Vin de France Petit Cailloux blanc La Ferme du Mont Benault - Stéphane Rocher 2024

Based in Mont Benault, between Beaulieu-sur-Layon and Bellevigne-en-Layon, Stéphane Rocher carefully nurtures his 25-hectare like a cherished garden, with 21 hectares forming a single block of which just 8 hectares planted to vine. After several years working in communications in Paris, he returned to his roots following formal training in viticulture. Working largely alone, with only part-time help, he champions a form of viticulture that places biodiversity at its core, with hedgerows, groves and woodland deliberately maintained throughout the estate which holds organic certification.
The estate is planted to a broad palette of varieties led by Chenin Blanc (four hectares, including old vines aged 50 to 70 years), Cabernet Franc, Grolleau, Pineau d’Aunis and Teinturier, among others. Although the terroirs lie within the Coteaux du Layon appellation, Stéphane chooses to bottle his wines as Vin de France. His terroirs offer a textbook expression of Anjou’s geological patchwork: rhyolite, spilite, schist and basalt all feature, and are proudly referenced on the back labels of the estate’s wines.
In the winery, the approach is deliberately low-intervention with native yeasts, trace amounts of sulphur (20–30 mg/l total SO₂), and ageing in amphorae, vats or old casks. Yields are kept low – between 20 and 50 hl/ha depending on vine age – resulting in an annual production of around 30,000 bottles.