Domaine de Saint Just

Anecdotes from the Estate: You're not born a winemaker, you become interested in it, you return to the land through family ties, and then year after year, the passion takes hold of you, or not. Passion is there when the taste for quality, the precision in expressing the terroir, becomes your sole objective. There is no longer a boundary between private and public life. Your profession becomes everything. For me, the passion came quite quickly, and I began to imagine my style of wine, my purity. That's also my good fortune; I didn't have a guru, I discovered my path on my own. Sometimes, it's true that Charly Foucault very gently shed light on this path for me. Jean-Louis Foucault, known as "Charly," is one of the two brothers who are winemakers at the famous Clos Rougeard. The Estate's Story: I've been making wine for 11 years. Between 2005 and 2010, I cultivated vines and made wine. In 2011, the terroirs I had been working with for six years revealed themselves to me. Specific terroirs for white wines in Brézé and Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg—that's what I discovered. So I completely changed my approach to the vines, to the plants, and especially to my winemaking. The wines, both reds and whites, became more refined, more precise, with very elegant finishes. The pride of the estate: The estate was created by Yves Lambert (my father) in 1996 with the immediate aim of expressing the terroir of Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, in the heart of the Saumur-Champigny appellation, whether in Cabernet Franc or Chenin Blanc. I began my career as a winemaker in 2005, continuing this pursuit of quality. We converted to organic farming in 2009 and received certification in 2012. Also in 2009, we acquired eight very fine Clos vineyards in Brézé to further express this terroir in Brézé. Today, the estate comprises 15 hectares of individual plots in the commune of Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg and 15 hectares of Clos vineyards in Brézé.