Nicolas Joly and his Château de la Roche aux Moines holds all 7 hectares (17 acres) of Savennières most celebrated enclave, Coulée de Serrant, which is an Appellation d’origine contrôlée of its own, Savennières-Coulée-de-Serrant. Joly’s wine from this appellation is labelled Clos de la Coulée de Serrant and is often mentioned as one of the world’s best dry white wines.
At the time he took over the family estate, Joly was skeptical about modern agriculture and the effect it had on nature. He encountered a book on biodynamic farming and took an active interest in the ideas found there, and from 1980 started to experiment with them in his wine estate. From 1981, the estate’s top wine Clos de la Coulée de Serrant has been made biodynamically, and from 1984 the estate’s entire range has been produced biodynamically. Coulée de Serrant is among the very few single vineyards monopole to be granted its own AOC; others include Romanée-Conti, La Tâche, and Château-Grillet.
