Overview

Our estate is located 25 km South of Angers, in the Loire Valley, the third biggest wine-growing area of France. The vines of the Domaine Jo Pithon grow on a 27-hectare surface which spreads on five different terroirs in the heart of the vineyard of Anjou. A great variety of AOC wines (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) is produced in the Loire Valley from still wines including dry white wines and red wines, to sweet and syrupy wines: Anjou Blanc, Savennières, Coteaux du Layon, Quarts de Chaume and Anjou Rouge. The dominant grape variety grown in our estate is Chenin blanc (80%) and the other varieties represented are Cabernet franc (10%) and Cabernet sauvignon (10%).

We pride ourselves of our ecological grape growing approach, based on organic agriculture (labelled “Qualité France” since 1997) which forbids the use of chemical herbicides and limits the anti-parasite treatments of the vine, protecting therefore the living soil. A must to get high-quality grapes. An essential prerequisite to produce top-quality wines. To make this approach global, we also forbid ourselves to use any chemicals in the cellar (except sulphur) or any other oenological inputs such as pitching, enzyming or chaptalization.

Our world-class wines are distributed in 15 countries, including the United-States, Canada, Japan, Great-Britain, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Italy and Spain. Powerful and elegant, greedy and accurate.... those are the many adjectives defining the wines of the Domaine Jo Pithon.

Historical Background

Those past 15 years, the estate has evolved continuously, specially since 1991 when the frost wave devastated it all. Out of the best plots of land he owned in Saint-Lambert, Saint-Aubin and Beaulieu, he was only able to save 4 hectares. After all, he did his utmost to produce exceptional sweet wines. In 1994, Jo Pithon was elected “Best Vintner of the Year” by “La Revue du Vin de France”, the first media coverage of many others to come. In 1997, he purchased nice and plots of land for growing Chaume and Quarts de Chaume and, in 1998, 10 other hectares for growing Chenin. In that same year, the cellar was built in the place named as “Les Bergères”.

The year 1996 saw the start of an amazing project and gigantic work: growing vines again on the slope of “Les Treilles”, a land in Beaulieu-sur-Layon that had been laying fallow for 50 years. The replanting of the 5 hectares in “Les Treilles” started in the year 2000. That same year, 1 hectare was planted in the village of Savennières in order to widen the range of dry wines.

In 2005, Philip Fournier (Afone CEO, Angers) became the new owner the estate and by the same time decide to invest in 15 hectares in the village of Rochefort-sur-Loire, including 5 hectares of Cabernets franc and Sauvignon, and the 12 hectares of Chenin already grown. The whole estate now adds up to 27 hectares.

Since the vintage 2006, the “Domaine Jo Pithon” is drawing closer to the “Château de Chamboureau” in order to put in common the equipment and know-how and therefore start a collaboration that will end up soon in a complete integration.