Nicolas Joly is a French winery in the Loire Valley and its owner, Nicolas Joly himself, is a reference figure and a true pioneer of biodynamic agriculture in the Loire. La Coulée de Serrant is the name of a vineyard planted by Cistercian monks around the year 1130, and has remained a vineyard ever since.
The vineyards are located in the western part of the Loire, where La Coulée de Serrant becomes an appellation in itself; today the estate counts 7 hectares of vineyards owned by the Joly family, mainly cultivated with Chenin Blanc and worked according to biodynamic farming principles, of which Nicolas is a master and pioneer, approaching this philosophy since 1981. Throughout the winter Nicolas lets sheep graze in order to clean the soil, while from spring he applies different "calming and healing" herbal teas to the soil.
Finally, a herd of ten cows and a bull of Nantes (a dying breed), provide the necessary annual manure. Some parts of the vineyard are located on slopes so steep that force farmers to work the land with a horse. Nicolas Joly's wines are pure, authentic and strongly territorial.
