Philippe and his wife Catherine Delesvaux produce fabulous sweet wines of the highest order from their vineyards in the Coteaux du Layon. Their domaine, established in 1983, lies between the Loire and Layon valleys, located on the hillsides of the Corniche Angevine, which is within a UNESCO world heritage site. White wines account for the vast majority of their production, sourced from 7 hectares of the domaine’s total holdings, including 1 hectare of ungrafted vines. The soils here are mostly schist, overlain by stony top soils from ancient glacial deposits. Since the domaine lies between the rivers Louet and Layon, where regular mists rise from the water, is seems only natural that the production of sweet wine should be their speciality.

Philippe Delesvaux is one of the most meticulous producers we know and we admire his decision to make sweet wines despite a very difficult market. Very few people really understand these wines and the huge amount of work that is required to achieve such great results year after year. In addition, even better, his 11 hectares of vineyards are fully organic and he is a great defender of the appellation. The estate has been certified Biodynamic by Demeter since 2000 and Phillippe is also a member of the “Renaissance des Appellations (Return to Terroir)” association.