Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Jean-Guillaume Caplain (Loire)

With his cuvées outside his farm

Monthou-sur-Cher (Loire)
I visited a few weeks ago Jean-Guillaume Caplain of domaine Peaux Rouges for his 2nd vintage, he is a new vigneron who is working on a small surface near Monthou-sur-Cher. He's lived quite a few years in Canada in the documentary film industry before coming back to France for this adventure after buying a nice and charming old farm which he's fixing little by little. He has 30 ares of Pinot which he planted in 2011 and he just took over 1,5 hectare of Gamay and Cöt on the plateau. He also buy grapes (for exemple to Manu and Vincent in Ardèche) to make more wine and complement his small surface (making a total estate/purchased surface of 4 hectares). In Ardèche he buys Syrah, Grenache and Merlot (bringing them in boxes with a refrigerated truck to this region of the Loire) which allows him to do quite interesting wines, blending Loire & Ardèche styles. He also bought last year some grapes to Mikaël Bouges near here in the Cher valley. All his wines are labelled as Vin de France (table wine).

The property where he settled is itself an inducement to leave the city life and immerse oneself in the inspiring beauty of derelict farms and country mansions that only wait for a caring dweller to breath life again. The place is gorgeous, it's at the end of a dirt road with a small vineyard on one side, fruit trees, a greenhouse and lots of woods, largely enough for the firewood, all Jean-Guillaume has to do is cut a tree from time to time and have it dry, or find a dead tree.

István Bencze (Hungary)

István Bencze in a parcel

Hegymagas, Hungary
The wines of István Bencze (of Bencze Birtok) showed up on my radar when B. and I had a glass of his outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon a couple years ago at Drop Shop, the wine bar & caviste in Budapest, an excellent venue dealing with artisan & organic wines of the region and beyond. This was a superb wine, intense and with thin, refined tannins, certainly something hard to do in these latitudes (Special thanks to Bálint who tipped me about this wine). The domaine is farmed on biodynamy, vinifies its wines naturally and can be counted as possibly the only one today in Hungary eschewing both SO2 and filtration, a last step that natural-wine producers are often reluctant to do.

I visited István Bencze a few weeks ago on the volcanic slopes of Hegymagas in view of the lake Balaton and here is his story in a few words. I had settled my tent in a nice little campground in Taliándörögd (Central Transdanubia) a few kilometers away and was driving the back roads like i like to do.

István didn't have originally a wine-related background, he was a software developper, studied computer sciences, getting a university degree in mathematics in Debrecen (eastern Hungary). István started his own IT company then, which thrived and grew, he was working routinely 12 to 14 hours a day then, and he enjoyed it. Back when he was a child he had had a strong connection with the country life because he helped his grandmother do all kind of things in her vegetable garden near Debrecen; there was even 4 or 5 rows of vines to tend and every year they'd pick the grapes with relatives from which they'd make jam, eat the grapes right away and make a bit of wine as well. This was a blue kind of grape, Kékmedoc or Medoc Noir, a Hungarian hybrid and he'd help to prune the vines every spring in years around 1998 (he's 37 now), that's when he kind of learnt the basics of vine tending. Later when he was in his early 20s' he even tried to make wine once, it turned faulty but that's his first youth experience in the matter.

Gérald Oustric, Le Mazel (Ardèche)

Gérald Oustric with father Paul and sister Jocelyne

Valvignères, Ardèche (Rhône)
I love Ardèche, every time I look into its natural-wine scene it's with wines that are so alive and enjoyable to drink. Just think of all these sought-after-vignerons here, Andrea Calek, Gilles Azzoni, the Ozil brothers, Les Deux Terres, Hirotake Ooka and plenty others, it happens that this time I visited Gérald Oustric who was the pioneer and mentor for the aspiring vignerons of the region, setting up with his generous help a vibrant natural-wine scene on this western flank of the Rhône valley. Gérald helped many of the 15 new artisan vignerons who started their domaines in the last two decades, and this was done without EU or state subsidies while the local wine authorities and conventional growers work with subsidies of the EU/French system.

Gérald told about his start : he got from his father Paul a 20-hectare surface of vineyard in 1982 (at the age of 20), but at the time he was selling the grapes to the local Coopérative and 20 hectares was considered too small to make a living, so he bought an additional 10 hectares. This trend to have to augment the surface for Coop growers hasn't stopped, he likes to say that in 1982 when he got these 20 hectares from his father he was the biggest grower in surface in the village (in terms of worked surface, be it owned or rented) and in 1997 when he began to bottle his wines he had 30 hectares and he was average compared to other growers, some working on as much as 100 hectares. The whole planted surface on Valvignières is 600 hectares which is quite a lot by the way. Growers used in the early 1980s to do also cereals and other crops but specialized on vines, and it's only recently that some reintroduce other crops (pushed by EU farm subsidies).

We (B. and I) arrived in the middle of the day at the domaine which sits at the foot of the hills, you pass lavender fields, vineyards, and here you are, the warehouse-style facility is uninspiring but living wines are blind to architecture styles... Gérald had told me to be there for lunch, which he had casually in the shade in the facility with two workers. It was a treat with a salad, local charcuterie (from a butcher shop in Alba-la-Romaine, these caillettes were gorgeous) and his delicious wines to rinse the whole. I began the interview there, trying not to be distracted by all these goodies....

Wine News (74)

A superb Côt

I tasted a superb Côt made by Jeremy Quastana at the Portes Ouvertes of Christian Venier. You remember Jeremy, he has a small surface in Sologne and also worked on the side at Les 400 Coups, the natural-wine bistrot in Blois. Now he stopped working there because he found an old house he's renovating with friends. Jeremy didn't have a formal tasting stand but he had brought the wine to pour it to friends (that's what I love in these unformal tasting events, same-minded vignerons (who are also friends) come along and share a few bottles.

__Côt Lectif Vin de France 2018 (this was from a magnum) is a super light Côt with a gorgeous color (almost Aunis), quite turbid, unfiltered, no sulfites. Makes only 11 % in alcohol, and you just drink it so easily, pure pleasure, sip after sip, such a juicy wine ! Bottled end of march 2019, made from a short maceration (one week) without extraction, that's why this lovely color. Old vines, almost 50 years old. And if I remember the price (in 75 cl) is only 10 €, a great deal, super drinkability, frankly that's the type of wine you can finish the bottle by yourself ! I think the 75 cl are sold out but check out, and anyway don't miss these next year as well.

Philippe Chidaine, Vendomois (Loire)

Philippe Chidaine in his tasting room

Ternay, Coteaux du Vendômois (Loire)
Philippe Chidaine [no family relation with François] has been making wine from his family property overlooking the Loir valley [the Loir is a secondary river flowing into the Loire] since the 1990s, we're here in the middle of Pineau d'Aunis country, the northernmost vineyard region in France. Working for his day job in Paris as business consultant, he commutes regularly to the family property with his wife and children, following the steps of his father and grandfather who had kept tending the small surface of vineyard when the neighbors were gradually pulling theirs out. I visited him with Aaron and Jade, Aaron having discovered his wine some time ago, thank you Aaron !

The Chateau de Bois Frelon [the lieu-dit name means literally "woods hornet" in French] is a beautiful piece of architecture, it dates from the 15th century for the oldest part and stands atop the slopes overlooking the Loir valley surrounded by woods (satellite view). The area in the past had a much larger vineyard surface than today, they have old family documents and archives related to the property listing a vineyard here back in the 16th century. At the time any chateau or sizeable community would need wine and thus vineyards, as wine transportation was a problem, and on the property you had a lot of people to provide wine to, not only the owners but also the petty personnel and farm workers. The property sits 2 kilometers from the nearest village Ternay, and a chapel was built on the grounds near the chateau at one point because the grandmother a couple centuries ago couldn't walk anymore to the village for mass. And of course wine was important for mass too then.

Claude Courtois & family (Loire)

Claude Courtois checking his barrels

Soings-en-Sologne, Loire
I had the opportunity to visit Claude Courtois again recently after Aaron who was planning to come in the area floated the idea to contact him for a visit, and this was a great idea. I am always a bit afraid to annoy the vignerons especially when they've reached an almost cult status like the Courtois, I somehow imagine they're constantly under siege by sommeliers, wine buyers and fans alike and have certainly tons of work in the vineyard, but the Courtois were all so happy to have us and their welcome was so genuine that I realize my shyness was unfounded.

The weather that day was really very windy, with the French weather service airing an Alerte Orange in much of the country, meaning we all should have stayed indoors hiding under the table (Mayor Hidalgo in Paris had certainly closed all the city parks by precaution). I took the road fropm Paris on my motorbike, ready for the potential rains that didn't come until I reached the Sologne, and man, the light was so beautiful with all this wind, it was irreal, it would have been a pity to stay indoors.... Aaron on his side took a train for Blois where he rented a car and we arrived at the domaine almost at the same time. My first visit at Claude Courtois was in 2005 (man, i've been doing this for quite a long time...) but the wine farm has the same feel of simplicity and modesty, still this real place in the middle of the woods of Sologne. And Claudine made this visit so gentle and welcoming with this nice lunch for us all....

Les Maitresses de Chai 2019

Anne with Jeanne Yerre

Chargé, Loire
The weather had been tricky until this weekend, I was supposed to attend a couple of small wine fairs the previous weeks, but each time whether the temperatures were a bit low or rain was menacing or both and in one instance I had to ride back to Paris the same evening, which could have been hazardous as I spit less than i should (and atop of that in bad weather, seemed to me very daring). Whatever, then came this summer-like weekend and I had heard at Philippe Tessier that the iconic women-winemakers wine fair Maîtresses de Chai had moved from Paris to the Loire, and not anywhere but at Anne Paillet's [and accessorily Greg's] place in Chargé, which was a recipe for a terrific event, light years from a boring direct-sales event....

Anne's and Gregory's cellar and chai comprise a long and narrow courtyard leading to the cellar under the hill, the tasting tables were planned to be there but given the rising temperatures that day they were swiftly moved in the cellar, the chai actually, which was perfectly appropriate for these Maîtresses de Chai....

Christophe Foucher (Loire)

Christophe Foucher on his tractor

Couffi, Cher valley (Loire)
I hadn't visited Christophe Foucher of La Lunotte since we spent time together a couple months ago in Oakland for Brumaire, the year natural wine fair in the Bay Area, and this was a lot of fun. His wine farm is not far from where i stay when I come on weekends, and I stumble on him very often at the saturday morning market in Saint Aignan, a small market with meat, charcuterie, vegetables, cheese and fish which a few other vignerons of the area attend (also a good time of the week to sit in a café and watch people walking by).

I remember Christophe told me to drop by a couple weeks before to taste a few wines and that what i ended up doing. When I arrived at his place he wasn't there; his son Victor whom I met for the first time told me he'd be there soon and I told him it was no problem, I'd sit outside near the family cat and wait for him. I love his place, it's like his wines, real and without makeup, with a large tree to sit in the shade when it's hot. Christophe soon arrived at the wheel of his tractor, straight from his vineyard where he had been cutting the weeds.

Philippe Tessier, Cheverny (Loire)

Philippe Tessier & son

Cheverny, Sologne (Loire)
The Sologne is home to quite a few outstanding vignerons working naturally in both the vineyard and the cellar. This region, which sits roughly in the middle of the extended Loire region, is mostly covered with woods (3/4) and dotted with thousands of ponds (3000) because of the clayish layer under the sandy surface, and the Sologne is foremost know as a hunting region because of its wildlife and of course it is home to several outstanding chateaux, among which Chateau de Chambord and right near Philippe Tessier's domaine, the Chateau de Cheverny pictured on left (which is said to have been the inspiration for Tintin's Chateau de Moulinsart). In short, this region is very diverse and atypical for a wine region.
Philippe Tessier established his winery in 1981, taking the wheel from his parents who had set up the domaine in 1961. Prior to 1961, his father and befor him his grandfather were régisseurs (farm managers) in the Chateau de Troussay nearby through a fermage contract (they leased the farm land from the owners).

At the beginning when his parents settled here in 1961 the domaine was a polyculture farm, they raised cattle (milk cows, then later meat cows) as well as other crops like asparagus (Sologne with its sandy soil is asparagus country) and with vineyards. When Philippe took the reins in 1981 he recentered on the vineyard/winemaking part which he deemed more interesting, turning the farm into a winery. His father in his time was selling his wine in bulk to the négociants, later selling also a part in cubitainers (5 or 10-liter plastic tanks) to local private customers. Philippe was the one who started selling wine in bottles.

La Table Rouge (Loire)

Philippe Chigard with Claude in their cellar

Noizay, Vouvray (Loire)
Philippe Chigard is a man with multiple skills, he teaches at the Viticulture School of Amboise where he trains students in the Art of handling a draft horse in the vineyard, he heads a service company doing draft horse plowing for organic growers like Vincent Carême and Domaine Huet and he makes natural wine himself from a small surface in the Vouvray area. Philippe Chigard initially studied at the Viticulture School of Beaune (Burgundy) where he learnt the draft horse trade with Abel Bizouard, a horse breeder who helped reintroduce the draft horse in the Burgundy vineyard.

When he settled near Amboise he started the training course for draft horse at the viticulture school with students coming from different regions. Then he began to plow for growers (often on steep and old parcels where using tractors was dangerous) and he was at one point offered to get a small and old parcel (125 years old !) near a cliff, the owner was getting reluctant to keep working on it and Philippe accepted the challenge to start making his own wine. This parcel was indeed a remnant of the old-fashioned vineyards with fruit trees scattered among the rows, he was to name this parcel La Table Rouge because of the large picnic table where he and his friends would sit around after working or picking at harvest. Claude was an emergency doctor in her former life and she learned the wine trade by doing it, she is now as passionate as Philippe in their gardener approach in the tending of the vines.
Pictures on the sides : courtesy of Claude