Estate & cellar · Since 1897
Wines raised in the quiet of the stone.
Calcaire is a family estate on a single limestone hill. Every bottle rests for two years in galleries carved into the rock, where the lights come on only when someone walks in.
The old gallery
11 °C · 86% humidity
Craie Haute
Clos des Lanternes
Galerie 62
Rosé de Pierre
Coteau Nord
Dernière Lueur
01 — The estate
Four generations, one hill and a great deal of patience.
The first vines were planted on this slope in 1897, the same winter the galleries were cut into the limestone below. Four generations later we still farm the same fourteen hectares, by hand and without hurry.
We make six wines, one for each soil and season, and we let the cellar decide when they are ready. Nothing leaves the estate before its second winter underground.
Soil
Four kinds of limestone, from white chalk at the top of the hill to iron-red clay by the old wall.
Time
At least twenty-four months in the gallery for every wine, and four years for the sparkling.
Hand
Pruned, picked and sorted by a team of eleven people who know every row by name.
The cellar does not hurry. Neither do we.
02 — The wines
Six wines, each with the voice of its soil.
From the saline Chardonnay of the upper slope to a late-harvest Chenin picked in November fog. Every wine is made in small numbers and released only when it is ready.
White
2022
Craie Haute
Our highest parcel, where the chalk shows through the topsoil. Taut, saline and patient.
Chardonnay
€42
Red
2021
Clos des Lanternes
The walled vineyard below the cellar door, named after the lanterns once hung along its gate.
Pinot Noir
€58
Sparkling
2019
Galerie 62
Named after the sixty-two metres of gallery where it rests on its lees for four years.
Chardonnay & Pinot Noir
€64
03 — The year
Four seasons in the vines, two years in the dark.
I
Winter pruning
Two buds per cane on the chalk, a few more on the clay. The vintage starts with a pair of secateurs in January.
II
Harvest at dawn
Every row is tasted the evening before, picked before sunrise and pressed within the hour.
III
Rest in the gallery
Large oak, old barrels and concrete at a constant eleven degrees, for two years or more.
IV
Release
We taste every lot before release. If a wine is not ready, it simply waits another season.
04 — The cellar
Sixty-two metres under the hill.
The galleries were cut by hand in the 1890s and have never needed a machine to stay cool. Each niche has its own light, switched on only when someone comes down to taste.
62 m
of galleries carved by hand into the limestone
11 °C
all year round, without any cooling system
86%
natural humidity, ideal for long ageing under cork
24
months minimum in the gallery for every wine
14 ha
of vines on four different limestone soils
1897
the year of the first vintage in the cellar
05 — Visit
Come down to the cellar.
Tastings take place in the gallery itself, by the light of the niches. Groups are small and every visit ends with the current releases poured side by side.
The Gallery Walk
60 min · Thursday to Sunday
€35
Library Tasting
90 min · Saturdays
€65
Harvest Table
3 hours · September and October
€120
06 — Our tables
Poured where people take their time.
You will find our wines in a few places we know well, and of course at our own table on the estate.
Private cellars
Collectors receive an allocation each spring, with older vintages from the library on request.
Restaurants & sommeliers
We work directly with a short list of restaurants that pour our wines by the glass and by the bottle.
Wine shops
A handful of independent shops carry the full range and host tastings with us twice a year.
Celebrations at the estate
The old press house hosts dinners and small weddings of up to sixty guests from May to October.
07 — Journal
Notes from the vines and the cellar.
Estate
Reading limestone with your feet
Our four soils, from white chalk at the top of the hill to iron-red clay by the wall, and what each one gives the glass.
Table
Decanting, or not
When to open a bottle early, when to pour straight away, and the one wine we never decant.
Cellar
The barrel is a slow conversation
Large oak, old barrels and very little new wood: how we choose the vessel for each wine.
Every light you see is a bottle waiting for its moment.
08 — Contact
Write to the cellar.
For tastings, allocations or a table for a celebration, write to us or call the cellar door. We answer every message within a day.
Cellar door
Address
4 Chemin des Caves, Hillside Valley
Hours
Thursday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00