Interview with a winemaker from the Loire region: Jérôme Houssin, owner and winemaker, Domaine des Tilleuls, La Regrippière.
📽️ Interviews with Loire winemakers & Loire winery proprietors
My name is Jérôme Houssin. I work at Domaine des Tilleuls.
Domaine des Tilleuls is a wine estate that has been family run for five generations.
We are located in La Regrippière, to the east of Vallet, on one of the highest slopes of the Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine appellation area, as our village in fact lies 90 meters above sea level.
Wines and soils
Domaine des Tilleuls is a 35-hectare estate, of which 30 hectares are currently under vine.
The schist is what brings the structure and a certain amount of minerality to the wine
The majority of our vines are Melon de Bourgogne the one and only variety of the Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine appellation. This accounts for about 50% of our vine population.
Next comes Chardonnay, which we have been growing on the estate since 1983, and which today accounts for approximately 20% of the vineyard.
And finally we have Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc.
In the village, we have mostly siliceous clay soils, intersected by a layer of schist and micaschist. The schist is what brings the structure and a certain amount of minerality to the wine, while the clay, on the other hand, tends to bring a fruity side.
Sales and export
I came back to the estate five years ago now with the ambition and with plans to develop and improve the distribution of our wines abroad.
It is important to go and see one’s partners, because for me exporting is first and foremost about working in a relationship of partnership and not one of supplier and client.
It is important to actually go and see where and how our wines are distributed, and, as I said, maintain a relationship of partnership ad trust with our various importers, some of whom have been working with us for two, three or even five years.
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