Vincent Caillé

Monnières, Loire Valley

Vincent is a 5th generation winemaker. Both of his parents came from winemaking families which essentially make Vincent a “concentrate” of winemakers! This is also the reason why his parcels are spread over such a wide territory (4 towns and 3 great terroirs over 14 kilometres). Vincent started working with his father in 1986 initially managing 4 hectares before taking over his dad’s 10 hectare parcels when he retired in 1992. Today, Vincent and his wife Slyvie (together with Vincent’s younger brothers who are participating in the family business from a distance) own the 26 hectare domaine.

The first time the name Muscadet appeared on record was in an old document from a nearby village of Gorges (birthplace of Vincent’s mother) in 1635. Reportedly, Louis XIV made an ordinance to bring resilient grapes from Burgundy after the Great Frost of 1709, from which comes the name of the Muscadet variety, Melon de Bourgogne. Muscadet originally got its AOC in 1936 when 23 villages and 8,800 hectares formed the heart of the appellation on the sides of the rivers Sèvre and Maine. Monnières, where Vincent’s father was born, had some of the best terroirs of that heirloom appellation.

During the 1980’s, the demand for Muscadet was so big that the AOC extended the appellation by almost 50% and many winemakers were tempted to increase their production using new and previously unused technology. Vincent found that by tasting wines from his area and elsewhere, a difference in quality was evident between wines made from traditional winemaking practices and those from the 1980’s when the new technology was embraced. This led him to change his own practice, firmly convinced that by going back to ancient techniques and applying some modern improvements, he could make a wine he would be proud of.