Domaine Lecomte, Quincy

Domaine Lecomte "Tradition" Quincy

Domaine Lecomte Chateaumeillant

Beginning in 1995 with only 1.5 hectares, Nicolas Lecomte's father took no small risk buying land in the relatively obscure Quincy AOP in the Loire Valley. Established as the first Loire Valley AOC in 1936, Quincy is located only a short distance from its world-renowned neighbor Sancerre, and features similar, rock-laden soils of calcareous limestone intermingled with clay, gravel, and silex.

Starting out "from zero", over the past 25 years the Lecomte family has both acquired a total of 12.75 hectares,  and developed a deep understanding of their unique terroir, alongside the viticultural know-how needed to express it via their beautiful wines.

With the start of the 2018 vintage Nicolas has taken over the Domaine from his father and is now the owner, proprietor, and head winemaker at the estate. Nicolas produces a range of Sauvignon Blanc-based cuvées of Quincy AOP, with "Tradition" being a fresh, stainless steel-aged expression, and "Génération I" showing the more serious, textured side of the appellation, aged in used barrique, and featuring a long, elegant minerality.

Nicolas also has the distinction of being one of the few vintners to produce wines under the Chateaumeillant AOC. Created in 2010, this nascent AOC produces elegant, expressive red wines from the Pinot Noir and Gamay grapes. Nicolas farms 3 of his hectares planted to Pinot Noir and Gamay for these wines, with some of his Gamay parcels reaching up to 70 years of age.

Nicolas farms all of his vineyards sustainably, following lutte raisonnée methodologies, as well as practicing HQE (Haute Qualité Environnmentale). He intervenes in the vines only when absolutely necessary, eschewing the common practice of scheduled spraying or treatments, with almost all of the small amounts of products he uses being natural and not synthetically derived. Additionally, he farms entirely without herbicides, and prefers to keep a healthy cover crop in the vineyards.