Domaine du Trait

The home estate, in Chinon

Domaine du Trait is the house it all starts from. Founded in 2024 by Hadrien Boucard and Erwan Leteurte in Crouzilles, in the heart of Chinon (Touraine). Erwan bought an abandoned farm and its vines there in 2022, then swapped logistics for winegrowing; Hadrien, a chef before that, joined him in the adventure. Together they work around eleven hectares, part of it already in production.

The name is in the gesture

Trait means draught horse, and it’s no decoration: the soil between the rows is worked by their horse — Jumpy — not the tractor. It’s the heart of a viticulture of patience and respect, a living polyculture where biodiversity is left to flourish. The estate is certified organic with Ecocert, with newer parcels in conversion.

Trusting the grape

In the cellar, nothing is forced. Spontaneous fermentation on indigenous yeasts, no artifice and a bare minimum of additions, neither filtered nor fined. Cabernet Franc — the local “Breton” — on clay-sand soils over yellow tuffeau, plus a touch of Chenin. The result is pure, digestible wines that let the terroir of Chinon speak without noise.

The estate wines

Premier Trait is the entry wine and already the calling card: juicy, crunchy, straight-talking. Le Clos comes from a single walled parcel of old vines and is raised half in barrel, half in amphora — deeper and more serious, but never heavy. Bout-en-Trait is the méthode-ancestrale pét-nat, meant to be drunk in one go, just as the name says. And then there’s the rare white Chinon from Chenin, off the limestone slopes of Panzoult.

The beating heart of Honorie

This estate is the starting point for everything. The same hands that grow and make their own wine here also travel the rest of the Loire to build, with grower friends, the wider Honorie range. At the estate they are growers, on their own parcels; at Honorie they are selectors. Two projects, the same people.