Domaine Des Raillères

Domaine Des Raillères is located in Muscadet at the mouth of the Loire into the Atlantic. Michel Pichon produces here the typical wine of the region.

Atlantic breeze - Domaine Des Raillères

Claude Michel Pichon is the sixth generation of his family to run the Domaine Des Railléres winery in the small town of Vallet in the middle of the region around Nantes. He first worked for twelve years as a winemaker and wine buyer for large wineries in France and finally took over the management of Domaine Des Raillères in 2006 as successor to his father Raymond.

Claude Michel knows the potential of his vineyards and the quality of the Muscadet of his home country, so he expanded the wine estate with a lot of energy and also built a new cellar in order to vinify Muscadet Sur Lie according to his ideas. Particularly due to the lack of new blood in the many wineries in the neighborhood, he was able to buy additional vineyard areas around Vallet and double it to a vineyard area. In the meantime, almost 100 hectares have come together.

Terroir of the Muscadet

The sedimentary soils of the region are rather poor and consist of:

• Lime
• Loess

The climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, 60 km away. This results in a suitable terroir with mild and humid winters hot but not too dry summers.

The Muscadet wine

Typical for the region is the dry white wine, made from the grape variety Melon de Bourgogne. This is also produced at Domaine Des Raillères. The wine is classically aged sur lie, i.e. on the lees, and is stirred up weekly by batonnage. This serves the preservation of natural aromas, besides, the wine gets a creamier texture. The Muscadet is a very fresh wine, which is wonderfully suited to seafood and fish and thus lives up to its origin.