VIVE LA DIFFERENCE !

Simon Hawkins, artisan-vigneron en Côte Roannaise

The way we make our wines at Domaine du Fontenay is fundamentally different from our immediate neighbours in the Côte Roannaise and from the vast majority of Gamay wine makers. Over the last 20 years modern wine-making techniques have completely dominated the industry. Having started off with these methods and finding them unsatisfactory, we have turned the clock right back to use old fashioned, traditional methods: low yields, no added selected yeasts, no added sugar, no filtering at bottling and no additives at bottling. 

 >>> Read more about hands-off wine making

We feel that there is a certain irony in that it is the Englishman who is using the methods that local growers’ grandfathers used and which they now consider to be outdated.
Although our wines all share the same common grape variety, the Gamay, they have completely different characters which reflect partly the plot from which the grapes come (see St Sulpice wine) and partly the way in which the wine is made

>>> Read more about sustainable farming at Domaine du Fontenay