97Stephan Reinhardt - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The south-facing 2.72-hectare monopole Coteau des Treilles in Rochefort was resuscitated at the end of the 1990s by Jo Pithon from Domaine Pithon, once famous for world-class noble sweet wines from the Coteaux du Layon. Abandoned after the war because of its 30% to 70% steep slopes, this south-facing hillside is based on "geological chaos," as Ivan Massonnat puts it. "The subsoils are made up of magmatic rocks, schists, pudding stone and ancient limestones. ... This plot is located in the heart of the Pont-Barré Natural Reserve, a heaven of biodiversity that has never known chemistry and is home to exceptional flora and fauna, observed as early as the 18th century by Angevin botanists."