Les Chênes is in the color garnet red. It has great aromatic intensity with scents of red fruits like raspberries, black currant combined with hints of caramel and vanilla. Velvety in the mouth with notes of blackcurrant, blackberries, caramel and tobacco. A rich wine, well structured with a lingering finish.
The grapes come from the Pierres-Plates plots in the middle of the hills. The terroir consists of clay and limestone containing fossils of shellfish from the Loire River. The grapes are hand-picked after which they undergo malolactic fermentation during fermentation. The wine then ages for 1 year in French oak barrels, 25% of which are new, 25% 1-year, 25% 2-year and 25% 3-year barrels.
It was in 1935 that Camille Rousseau, Denis Jamain's maternal grandfather, settled in Reuilly and planted his very first sauvignon-blanc vines. Domaine de Reuilly was ranked "Appellation Reuilly d'Origine Contrôlée" as early as 1937 for its sauvignon-blanc, a year after the establishment of the Labels system at the national level, and in 1961 for its red pinot noir and rosé pinot gris.
In the early 1990s, Denis Jamain, out of passion for the vineyard, decided to take up the baton and purchased a beautiful series of vineyards in the town of Reuilly, a real starting point for the Domaine's development.
The Denis Jamain estate consists of four main sites called: Les Coignons, Les Pierres Plates, Les Chatillons and Les Conges, on which 14 hectares of sauvignon-blanc, 5 hectares of pinot noir and 4 hectares of pinot gris are planted. The Domaine benefits from an exceptional terroir, consisting mainly of clay and limestone from the Kimmeridgian era.
Denis Jamain and Patrick Ragu, the vineyard manager, share the same passion and believe that the land they cultivate is a loan and that they should give it back to future generations as healthily as possible. This desire to respect the environment and the well-being of the land fully motivated their choice of organic farming and biodynamics for the management of the vineyard.
In addition to his passion for the vines, Denis Jamain has had an equally strong passion for trees since childhood and he is fortunate to manage a family forest 15 kilometers from Reuilly. One of the most beautiful forests in central France. The trees of this region are world famous for producing staves destined for vinification in oak barrels. He himself selects the bicentennial oaks that will be used to make the barrels for aging his white, rosé and red cuvées called "Le Chênes de mon grand-père" (or: my grandfather's oaks).