Sancerre (Vallée de la Loire) - Domaine Picard & Fils

The Domaine Jean-Paul Picard and son has been in a family of vignerons for many generations (since 1750). Today they passionately farm 14 hectares of vines, all of which are situated on the Bué slopes, amongst the best sites in the Sancerrois.

Always guided by the lessons of the past, the Domaine has also adopted modern techniques, whilst still retaining their artisanal knowledge and practising manual harvests.

Since 2004, when Mickael joined the business, the domaine has also made red and white wines from the Menetou-Salon appellation.

The Domaine benefits from having a modern and functional winery, including, amongst other things, the ability to work via gravity, and to allow our bottles to age slowly over time.

Situated next to the Loire, to the East of Bourges, the vineyards of Sancerre extend over 2800 hectares.
Our own vineyard covers 14 hectares, situated on the Bué slopes, one of the best sites in Sancerre.

2 types of soils compose the domain :

• The “terres blanches” (white soils of limestone-clay), which makes full and powerful wines. These soils are mainly found on the steep slopes of the commune of Bué.
• The “caillottes” (small pebbles), a very stony soil where limestone dominates, giving well balanced, very aromatic wines.

The vines are cared for under the minimum intervention method.
Half of the Domaine has a grass cover, particularly on the steeper slopes, as this helps limit erosion of the soil. We also plough the soils, de-compacting the top soils, which helps to develop micro-bacterial life.

When vinifing, we pay special attention to our wines, in order to allow our two varieties (Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir) to express our terroirs.
This means we can offer a range that suits all tastes: fruity whites and roses, and structured reds.

The manual harvest allows us to do a first sorting in the vineyards, and thus gives us our raw material of the highest quality. One of the particularities of the Domaine is to have many small parcels of vines, each with their own characteristics. They are vinified according to their terroir and position, and we generally use only indigenous yeasts to respect their individuality, and thus make wines of great complexity.