Château de Fontenay: Pioneer of the Chenonceau Appellation

When Nathalie and Philippe decided to settle in Touraine with their family, they fell in love with the Château de Fontenay. That marked the beginning of a wonderful journey in winemaking for the couple.

Fontenay Castle: the result of a wonderful encounter

“We’ve always had a passion for wine, which is what brought us to Château de Fontenay. As we’re both entrepreneurs, we wanted to get into the wine business. Didier was the winemaker at the estate owned by the château. So we decided to go into business together and develop the vineyard,” explains Philippe Carli, the château’s owner.

Among the three of them, the roles fall into place naturally. Didier handles winemaking and the technical aspects of the business, while Nathalie and Philippe take care of marketing (revamping the product line, updating the labels), sales, and managing the company. “Château de Fontenay is a setting that allows us to host and welcome our clients in an environment that matches the quality of the wines we aim to produce,” says Philippe.

“We all decided together to invest in the wine-making operations at Château de Fontenay: new tanks, equipment to transition to sustainable farming, and planting new vines. We’ve expanded from 6 to 15 hectares,” says the château’s owner.

Château de Fontenay is a pioneer of the Touraine Chenonceau appellation

This investment quickly bore fruit with the creation of the Touraine Chenonceau appellation. “We launched the new appellation in 2011. To qualify for the appellation, producers must have vineyards on the slopes of the Cher River within 10 km of the famous Château de Chenonceau and adhere to strict guidelines,” explains Philippe.

“We have gently sloping land composed of a mixture of clay, limestone, and sand that is well-suited to white and red wines made from grape varieties such as Sauvignon and Chenin, as well as Cabernet Franc and Côt (Malbec). This terroir allows us to create wines that are rich in aroma while also being full-bodied and offering a beautiful balance between minerality and fruit.”

“The key to producing high-quality wines is the work done in the vineyards,” Philippe Carli

“The more time we spend in the vineyards early on, the better the grapes we get,” Philippe asserts. “We try to avoid using treatments as much as possible. Our priority is grape quality, not yield. We devote a lot of time to the vineyards to harvest beautiful grapes that we can use to make wine in the most natural way possible.”

“We’re fortunate to have other grape varieties—Chardonnay, Gamay, and Grolleau—which allow us to make more original wines by stepping outside the boundaries of the appellation. I like to think of us as artisans and creators of wine.”

Château de Fontenay is looking forward to a great 2019 grape harvest

With the 2019 harvest approaching, how are the grapes at Château de Fontenay looking? “We have beautiful grapes, although there’s less of them than last year because we’re short on water. That said, the weather has been lovely, so the grapes are in good health and the vintage should be a good one. We’ll be able to make wines with a lovely range of aromas,” Philippe anticipates.

With this shift in his life’s path toward the world of wine, Philippe has found an invaluable home at Château de Fontenay. “I love being close to nature; it keeps us humble. Every year is different, and we feel closer to the local community and more connected to real life. You have to take risks when looking to the future—this is a profession for those who are passionate and committed to sharing.”

A future focused on sustainability

“We have several projects in the works. One is a plan for a new, more eco-friendly winery. To achieve this, we’re working with an architect to eliminate the need for air conditioning by building a thick-walled, semi-underground concrete structure that naturally maintains a cool temperature. We’ll also take this opportunity to implement a gravity-fed system, which involves positioning the various stages of wine production at different heights to avoid the use of pumps.”

"In the vineyard, the next step is High Environmental Value certification, before we take it even further."