les Terres d'Ocre 'Instan T' Saint-Pourçain Rouge 2022

Husband and wife team, Eric and Valérie Nesson, work the vineyards together, and their nephew, Florent Barichard, is the winemaker, as well as the work in the vines. And all 3 participate in the marketing of the wines.

The les Terres d'Ocre estate was created in 2013, has 9.5 hectares of vines on 2 sites (Chatel de Neuvre and Meillard providing 2 different types of soil) divided into 3.30 hectares of white grape variety with Tressallier (local grape variety of St-Pourçain) and Chardonnay, and 6.20 hectares of red grape varieties with Gamay and Pinot Noir.

The vineyards in Saint-Pourçain are thought to be even older than those planted by the Romans.  Saint Louis had the wine served at his royal table after hearing of its flattering reputation. But the Popes of Avignon did not want to be left out: in spite of enormous transport costs they also took delivery Saint-Pourçain wines every year. At the end of the 18th century the vines covered 8,000 hectares but by the beginning of the 19th century, cereal and fodder crops and the ravages of phylloxera greatly reduced the wine-growing area.

Today, 19 villages on either side of Saint-Pourçain cover 650 hectares at the heart of the Bourbonnais, and produce mostly red wines, but also some white and rose.