entire region, not just Domaine Belargus. He volunteered to run the Paulée d’Anjou – a celebration of the region’s wines – in 2019, and made it bigger and better. In 2021, he became co-president of the Quarts de Chaume appellation, alongside Marie Guégniard from Domaine de la Bergerie. Together they are fighting for the appellation to permit both dry and sweet wines, as Savennières technically can, and Quarts de Chaume could until 1996. “Anjou was a dirty word. And look at the revolution now,” he says.  Like the precious blue butterfly that gives its name to the Belargus estate, Massonnat isn’t happy sitting still – and he’s already got another project – having had the chance to buy the Chinon estate he’d originally had his eye on in 2015. The best wine he ever tasted was a Chinon, a 1989 from Charles Joguet. “There was a whole civilisation in this wine,” he told me, trying to explain how moving the experience had been. There’s no doubt that Massonnat is a canny businessman, but his vision is extraordinary – and one that he seems set to realise.  Explore all current listings of Domaine Belargus or read more Editorial 

Since it was created in 2018, Domaine Belargus has become a name to watch. Sophie Thorpe sat down with Ivan Massonnat, the man behind the project, to find out more about the Anjou estate and his vision for the region

With top reviews for its first releases, Anjou estate Domaine Belargus has become a name to watch. We sat down with founder Ivan Massonnat to find out more

Talking to Domaine Belargus’s Ivan Massonnat

The archangel of Anjou: Ivan Massonnat

Burgundy is a mecca for lovers of fine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but, with its litany of producers and vineyards, it can be a tricky region to get to grips with. Here we offer an essential guide to the region – breaking down everything from how vineyards are classified to producers to look out for

Discover everything you need to know about Burgundy: from vineyards and producers to the difference between négociant and domaine or what a Grand Cru is

Your essential guide to Burgundy wine

Your essential guide to Burgundy

Domaine Odoul-Coquard

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