Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Chateau la Voulte-Gasparets (Corbières)

This "republican" statue, in the square facing the estate family house, holds grapes in her basket...

We now head for a Corbières estate, Chateau La Voulte-Gasparets, located in Gasparets, a tiny village with two parts , the other being Boutenac . It is located between Carcassonne and Narbonne, just a few kilometers south of the motorway . We have been crossing several times the "Canal du Midi", this living wonder-waterway built in the 18th century to haul goods and raw material across the country and wich is now mainly used to visit the region on leasure barges. I guess in the past wine casks were transiting through it to big cities and make their way to other places  like Paris .

We crossed the waterway several times in the region

We reach Gasparets, a quiet little village . Standing in the middle of a square next to the domaine , a green statue erected by the municipal council may 25th 1901, to celebrate the new lever fountain beneath . In the basket that the republican statue holds dearly, I see grapes...
We ring at Domaine's family house in Gasparets at about noon, and Patrick Reverdi opens the door .
His son Laurent, who is about 30 years old, leads us to the tasting room .
They make the 3 wine colours here . The Boutenac terroir ( name of the other vilage Gasparets is tied to ) has well integrated Grenache and Carignan grape varieties . The soil is poor and thus favorable . Low  yields . Here , they embarked on the search for quality wines about 20 years ago . 7 generations in the winery . The founder of the estate, Mr Romain Pauc, built the buildings as well as organized the vineyard . Even though in the post-phyloxera era, the trend was toward productivity and high yields, he planted the Grenache and Carignan vineyards that today are the base of their best wines . Pebble soil . 63 hectares altogether . White : 3 hectares ; Rosé : 6-9 hectares ; The rest for reds . There's some work in the vineyard, of course . Pruning is important . They are not so many to do the work : Father, son, a cousin , a worker . Plus 30 people hired for hand harvest . All the vineyard harvested manually here ; Syrah first , Mourvedre last .

The chapel and vineyard near wich we had our picnic, just outside Gasparets

Chateau de Rieux (Minervois)

Showing us the cool place From where we were, we had time to spend until the mid afternoon, when we had an appointment at Chateau de Rieux, in Minervois . The Minervois appellation is in the Languedoc-Roussillon region . So, we made a detour to Carcassonne, to take a look at its medieval fortifications and famous skyline . Things on the map look often easier than in the reality, so we actually had to hurry up and stayed very little in Carcassonne . Just a furtive look at the city from afar . The weather was still sunny and frisk . Rieux is the name of a village located in Minervois . This village has a church that is very unique . Built in 1150-1175, it has 7 sides, giving it a circular structure . The Minervois region , in turn , got its name from a village, Minerve, lying atop a canyon along the river Cesse .Emmanuel de Soos

Chateau de Rieux, an estate and a real chateau in the middle of Rieux, can be traced in Emmanuel de Soos's family since 4 or 5 generations, as far as 1866 . He and his wife own now only an aisle of the chateau, and their house is next to it, along with the chai and cellar . [ Chateau Rieux , Phone 33(0)4 68 78 33 66 Fax 33(0)4 68 78 37 21 chateauderieux@wanadoo.fr]
Altogether, they work on 34 hectares . Average yields are 30 hectoliter/hectare . Don't use any chemicals in the vineyard, only organic ones . Short pruning .
We will taste the wines and visit the cellar today , and see some of the vineyards tomorrow morning . We enter the chai, a big cool building built in the beginning of the 20th century . Casks, vats, including big concrete ones that are mostly unused anymore, relics of the high productivity era . One of these can contain 532 hectoliters ! We visit the attic over the chai, wich allows access over the vats . A few antics covered with dust lay in a dark corner [ see picture below ] Things on the right of the pic are "échaudeuses", and were the metal boilers used in the vineyard a century ago to scald the vineroots, to keep the diseases away .

Tools of another era...

Domaine Les Eminades (Saint Chinian)

Patricia and Luc Bettoni

We reach Domaine Les Eminades, located in Cebazan, a village 5 km east of Saint Chinian where we spent the night . Very cold night , something like minus 10 °C . Leaving in the morning to meet the owners, the car is barely beginning to warm when we stop at the chai, in the middle of the village .
Patricia and Luc Bettoni,who own the domaine, are in their 30's . Their estate, with vineyards on the Saint Chinian Appellation, consists of 10,5 hectares spread in plots in Cebazan and Villespassans, another village near here . Altitude of the vineyards is 150 m and 270 m .
Luc Bettoni worked as an oenologist for Chateau Montus, a Madiran winery, and also for a Cotes de Thongue estate, Domaine de la Croix Belle , before buying his own vineyards here with his wife Patricia . Luc is originally from Madiran and Sombrun . Patricia is a pharmacist and they met when she was still a student and followed courses about wine tasting ... Pharmacy and oenology share the same academic base and her interest for wine back then made them share the same path to the present day wine adventure . She kept her work as a pharmacist and finds the time to help in the vineyard, at least part-time . As we later understand as she shows us the vineyards, she is fully involved in the work and knows a lot about the interactions between the soil , working techniques on the vines , and the wine .

Showing the old Grenache, and Cinsault-oeillade, beyond

They started in january 2002, bought the chai in june 2002 and live near Faugères, about 40 km from here . Not easy, but they chose carefully the different vineyard plots they bought . That was more important to have the right vineyards than buy a convenient one-piece self-contained estate with chai, home and vineyards .
The soils of the plots they chose carefully are generally clay-limestone, with differences in the texture . Limestone from tertiary and secondary era . Small pebblestones and red sandstones . On Villespassans, silica and schistic limestone . The geology in the region is so awesome that the Paris geology schools come down here with students in summer to investigate the layers showing up all over the region .
Grape variety repartition : Majority in Carignan . A few old Grenache ( 35 and 60 year old ) . Some Syrah, and a little of Cinsault, including some Oeillade, a qualitative variety of Cinsault .
Before they bought the vineyards, its grapes were being vinified at the local cooperative winery . So they both had to re-work on the vineyard , with pruning, to adapt the vineyard to a new philosophy . Yields are now 30-35 hectoliter/hectare . Speaking of philosophy, theirs is serious work in the vineyard, on the vines and between the rows, so as to allow the wines to be made in the chai without too much intervention .

Old Carignan vines

Abbaye de Valmagne (Coteaux du Languedoc)

An abbey with vineyards... The Abbaye de Valmagne is at the same time an architectural marvel, and a Coteaux du Languedoc winery . It is located between Montpellier and Beziers, on D5 road, a dozen km from the mediterranean sea . The history of this abbey , built in the 12th century, is tumultuous, as it went through wars of religions, prospered again, then with the french revolutionary terror and chaos was close to destruction, and somehow was saved by becoming a winery . This is the famous abbey-turned-winery, with its huge casks in the church.... Be ready for a true religious experience . Wine is sacred here ...

We arrive early in the afternoon . Although the Abbaye is open to visitors for tasting and visit, we had called in advance to have Mr Phillippe d'Allaines, the owner, tell us about the domaine and the wines . While we wait for him, we take a look at the many books on display . They are about cistercian abbeys, benedictine monasteries, about trappists, cathars , Citeaux , protestants in Languedoc . On the wall , a medal and prize awarded in an "exposition vinicole" on march 10th 1868 in Montpellier, that points to noticeable quality wines long time ago .
Philippe d'Allaines's family owns the abbey since 1838 . It was built in 1138, as a benedictine abbey first, then soon joined the cistercian order . Cistercian monks planted a vineyard, like they did in most of their abbeys including of course in Burgundy .
The domaine today has 70 hectares of vineyards . Wine production went quite uninterrupted for 8 centuries . And as said before, wine literally saved the monuments, as in the revolutionary chaos, a new owner who bought the place in 1791, used the church to make wine and store wine casks , thus preventing the buildings to serve as stone quary, as it often happened after religious buildings were deserted . Later, in 1838, the Count of Turenne, an ancestor of the present owner, bought the estate-abbey and continued its wine production .
Philippe d'Allaines tells us about a forgotten red grape variety they work with here : Morastel, known as Graciano in Spain ( small percentage in Rioja wines ). In 1860, the abbey had 1/3 planted in Morastel, but as often, the phylloxera brought havoc with the grape varieties and Morastel was not among the replanted varieties . This a capricious late variety with small yields . After asked the authorization to INAO to replant it, it was so much appreciated at the degustation tries that followed, that it was accepted right away as recommended grape variety . It is now blended in the "Le Secret de Frère Nonenque" cuvée ( 25 000 bottles/year ) . Mr d'Allaines lobbies to have the Morastel included in an AOC now . The positive side of this variety is that with just a small quantity of it, the wines get a nice acidity, plus specific aromas : Cooked jam, chocolate, caramel, orange peel . Replanting in the domaine was done 10 years ago .

Chateau des Estanilles ( Faugères )

Faugères (map) is a village located on the first hills 30 km north of Beziers in Languedoc . Altitude 240 meter . Lentheric , where we're heading to , is a smaller village about 10 km from Faugères, and also lies in the Faugères Appellation zone .
We slept in Montpellier, where we experienced our first stay in the hotel chain Formule 1, a subsidiary of the Accor Hotels group with cheap hotels all over France . Very basic but clean , easy to reserve and very cheap, we paid 28 Euro for a room if I remember . This is another bright sunny day and we take the freeway to Beziers, and then take the D909 north . Progressing slower than expected , we reach the Domaine late in the morning . This Domaine, wich was created by Michel Louison in 1976, is now considered the flagship of Faugères wineries . Sophie Louison , his daughter, who also works on the domaine, opens the door . She will be our guide here .
Although not originally from the region ( he comes from the region of Tours in the Loire Valley ) , he gained a reputation of perfectionist and his wines soon gained fame . Since he bought the place in 1976, additional buildings have been added along the years, in 1980, 1987, 1990 and 1999 for the result we see today in the chai , the cellar and tasting room .

Bumpy road to the vineyards...
We soon sit in her 4x4 to visit the vineyards . This type of vehicule is well suited for the steep and rocky tracks to the hills where the vineyards lie . She a few times stops to engage the 4 wheel gear when the terrain turns hazardous . They have 33 hectares in production, Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, some old Cinsault and Carignan . Vineyard on densely schistic soil from the primary era . No use at all of herbicides, but frequent plowing at chosen times of the year . Some sort of guano is used as organic fertilizer . About the plowing , usually, after plowing 3-4 times in spring, by june, with the heat and summer drought, the grass does not come back . This is still a lot of work to be done . Reasoned viticulture is what they practice here . Not affiliated with any chart, though . From may to july, 10 workers work in the vineyard . The green harvest needs intense manual work force . Royat Cordon is the norm here, but there is also some Goblet .We first pass a plot planted at the early stage of the estate by her father : Syrah . Not as densely planted as what is done today, but still the best Syrah here for now .The vines will love these schists...
Then we slowly pass a large plot she personally bought in 1999, and that was immediately uprooted and left to rest a long long time until future replanting wich should happen soon . This piece of land has such a density of schists, with thick rocks, that I wanted to picture that . That is going to make a good, good wine , sure . It will be planted with Grenache probably, she says .

Domaine de L'Hortus ( Pic Saint Loup )

The view on the road near Pic Saint Loup We had spent the night in a "chambre d'hôte" in Saint Martin de Londres, a village in the Pic Saint Loup appellation. The temperature in the night was largely under 0°C , but the room was well heated . Soon on the road , we enjoyed the nature wich looks so much like inland-Provence that when driving on its little roads you think you are in the Var departement . Same type of bushes, trees and aromatic plants . We use our many stops along the road to pick some thyme ( other than wine, we occasionally indulge ourselves in thyme and rosmarin infusions...), the one we picked last summer in Provence was too dry . In fact the best season to pick is somewhere between february and april . While looking for thyme in the hills , I even found wild lavender. After stocking for infusion and cooking , we went to Domaine de L'Hortus near Valflaunes (map) . Being early ( we had called ), we stopped on the dirt road 100 meter from the domaine to eat sandwiches , actually paté persillé bought on the way in Burgundy , with local baguettes . Improvised picnic on a brisk but sunny day with a beautiful view . 3 dogs , that we will learn belong to the Orliac family, are the first to greet us and come around . (small) pieces of paté persillé and my fondness for dogs make for a playful friendship . We drive the last 100 meters and Yves Orliac , one of the sons , receives us . The Domaine lies right between the Pic Saint Loup and Mont Hortus. The chai building and the owner's home face side by side the view . The architecture is a first surprise : Not the neo-traditional style, but a daring wooden architecture closer to north-american architecture . It may have something to do with Jean and Marie-Therese Orliac's pioneer spirit . Passion and adventure was what brought them here in the first place . Jean Orliac discovered this region in 1970, and climbed repeatedly the summits around here , especially the Hortus cliffs, enjoying the beauty of a place that was then even more remote . The road system had not improved as much, and Montpellier seemed light years from here .The chai , with mont Hortus behind As an agricultural engineer,he felt it also had great potentialities for wine . This was the time of big production and these remote locations and difficult terrain were not favored . The hectare price was of course very cheap in these conditions . They first rented vineyards in the 1970's . Now the Domaine consists of 50-60 hectares , not all in ownership . They also acquired a 10 hectares vineyard, "Clos du Prieur", located 25 km north from here , on very steep terrain , with everything done manually there .

Clos Marie ( Pic Saint Loup )

Clos Marie , the chai

Back from our Languedoc expedition . Little roads , cold wind , scenic landscapes and deserted villages . Sleeping in different places, always on the move, with adventure and wine on the road ... First of several articles about wine in the Languedoc region .
Our first visit to a winery was at Clos Marie , the wines of wich we first encountered at a Caves Augé wine tasting event . It is located in Lauret in the Pic Saint Loup appellation . Pic Saint Loup is the name of a mountain ( alt 658 m ) 20 km north of Montpellier, wich is central to the small adjacent wine region . By the way , pictures seen here and there often misrepresent Pic Saint Loup, showing instead the characterisic Mont Hortus, the cliff-looking mountain ( alt 512 m) wich lies next to Pic St Loup .

Pruning and burning, near Lauret , on Terret vines . Background : Pic St Loup on left , Mont Hortus on right

Clos Marie was created in 1994 , beginning with 8 hectares , 75% of wich were uprooted and replanted . It is today a 20 hectares vineyard , all in biodynamy. The chai is right in the village , with a small vineyard spot , in lyre tresilling , at the back ( just for a try, here ) .Winter is very cold this year . Last night minus 8°C here . Clear blue sky today . This time of the year is the time for pruning and de-earthing . Christophe Peyrus , who manages the Domaine with Francoise Julien ( she was the one we saw at Augé ) receives us and we head to the underground cellar , wich was built in 2000 . Stable temperature at 10-12°C , 5 meter deep , with no air duct nor ventilation with the ground level, so as to keep it cool in summer . In this present cold winter , it also prevents the temp from dropping . We now taste , with Christophe Peyrus explaining his work . He takes samples from casks with a wine thief ...

The magic of Tasting from a cask...
__1 Red . L'Olivette 2004 . Syrah , Grenache and a little of Cinsault and Mourvedre . Partially blended in vats . was vinified together . 100% destemmed here ( changes depending of conditions , no fixed rules ) . Will be bottled nov 2005 . What we taste here is in fact only part of the final "L'olivette" assemblage . Comes from spots on quaternar hard limestones , compact debris . 2004 was a classical year . No excess volume except on some rare spots . From the start it was a very good year as rain was plentiful at the end of 2003 . Except some high points at the end of july , the summer temp was good . In this region backed to the mountains, there is a sharp drop in temperature each summer ( between aug 15 and sept 1st ) wich is one of the terroir features here , that finds its way in the wine . Typical of the Pic St Loup appellation . The plateau north from here is very cold in winter . It went as low as minus 30° in neighbouring village St Martin de Londres , during the famous 1956 winter . Harvest for most of the vineyard is sept 15 - oct 15 . Mourvedre the last . This grape variety is difficult here because the region is quite septentrional for it . That's why the exposition of the spot and the soil composition is important : Very deep soils so as the roots go deep . And with lots of stones wich keep both humidity and heat . This type of soil is called " La Gravette ". Strange , why do the vines seem to love so much these rocky soils , this gravel ?...

Domaine Goisot (Auxerrois , Burgundy)

Saint Bris le Vineux

Saint Bris le Vineux (map) is located in Auxerrois, in northwestern Burgundy , the part of Burgundy closest from Paris . This small wine region with old roots lies in the shadow of the Chablis area , which is very close ( Chablis proper is located 15 km northeast ) . To reach Saint Bris , you can take the N 6 highway to Auxerre , a very nice road along the Yonne river and drive further south along the Cure river . About 3 km south of Auxerre , take left on road D956 and you reach the village . Its name says a lot about its roots : "vineux" means winy.
Vineyards are said to exist in this area as early as in the 12th century, mainly to produce white wines . Replanting in the 1920's was centered on mostly white varieties, Sauvignon, Aligoté, Sacy and Chardonnay.
We visit Domaine Ghislaine and Jean-Hugues Goisot, managed by passionate winemakers who devote their energy to gain recognition for the Saint Bris wines and its specific grape variety , the Saint Bris Sauvignon . Mrs Goisot receives us and leads us down the steep hard stone stairs to the vaulted cellars under the house , to go taste the wines . The old stone stairs are a first wonder . They have witnessed centuries of casks being pulled up and down to the cellar . The central notch on each step is where the rope was inserted, so as not to be stuck or damaged under the cask in the operation. See the picture on the left, same patina than on church front steps...
Then we get to the cellar, in fact a succession of dimly-lit vaulted cellars filled with casks and where the temperature is quite cool . The tasting room is in one of the cellars . The whole cellar, which seems unchanged since that time, except for the electricity, dates from the 14th century. Monks were making wine in the area between the 11th and the 14th century in the region, with bases ( abbeys ) in Citeaux, Saint Germain, Pontigny.
Jean-Hugues Goisot himself has 7 generations of vintners behind him, that he can clearly trace in documents . There was a time when a much bigger wine production came out of this area : Before the phyloxera, the Yonne departement had 40 000 hectares of producing vineyards. Today, Chablis, which has on its Appellation area most of Yonne's vineyards, has 3600 hectares of vineyard surface.

In the 14th century cellar
The Saint Bris area had at some point, after the phyloxera debacle, thousands of cherry trees planted where the vineyards once stood. Now a reverse trend is happening and new vineyards are planted back .
Mrs Goisot explains us that the Saint Bris terroir was left in the dark somehow when the Appellation system was put in place and when the INAO chose the different districts deemed ggod enough to be selected . But in recent years in Saint Bris, and particularly at Goisot, they took upon themselves to build anew and, slowly but surely, worked to improve quality with self imposed rules, and to gain recognition of their terroir. The goal being to convince the INAO to consider a separate appellation for Saint Bris ( which lies today in the generic Burgundy Appellation ) .

About Corks

Corks for Alphonse Mellot's Sancerre wines

The length of the cork is determined by the potential laying down of a wine . Good estates adapt the corks to the different types of wines they have . Long laying down wines will receive longer corks on the bottles .
On the picture above, all the corks are from Alphonse Mellot's wide Sancerre wines range : Different sizes for different wines . Some of his Sancerre reds have the long 52 mm corks while whites get the 49 mm cork . Note that 49 mm is already quite a long cork , the most common size being something like 45 mm .
The quality of these corks increase the bottling costs . Good quality corks are treated against TCA ( trichloroanisole ), the mysterious chemical element that in contact with wine gives it ( some say on 10 % of bottles with corks ) this musty and flat taste . Here we call it " gout de bouchon " .This TCA obsession must not become excessive , this unpleasant taste disappearing sometimes after a while . Even with the slight risk of having a TCA tainted bottle, traditional corks remain associated with a nice wine experience and ritual : The nice pop when uncorking , the smelling of the wine side of the cork ...

Synthetic cork

Even in France, synthetic corks are discreetly making a debut . They are alternatives to the traditional corks, the high demand of wich has brought a tight market and high prices for the production of the two main european producers , Spain and Portugal . Synthetic corks are also an alternative to screw caps, as they preserve the cork touch and feel . More security as for the TCA risk, even if some say TCA can also spoil the wine bottled with these types of corks... At least they allow some of the traditional decorking ceremony that wine lovers appreciate . And the fabric of these plastic corks begins to imitate real cork, although there is still some progress to make . Some makers even say you can smell the wine side of the plastic cork like you did on real corks . Some of them are hard to extract, though , and also to replace ( need to be improved ) . The ink on these corks does not hold as easily , like the " Mis en bouteille a la propriete " here . This one was on a bottle of Vignoble de Flavigny " Auxerrois " 2002 .

High-density-foam encased-in-sleeve cork

Another plastic cork : Composed of high density foam encased in a thin rubber like sleeve . Nomacorc-extrusion corks are another variant of synthetic corks . Nomacorc was originally a subsidiary of a company ( Nomaco ) making plastics for automotive, toys , packaging . Now an independant company based in Zebulon , North Carolina, it went from a 10 million corks output in its first year ( 1999 ) to over 1 billion corks capacity and it exports all over the world . The fabric of these corks is supposed to emulate the physical properties of real corks . The down side is that with their dual composition they look less like the real thing . But research will bring better looks , I am sure . This cork was in a Jacky Preys bottle .

Loire Wines Fair in Angers

Bottled wine glass

Monday january 31st to wednesday 2nd was when the Loire Valley wine fair was held in Angers , along the Loire river . 570 estates and wineries were present . Exceptional opportunity to taste and meet the owners and the winemakers . This is open to wine professionals and buyers only and they come from all over France and the world ( estimated 9000 visitors rom 25 countries ) . This wine fair is one of the most sought-after by wine professionals and I was happy to be part of it as it sheds light on the very rich diversity of the Loire Valley Appellations and terroirs .
Here are a few pics shot while tasting great wines , mostly from estates I did not know yet .

Rousseau Freres "Touraine Noble Joué"

Ever heard about "Noble Joué" ? Smallest appellation of the Loire area . 30 hectares altogether . Very recent also ( 2001 ) . This is actually an old wine already known in the 15th century ( Louis IX ) wich had its glory apogee in the 19th century , before the phyloxera . It then nearly disappeared . Noble Joué is a "vin gris" made from Pinot Gris ( 30-35 %), Pinot Noir ( 10-15%) and Pinot-Meunier (55%) . Very beautiful rosé at 4 Euro , from Rousseau Freres in Esvres "Le Vau" .

Junko Arai (right) with Noëlla Morantin At last we meet Junko Arai, who owns a wine estate near Mareuil sur Cher ( along the Cher river ). Her story is highly interesting . First , she is from Japan and runs an importation business for french wines to the japanese market . Then , as it happens sometimes, her love affair with wine translated into making wine herself... Her estate is Domaine des Bois Lucas . Pictured here with chai master Noëlla Morantin and a bottle of Gamay "Cuvée Kuniko" 2003 : An incredible Gamay made possible by the 2003 millesime . We will visit her soon , more info then... Jo Pithon Jo Pithon makes outstanding Chenin wines on Anjou , Coteaux du Layon and Savennieres . Among the 7 wines we tasted there was an exceptional Anjou Bonnes Blanches 2002 , old vines ( 40 years) with meticulous work, 20-25 hectoliter/hectare, very little SO2 , new casks . Powerful . 18 Euro .Frustrating not to write about the other we tasted . More when we visit . Pictured here with Quarts de Chaume , Les Varennes 2002 , one of the 3 Moelleux we tasted .2 years in new casks , less than 10 ho/hectare . nice . 70 Euro in 75 cl .