Château Bellerive

Quarts de Chaume, one of the smallest appellations in the Loire Valley, was granted grand cru status in 2011. When its boundaries were drawn in the fifties, Bellerive — then in the hands of the Lalanne family — was one of the four estates around which the appellation was built: the appellation was traced, in part, along its vines.

Before that it had belonged to Louis Mignot, who set about making the wines of Quarts de Chaume known through the 19th century and the early 20th.

In 2004 it was bought by Alain Château, an industrialist who had made his money in printing, paper and packaging; his surname is, literally, Château. He took on Denis Dubourdieu as his adviser, professor of oenology at Bordeaux and owner of Doisy-Daëne in Barsac, who died in 2016.

There are 12 hectares of Chenin Blanc on the left bank of the Loire, on steep south-facing slopes, over decomposed sandstone, microgranites and Brioverian schist. The mists off the Layon bring noble rot. The rules set a maximum yield of 20 hl/ha and a minimum of 298 g/l of sugar at harvest, and picking is done in successive passes, berry by berry.

Alain Château also owns Château de la Guimonière, in Coteaux du Layon, and Château de Varennes, in Savennières: thirty-eight hectares across the three houses.