The roots of our wines…

Marielle and Emmanuel Lacroix have been here at the Lacroix vineyard since 1997. But this is not the start of the Lacroix story.

‘Our vineyard here in the heart of the Anjou region can be found in the typical wine producing village of Bouillé-Loretz, which has been a recognised area of AOC since 1935. The domain has been passed down through four generations of our family and so the name Lacroix, is synonymous with high quality wines.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century the region saw the worst case of phylloxera, which left the vineyard greatly reduced in size. Between the two great wars, when our great-grandfather and his brother settled here there was very little wine production. Initially the domain was relatively small and the main activity was to sell wine. To compensate our predecessors bought additional wine in the surrounding towns as well as others local vineyards in the Maine and Loire region and sold this to a large merchant in Saumur.

After the war of 1939-1945, during which transportation equipment had been requisitioned, times were hard and so our grand parents, who by now had inherited the land, could no longer sell wine, so they developed the planting of the vines and creation of the wines that we know today.

Ever since, each generation has carefully chosen the best soil and grape varieties, updated and modernised the methods of winemaking and continually improved the quality of our wine.

The vineyard was entrusted to us by Odile and Pierre Lacroix in 1997’

The Lacroix vineyard today

We have 24 hectares in the Deux Sevres department and 16 in the Maine and Loire, with specially chosen grape varieties to create the regional AOC Anjou wines.

The Cabernet Franc is used in our bold reds, Chenin for the subtle whites, Chardonnay creates a classic sparkling white and the Grolleau noir and gris a rosé perfect for a summers day. The vines ramble over 40 hectares of silty clay and shale soil where they flourish and grow until the grapes are perfect for harvesting and transforming into our superb wines.

The four seasons guide the activity of the vineyard.

In winter at the start of the cycle we carefully prune our vines, a job which seems to take forever!

In the spring, we shape and bend the saplings and de-bud where needed.

In summer, we spend our time trellising the plants and watch our grapes lazing around taking in all the goodness of the sun.

In autumn of course it is the harvest time and wine production completing the cycle.