Pithon-Paillé

Jo Pithon, Ivan Massonnat, Adrien Moreau

Since 1978, Jo Pithon has been a star of the Loire. He’s been reinventing the Côteaux-du-Layon for dry white wines for over forty years. Dessert wines were the be-all-end-all here before Pithon began to focus on making his now famous dry Chenin’s. He was the first in the area to switch to organic farming and champion living soils, the first in the area to create hyper-terroir wines from individual parcels after the Burgundian fashion, and an early adopter of natural winemaking.

These 26 hectares produce some of the most lauded Chenin Blanc in the Loire, the bottles you crack on special occasions, yet it’s Pithon-Paillé’s every day drinker, the ‘Grololo’ red and white, that have become the glou glou darlings of international renown. These are bottles the best bars do battle for, prizing their allocations. We’ve been lucky enough to secure some of these tasty drops, so the ‘Grololo’ will be Western Canada’s first introduction to this stunning Domaine. If you want to know more about the characteristics of this area you can take a look at www.vinerra.com

A note of explanation for the more bashful drinker that first sets eyes on the labels’ infamous cartoons: The original red cuvée is a play on the name Grolleau, an indigenous grape of the Loire the fleet-footed and high in acid, making extremely food friendly and nourishing vin de soif. It’s mother’s milk to vinophile. Hence the play on words: Grololo is basically a child’s slang for breasts! On the white cuvée we see the male equivalent on a couple of revelling bare-chested winemakers! Tres risqué!

Now on the verge of retirement, Pithon is handing over the reins as he works closely with rising star Adrien Moreau, a gentleman who’s plied his trade at canonical domaines like Cheval Blanc, Haut-Brion, Harlan Estate, and Roederer. Vineyard work continues on with Jo’s protege Geoffroi Cocard, joined now with Guy Bossard, a pioneer of biodynamic wine farming in France in the 70’s and Amaury Chartier formerly of Roc d’Anglade who’s sole responsibility will be the farming of Pithon’s famous monopole, the Coteau des Treilles.

In the end it is still a rather simple endeavor at Domaine Pithon-Paillé: giving the vines all the TLC and none of the chemical punishments, listening and responding as unobtrusively as possible to these plants, and fostering a dynamic environment. As thanks, nature yields back healthy and complex grapes that Domaine Pithon-Paillé can gently guide through fermentation and pass that gift onto the world.