Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Gwennaëlle Le Bars (Provence)

Gwennaëlle near a vine of Cinsault

Bras/Brue-Auriac, Var (Provence)
Gwennaëlle Le Bars started about 3 years ago her own domaine in this part of inner Provence known as La Provence Verte, between the two cute villages of Bras (pictured on right) and Brue-Auriac. I met Gwennaëlle a few years ago at Les Pénitentes [scroll to third pic] as she was working for Chablis vigneron Thomas Pico. The large warehouse in a corner of which where she is setting up her chai is located in a ranch-size property of 500 hectares (pretty large for France) which was previously raising 2000 sheep for meat, the new owners will tend the 2000 olive trees organicly and there are also Aurochs, an ancient breed of cattle being raised here. Gwennaëlle shares the building with two market gardeners, one of whom is pictured on the left.

Gwennaëlle's first wine experience was when she worked at the Domaine Les Terres Promises (Jean Christophe Comor) not far from here. She grew up in the port city of Toulon (Var), began to study in Toulon then in Paris in physics, worked in a lab as research engineer but in 2014 she decided to try other jobs closer to what she'd feel comfortable with, and one of these jobs was doing the harvest at Comor in 2017. By chance they also needed someone in the cellar and she was tasked to watch over the fermenters during the whole harvest and that was a great experience. Comor was also confident with her lab training (even if not in wine) meaning she had the skills to check the analysis data for the fermenting juice. She left in october after which she worked 3 months in Ma Cave Fleury in Paris, another great experience in this natural-wine bar that not only serves the Fleury Champagnes but a superb selection of still wines from around France, she tasted lots on nice wines there. Natural wines were a new experience for her, she was from a family where tasting/enjoying wine was revered, visting producers as well, but she discovered another dimension with natural wines.

Vinification in a school book in 1909

agriculture course for elementary school

Here is an extract from a book titled Cours Elémentaire D'Agriculture, published in 1909 for its 17th edition, written by V. Barillot and P. Sagourin for what we'd call now technical high schools, and then (at the turn of 19th-20th century in France) Enseignement Primaire Supérieur and Enseignement Secondaire. The book reviews agriculture science and techniques of the time and as there are a few pages devoted to vinification it is quite interesting to see how it was envisioned and taught back then. Of course, some of the techniques listed here may have certainly been used only by the most "advanced" wineries and the richest. Farmers at that time in most wine regions in France were rarely into monoculture and if they had a vineyard they usually had other crops as well, and farm animals, and they were vinifying in the most rustic way; I doubt they were using pasteurization or any other "modern" technique beginning for the reason they hadn't any money for such investments. But the reading is very instructive, it puts you in the context of the challenges of making wine in these years, when picking was all by hand, with the yeast (virtually everyone was using indigenous yeast then__with or without pied de cuve__), acidity and occasional additives for correction, like sugar, tannin or plaster... The corrections back then were certainly very limited compared to what we have today, as hinted by all the powder- and liquid additives sold by the specialized companies pushing enologists and winemakers in France and elsewhere, and don't be fooled by organic certification, as "organic" vinification also uses quite many of them).

Speaking of wine corrections in the 19th century I had written a story a few years ago about a German guy named Ludwig Gall, a very odd individual who tried himself at human-trafficking in the United States at the age of 28 for a planned business of his own, failed at it (the slave labor fled), came back from there very anti-American and radical (we'd call him a progressive agitator today) haranging against the privileged class in his town of Trier (which was also Karl Marx' town, who was 17 at that time) and later went into wine correction experiments that were fought by local conservative winemakers. Seems that the fight never ends...
You'll find the French version below the English translation.

Domaine Didon (Burgundy)

Naima and David Didon

Chassey-le-Camp, Burgundy
The Domaine Didon is yet another artisan domaine pointed to me by Aaron, it's nestled in such a beautiful and remote-looking valley between Santenay and Mercurey, feeling worlds away from the intensive vineyard landscape we're used to in Burgundy as well. Here is the village of Chassey-le-Camp, 361 inhabitants among them 4 vignerons. David who is one of them tends here with his wife Naïma a handful of hectares a few steps from their house on organic and biodynamic principles. David was born in Strasbourg, grew up there and after school started with studying in the south of France with a BTS on nature protection, still not sure if for working in forests or something else, he just knew it'd be related with nature and outdoor. afterthen he took a specialisation cursus focused on organic & biodynamic agriculture in Beaujeu (Beaujolais) at the Ecole d'Agrobiologie de Beaujeu (now closed). After that instead of doing his military time, as conscientious objector he chose to serve 20 months in the Mouvement de l'Agriculture Biodynamique in Alsace; his work there consisted in helping different farms, doing farm work, it furthered his practical knowledge in biodynamic farming.

Then he worked in the Côtes de Toul [a little-known northern Appellation located near Nancy in the Meurthe-et-Moselle département] at Domaine Michel Goujot where he worked in the vineyard (3,5 hectares of vineyard), the vigneron also had also 500 trees (mirabelles and quetsches, or plum, for dry fruits and spirits) . Then, until recently (2022) and for 20 years, David worked at Domaine de Montille, keeping it later as a side job while he was growing his own surface (Naïma still does have one, she's an accountant in a winery), he was chef de culture (vineyard manager) for the Chateau-de-Puligny part of the domaine, where he helped for the conversion to organic & biodynamic farming. I happen to have written a story on the domaine but it's quite old now.

Arnaud Lopez (Burgundy)

In the vatroom

Arnaud Lopez of the négoce Maison Pinot Noar [Noar in an anagram of Arno] is born in Nuits-Saint-Georges, he was initially planning to be an educator and seriously turned to the life of vigneron at the age of 35, beginning with working at Prieuré Roch where he stayed 15 years. His grapes are sourced in organic-farmed vineyards, vinification is wholly natural with both fermentations through indigenous yeast, no filtration and no added sulfites. Actually he started making wine while very young, in 1988 : his maternal grandfather had parcels near Nuits-Saint-Georges. As a kid he played in the vineyards and helped for the harvest. His father managed a well-known restaurant in the 1980s named Le Sanglier where the top winemakers of the area would come, people like Philippe Angel, Henry-Frédéric Roch, he befriended many guys who had parcels, helping them tend the vines when he was a teenager, helping vinify in their cellar and feeling at the same time that it was a good life to have vineyards and make wine. So in 1988 [at the age of 18] he made his first wine using a wooden fermenter, he had no money for a destemmer, sulfur or sugar (sugar was routinely added then). After that he worked at Yvan Dufouleur in Nuits-Saint-Georges or at Jean-Jacques Confuron, David Duband, wineries where "modern", extracted wines were made, far from his simple, whole-bunch first cuvées, but they were friends and it was part of his experience.

Laurence and Nina (Burgundy)

Laurence Cuthbertson

Auxey-Duresses, Burgundy
Laurence & Nina (who wasn't present that day alas) are the two friends behind Les Flâneurs, a small négoce based in Burgundy. I first met Laurence Cuthbertson, a Brit from Welsh, at Domaine Dandelion while visiting with Aaron, Laurence was working there then. Laurence and his partner Nina met initially in New Zealand in 2017, she had come there for the harvest as she was already working in the wine trade (in London if I understood correctly); they then on the same year travelled by bus and train to Armenia and Georgia where they did a bit of picking to experiment the harvest there, they worked for example in Georgia at Nika Marani.
In 2018 they took a trip to France, spending 2 or 3 weeks with different winemakers throughout the season, starting with Castillon-la-Bataille (near Saint-Emilion), Pic Saint Loup, Alsace, the Loire....

In 2019 they worked with a winemaker in Northern Switzerland in Schaffhausen, at Markus Ruch, very interesting guy he adds, he let them make a barrel of wine with him. And lastly in 2020 they came to Burgundy, working with various people, big domaines or also for Christian and Morgane of Dandelion, and they made 3 barrels here with the help of Jon and other people around, after which they felt confident to look for vineyards.

Domaine Einhart (Alsace)

Théo Einhart with his father

Rosenwiller, Alsace
The Domaine Einhart is located in Northern Alsace, not very far from Strasbourg (about 30 kilometers), in the village of Rosenwiller oçn the slopes of what was known as the Westerberg terroir. The Einhart farm is known to be here since 1870, it was converted organic by Nicolas Einhart and his son Théo joined the domaine in 2020 for the pandemic lockdowns after working 2 years in Burgundy in Nuits Saint Georges where he'd never replicate what he learned there, never saw a natural vinification there but he somehow discovered an exciting viticulture philosophy while in the Hautes Côtes de Beaune, it was the first time he heard about the Cours aux Agriculteurs by Rudolf Steiner and in this sense he returned really excited and enriched by his Burgundy experience. His father Nicolas did some pragmatic practiced related to biodynamy with the Masson family which has developped another dimension of this farming philosophy. Because of the pandemic his plans to go train in Italy and in the Bordeaux area were also were aborted and so he unexpectedly returned to Rosenwiller where overnight he stopped his father's bulk-wine contracts and vinified the whole harvest (10 hectares) zero-zero (nothing added and just indigenous yeast)... His father Nicolas had already made several experiments of this order in 2019 with a few macerations which is indeed the most peasant way to make wine. The vineyard hadn't got any synthetic product or herbicide since 2000, so it was well prepared to allow an uninterventionist winemaking.

Winter visits in Touraine

Parcel of old Sauvignon at La LunotteNot a tree, just ivy that felt like growing on a post...

Cher valley, Touraine (Loire)
This time of winter is the season when winemakers and growers can rest a bit, the wines are usually well past their active and shaky early life and the pruning, if already begub, can pause for a while. That's why these major tasting events in and around Angers & Saumur take place in these bleak days at the end of january and early february. I happened to have had the visit of Bryn & Feffrey of Ellsworth Wines who had just visited a couple salons in both Angers and Saumur. to my surprise they told me it was not as crowded as feared and they could exchange with the many winemakers they tasted the wines of.... This story is just a photo story, I didn't take notes, just enjoying the moment with these nice people...

Les Voix du Vin tasting

Tasting overlook

Gare de Lyon, Paris
This is a new exciting tasting event that took place in november near Gare de Lyon in Paris, in this vibrant former railways workshop structure that was turned into a versatile event center, Ground Control. This is a professional-only event organized by the people behind several other events, namely La Levée de la Loire, l'Association des Vins Libres d'Alsace (AVLA), Le Bec dans l'Aude and Rouge Provence. The idea is to gather after the end of the harvest 150 domaines mostly (90 %) organic, biodynamic and natural from most the French regions. There were about 900 wines to taste there. The event was free for media but otherwise the fee for the other professionals was very affordable, like 10 €. The tasting tables were set up in what I'd call the main room, plus a few other table rows on the other side, with all the permanent structure of this intriguing venue being in place as a unique setting. As usual I couldn't taste more than a dozen of domaines, especially that I was kind of in transit at that time in Paris, but you'll have an idea of the interest of this event. And sorry for this late publishing, i was very busy these days.

Rare varieties wine event

Tasting wines from rare varieties

Sainte-Lizaigne, Indre
This october 21st there was a small wine event that could get bigger in the following years : The Salon des Cépages Rares is a small wine fair which was first launched in 2019 and is centered around the wines made from rare varieties. As you may know there were many more grape varieties grown in France in the 19th century when wine was made locally in all the French regions, then, with the replanting after the Phylloxera and above all after the ill-thought decision of the Appellation administrations to restrict the authorized varieties in the different wine regions to a handful of fashionable varieties, we saw the planted surface of many little-known varieties dwindle or even disappear. The contempt of the "modernist" wine authorities for tradition and authenticity carried in itself the germs of a future reactionary backlash and we all owe to visionary vigneron at Domaine Plageoles for example the quasi resurrection of the many indigenous Gaillac varieties. And of course on the front to give back these rare varieties their deserved place and surface, the natural-wine producers play a central role, because (beyond their attachment to authenticity) they are not shy of making wines out of the limitative Appellation-system boundaries; when you bottle as table wine/vin de France you're free to make the blends/choose the varieties you like, and we as wine amateurs are in return rewarded by what we can drink... Just thyink of the healthy comeback of Pineau d'Aunis or Grolleau for example, if it had been up to the administration only, they would have disappeared long time ago.
The fact that this wine event takes place in Sainte-Lizaigne in a corner of the Indre département is also a reminder that every region even the ones at a good distance of famous wine regions had producing vineyards including often from now-neglected varieties. There were just a few vignerons taking part, including Thierry Puzelat but he actually just came in the morning for a conference but didn't stay for the public event this afternoon.

End of Harvest (Loire)

The chai at Domaine de la Taupe

Thésée, Touraine (Loire)
This year I missed the harvest and had a glimpse of its preparation and also of its conclusion. From what I heard this is a very generous vintage, in spite of the high temperature at times during the summer, there was rain in august, the vineyard got what it needed to yield nice volumes of overall healthy grapes. This comes after two consecutive years of hardship for the growers (hail and frost notably), each with truncated volumes. The weather through early october had been very enjoyable, even if in the early part of the harvest in september, temperatures were pretty high, forcing picking teams to work very early in the morning and stop at noon.
Here I showed up unannounced at Domaine de la Taupe, Nicole wasn't there but Bertjan was, as well as several trainees or staff, moving juice. There were some new tools added recently in the chai/cellar, a basket press and a foudre. "New" is relative, both are used tools and have behind them already a long life rendering service to winemakers.