Before the age of 30, Bertrand Sourdais had already made an impressive name for himself at Spain’s Dominio de Atauta. In the process of revealing a new terroir from Atauta’s ancient, ungrafted vines, Bertrand learned many invaluable lessons. The most important of these was the need to think critically about every single step in the viticulture and winery work. This process at Atauta also got Bertrand to start questioning the existing orthodoxies in his native Chinon. By 2003, Bertrand determined to return to France and take up the challenge of his beloved Cabernet Franc. His father’s estate, Domaine de Pallus, is located in the heart of the appellation and is blessed with some of Chinon’s choicest vineyards. With vines averaging over 35 years old, Pallus held all the potential Bertrand could hope for. Beginning with the 2003 harvest, Bertrand has begun his quest to find the ultimate limit for Pallus. Les Pensées de Pallus is the domaine`s top cuvee for which Bertrand selects his oldest and best vines. For 2005, the average yield was under 40 Hl/Ha, and the estate has switched to organic viticulture. After a cool, extended fermentation, the wine spends 18 months in 3rd passage Bordeaux barriques. It is bottled without cold stabilization, fining, or filtration.
"Young Bertrand Sourdais is best known as winemaker at the Ribera del Duero’s Dominio de Atauta, a job he landed right out of oenology school in Bordeaux, and whence he commutes from the Loire. In 2003, Sourdais decided to take over his family’s domaine and begin estate-bottling their Chinon. In his second commercial vintage, the 2005 Chinon Les Pensees de Pallus (the name under which his flagship wine is bottled) has turned out a great success, more so than I had been willing to forecast based on tasting its components from barrel. Red raspberry, plum and subtly smoky toasted nuts in the nose lead to an elegant, refined, caressingly silken-textured palate displaying sorbet of red raspberry, roasted red pepper, nut oils and a deep, marrowy sweetness. Elegant and low key, with clear, juicy finishing fruit and subtle smoky, spicy, nutty finishing nuances, this seems too delightful now to want to hold, although – there being no track record – one is tempted to experiment with a few bottles in one’s cellar. "The Wine Advocate David Schildknecht 90 Points
