Château Gaudrelle

In 2009 he moved the wine-making from the château to a vast rock-hewn cellar on the river front. This enabled him to expand the use of modern stainless steel temperature controlled vats and state-of-the-art presses and gives plenty of space for storage. The vineyards run to 22 ha and are solely planted with Chenin Blanc. There are two distict soil types, the flinty Perruches and the limestone Tuf. Alexandre likes to reduce yields in the vineyard by pruning, grassing through the vineyards, de-budding, de-leafing twice a year, and crop thinning, this improves the health of the plants as well as reducing yields meaning he needs to treat less often with chemicals. He describes this method as Raisonée plus. Dry-ice is used at harvest time and in the winery to help preserve the delicate flavours of Chenin and to prevent oxidation, thereby reducing the use for sulphur dioxide. His fermentations are long and slow in stainless steel vats or large 500L wooden barrels. Alex is an exponent of the sec-tendre style of Vouvray meaning just enough sugar is left in the wine to balance the Chenin Blanc's natural acidity.