Interview with a winemaker from the Loire region: Isabelle Rouballay, owner and sales manager, Domaine Octavie, Touraine Oisly.

📽️ Interviews with Loire winemakers & Loire winery proprietors

My name is Isabelle Rouballay. I am Head of Sales at Domaine Octavie, which is a family-run winery, in Oisly, Loir-et-Cher, on the plateau between the Loire and Cher rivers.

Wines & soils

Our soil is composed of sand with clay and flint and we have a section of clay and limestone.

Our soil is ideal for the Sauvignon variety, which is the principal variety of the new Touraine-Oisly appellation.

In terms of the wines, it gives freshness, fruitiness, and very delicate aromas of exotic fruits, pear and peach.

On the palate, with the Touraine-Oisly, we have a wine that has body and roundness with the aromatic complexity of the nose and very good length.

We produce AOC Touraine wines, which are white wines made from Sauvignon, a rosé made from the Pineau d’Aunis variety, and various red wines made from Gamay, Pinot
Noir, Cabernet and Côt-Malbec. We also produce a ‘Touraine Fines Bulles’ Brut sparkling white wine from Chardonnay, Chenin and a little Pinot Noir, and a Brut rosé from Pineau d’Aunis. Finally, there’s the AOC Touraine-Oisly made exclusively from Sauvignon.

Sales and export

In terms of exports, which account for 40% of our sales, our main buyer countries are Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland and Luxemburg, in Europe.

Outside of Europe, they are Canada, the US and Australia. We receive regular visits to the estate from both private and commercial customers.

It is great that they seek to see where the wines are made. We explain our work methods to them. We show them around the vineyard and the
cellar and have them taste our full range.

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