Domaine de l’Écu

Fred Niger took over from Guy Bossard, a famous reference winemaker in Muscadet. The Domaine de l'Ecu is located in Landreau, more precisely a few kilometers east of Nantes, close to Jo Landron of Domaine Landron. The vintages from the Domaine de l'Ecu are very famous today. The estate has been certified organic since 1972, certified Demeter since 1998 and certified Biodyvin since 2014, it is a pioneering estate in French organic farming. For Fred, organic certification was not enough: he found that the specifications were rather lax, particularly regarding winemaking. This is why he was very demanding of himself by seeking more stringent certifications.
Fred Niger takes care of his plots on a daily basis and is very attentive to the preservation of his terroir and soil. It is at Landreau that he and his team cultivate 24 hectares of vines as intelligently as possible. As some say, a great wine is born in the vine. It is when the soil work is mastered that the grapes are of quality.
On the winemaking side, Fred is keen to produce wines with as little intervention as possible, natural wines without the shadow of an oenological input, with little or no sulfur. The particularity of the Domaine de l'Écu also lies in its aging in amphorae. Vinifying in an amphora requires a lot of work, monitoring and handling, but Fred Niger particularly appreciates this technique for the purity of the fruit and the expression of the terroir, made possible by the natural origin of the clay and the neutrality of the terracotta. For him, it is the culmination of a global approach linked to biodynamics.
The Domaine de l'Écu has more than 50 vintages and the estate's vintages always reveal the different expressions of the terroir.
Our favorite: Matris, a Chenin aged for 12 months in amphorae with great complexity.