Château la FRANCHAIE

Chateau la Franchaie is located in Anjou, in La Possonnière not far from Angers. Eric Dubois moved there with his wife, Alex, in 2017 and took over the existing vineyard. 

Eric Dubois is an old hand at natural, biodynamic wines: from 1995 to 2016, he worked as an employee at Clos Cristal in Saumur. We were not the last to offer his wines back then! 

A perfect Winery for natural wine

After the Clos Cristal, Eric and his wife went in search of vineyards with no real geographical constraints and with some criteria that Eric tells us about here: "

• no vineyard inserted in a huge massif of monoculture, like many appellations,
• vineyard grouped together, because we are not mechanized,
• with as many grape varieties as possible,
• the presence of water, whether marine or river, was also an important point."

After a few months of wandering around France and elsewhere, Eric came to visit Loïc Mahé, with a friend who was looking for vineyards, and it was there that he found his wishes gathered: Château la Franchaie in La Possonnière, a village near Savennières.

On this new Winery, Eric and Alex Dubois rent the vines and the winery. A Winery of 5.5 ha of vines (converted to organic since 2011 by Loïc Mahé) which is organised into 2 large plots: the first one gathered around the chai and the second one a few kilometres away, facing south along the Loire.

The Winery is generally on schist in the western continuity of Savennières and clay.
Eric Dubois describes this Winery as "complex culture, small yields, but big identity".

A spirited organic red wine

It is a pleasure for us to offer the new organic wines of Eric Dubois, natural wines, full of character and identity.

We leave the final word to Eric who tells us about his first vintage at La Franchaie :
"The first harvest of 2018 was a gift from heaven, with harvests spread out over more than a month, allowing access to the best ripeness."

Very good tasting!