Julien Delrieu is a young and talented artisan vigneron from the Loire Valley. A sweet and sensitive soul with a great thirst for knowledge, he is a beekeeper and has studied oenology in Dijon, brewed beer with monks in Belgium, made cheese in Italy and studied sake yeasts in Japan! Back in France, he decided to move to the Loire because of its proximity to Brittany (where he grew up) and worked with two winemakers from Vouvray, Vincent Carême and Sébastien Brunet, before settling in Anjou.
Spurred on by the wines of Richard Leroy and Mark Angéli, among others, and fascinated by the characteristics that Chenin acquires growing on the area's shale soils, Julien and two friends bought 15 hectares of vines at Coteaux du Layon in the heart of the Ajou, setting up Domaine "Les Roches Sèches" in 2010. The three converted the vineyards to organic farming right from the start, and increasingly perfected their winemaking style.
The vineyards are between 25 and 60 years old and favour traditional Anjou vines: Chenin, Cabernet Franc, Grolleau and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard soils are diverse, but dominated by schist, limestone and clay, typical of the region. The company dissolved before the 2017 harvest, and each of the partners went out on his own with his share. Julien recovered 3.5 hectares of vineyards in Faveraye-Mâchelles and began his adventure, which followed the principles he had already put into practice with his friends: organic and biodynamic farming with minimal intervention in the vineyard and cellar, skin maceration for white wines and minimal use of sulphur.
Julien's objective is to allow the vineyard to express itself spontaneously, without forcing, because only in this way can it reach the highest level of quality. The result is extremely taut and lively wines that are nevertheless harmonious and elegant, never too nervous. Wines of the highest level, tasty and territorial.
