Romanèche-Thorins, Beaujolais
We went to Julie Balagny in Romanèche-Thorins at the end of the afternoon, her wine farm is a lovely quiet place with dogs and farm animals. At one point she told us about her beginnings, like she candidated to be in charge of the winemaking in a family winery in southern France that had just
lost its householder, and this, in spite of having never had a real full experience of the job. She was a bit anxious but at the same time confindent that wine could be made by itself without intervention or yeast, she was just annoyed by the enologist who visited from time to time and stressed her, and also by the son of the family who wanted everything to be square. I guess retrospectively she wondered what she'd had done if the wine went south but the wine turned fine and she ended staying 5 years there.
She later met Marcel Lapierre in 2007 (if I'm right) which made her look for something in the Beaujolais, she went every year to Marcel's méchoui on july 14, a friendly and unformal gathering with 4 whole porks, 600 people and 10 hectoliters of wine. She met other people there and one day Yvon Métras (met him on her first visit at the méchouis) and Jean-François Ganevat told here they could look around for available parcels for here if she liked to setlle in their region, and she ended up starting in the Beaujolais in 2009. I first met her by chance in 2010 (see here) while dropping at Yvon Métras, this was her first vintage and as she had very little volumes because of hail, she used one of Yvon's cement tanks for her maceration, and this helped her adapt also to this new region, fermentation style and varieties after years of vinifying Syrah and Grenache in the south. To stay with up-to-date info, she now works on 4,8 hectares of vineyards, all rentals (the most she had).
Fleurie, Beaujolais
This is the first of a few stories following several visits of winemakers I made with Aaron and also Juliette (a former staff at Coinstotvino who now studies in a wine school) who joined us in Beaune. We arrived at Jean-Louis Dutraive's Domaine de la Grande Cour as he was about to prepare a nettle tea for a spraying. Jean-Louis Dutraive is a long time actor in the Beaujolais nature scene and beyond the about 11 hectares of the domaine he and his children vinify purchased grapes, so this visit was a good opportunity to taste a few of their wines.
At one point Jean-Louis spoke about the conditions in 2019 (we tasted this vintage), he said they had no mildew at all but the vines were still recovering from the hail damage of the previous years, so they didn't have a big load. But altogether the fruit load was not that bad that year, they expected less. In 2018 they made about the same yield, like 24-25 hectoliters/hectare. This means that year after year the vines recover and this year should get even better. This year there has been a bit of hail near Julienas, but that was not too bad.
Paris, 11th arrondissement
Here is a short photo story about our first restaurant following the end of the lockdown last june. Au Nouveau Nez was formerly just a caviste, and a good one dealing only with non-intervention wines, and it converted a few years ago after a management change into both a wine shop and an Italian restaurant. The venue is located in a very vibrant part of the 11th arrondissement (Oberkampf-Saint Maur) with plenty of small restaurants and bars around. Speaking of Italy it's very close to one of the most affordable Italian cheese shops in Paris, Coop Latte Cisternino, a place full of Italian products (not only cheese).
With the new Coronavirus guidelines there are fewer tables inside and more outside, and the staff wears a mask. We showed up early like 7 pm if I remember and the restaurant quick filled in, with both regulars and occasional patrons. We chose to sit inside to enjoy the bottle wall and the room atmosphere. Wines by the glass begin at 6 € and bottles to go at 9 €. Cork fee is 10 €. Very nice, tasty food prepared and cooked with care, all quite affordable (enlarge the picture below with the blackboard menu. I can't but recommend the place.
Rigny-Ussé, Loire
Adrien Baloche, Anne and their two daughters live in a bucolic corner of the Loire with no conventional agriculture in sight, just nature, woods and goats outside their two large yurts at a small distance
from the village of Rigny-Ussé (between Saumur ans Azay-le-Rideau). Adrien Baloche
took over a vineyard block in 2014, but what brought him here was the project of his wife Anne, who had been looking for setting up a goat-cheese farm : they were looking for land for this project and at one point they found this large expanse and block of prairies, woods and fruit trees (40 hectares altogether) among which there were seven hectares of vineyards. So at first, while they were focusing on starting the goat cheese farm (there was no building at all, they had to start from scratch), Adrien worked for the grower, an employment that helped him familiarize with the job and the parcels. But soon after, the former grower left (he took a salary job in Amboise), leaving Adrien by himself to deal with the vineyards, and it was tricky because he didn't come from a winegrower background and hadn't had a formal training in viticulture except for these few months here, before that he just had a basic agriculture training.
Nazelles-Négron, Vouvray, Chenin country (Loire)
Last year was the first vintage of Thomas Puechavy who in his former life was a musician (he led the group Moriarty, with international musicians/singers but most being raised in France). I met him through another musician who also moved into the vigneron life, Ben Nerot. Thomas is not originally from this region (he's from Paris) but he often came to the Loire valley since childhood, in Sologne, and he was familiar to see Loire wines on the family table, his father loving Cheverny, Cour-Cheverny and
other wines of the region. Later in life after his studies he set up this music band with childhood friends, doing music along the folk-rock genre, and the band
thrived, performing around in France and abroad for about 15 years from 2003 to 2016. Watch this video on the left, shot in Budapest on the A38 concert ship on the Danube, Thomas is the one playing harmonica, pretty good band indeed with also French-American singer Rosemary Standley, but the piece I preferred in this Budapest concert was Whitman's Ballad where Thomas' performance at the end on his harmonica is stunning. I thought the singer reminded me the melancholy of Alela Diane but Thomas just told me as I was finishing my story that they did record something with Alela, a duet, Heart of Gold, a reinterpretation of Neil Young's song...
When playing for concerts across France they often went through wine regions, staying in wine farms sometimes, and Thomas slowly aknowledged this other life that vignerons enjoyed there. During his free time and low season (for the concert tours) he would now and then travel back to the wineries and give a hand and learn the trade bit by bit, for example in Alsace and in Puy-Notre-Dame (Loire), also in Banyuls and the Médoc, with short one-week experiences that familiarized with to the job and wine culture. At one point the band went dormant with each musician going his/her own way and as he had been thinking for a few years about moving out of Paris he looked closer at this potential vigneron life.
Thomas Puéchavy enrolled in the Amboise wine/viticulture school in the Loire for a formal training (in 2016-2017) for a year and a half, not knowing really yet what he'd do at the end. He spent a year there for the CS Viti Bio degree (organic viticulture) with very good teachers, the only such cursus in France. He was in the wine school with Marie Rocher who enrolled the same year. During the school time he had trainings at Bertrand Jousset. After that he worked for a year at Tanguy Perrault in Vouvray (2016-2016) and he ended up finding the vineyards in the region, after also looking elsewhere in the area. He and his family (he has two children) first rented someting in Amboise and he later found this cellar with a large house attached overlooking the Loire river outside of the village of Nazelles (pictured on right). It's by the way very close to the village of Pocé-sur-Cisse where another musician, Mick Jagger, stays much of his time (he stayed there during the lockdown months as well).
Pouillé & Thésée, Cher valley (Loire)
I visited randomly a few wine farms and vignerons a couple of days before this first wine tasting (someone told me about it, I didn't know otherwise) in the vicinity of my Loire hideout, it wasn't possible to do such visits under the hard part of the lockdown (between 17 march and 10 may) because you risked a 135 € fine if caught visiting anyone (plus I guess everyone wanted to stay safe), but with the lifting of much of the restraints and the allowance to go as far as 100 km from your residence I could have a glimpse on how they lived this peculiar period of our times, and see the good part of living in a farm under these otherwise tragic circumstances : enjoying a beautiful spring (we were particularly lucky this year in France) and fully focusing on the vineyard and its natural environment, at a time many producers would have been distracted by a few wine fairs (especially in march-april) and commercial work. It's interesting to note that many artisan winemakers came originally from other paths of life and often from cities (we don't lack relevant reasons to follow their path and leave cities these days...) and their philosophical choice is vindicated today more than ever.
Candé-sur-Beuvron, Loir-et-Cher (Loire), Christian Venier's wine farm
Historic restart ! possibly first tasting worldwide...
Imagine, it's been two months that everybody's been locked at home, seeing no one beyond close family, the winemakers and growers shared the same historic pause, no wine fairs (there are quite a few in spring on a normal year), no visits to clients or sales trip. But unlike so many people who were stuck in their appartment in town, they were lucky
to live in the quiet setting of their farm, with all the time they wanted to tend their vineyards
which was allowed for them. The weather in march, april and may was just so beautiful, they did enjoy the season. But now as the lockdown was being lifted there was a need to get back to normalcy and Christian Venier's open doors which usually takes place at this time of the year was on the brink to be cancelled when he decided to host it on a minimalist version, with visitors asked to bring their own glass. This was last saturday (30 may), a couple days before the 100 km limit was lifted so the visitors were people staying in the area, but Christian's Portes Ouvertes have also been designed for the locals including people from the nearby city of Blois. Instead of staging the event in the farms' courtyard, it took place in an open warehouse on the other side of the street (pic on right)
Reminder on the lockdown rules in France :
__ 17 march to 10 may, strict stay-at-home order with just (mostly) a few authorized exits, for essential groceries, exercise (one hour/day, no more than 1 km from home) with printed self declaration __ 11 may to 1 june : free movements up to 100 km from residence, no more self declaration needed
__ 2 june : Freedom of movement beyond 100 km of residence,
It's been a few days (since 11 may) the lockdown has been lifted in France, people can now leave home without a printed self-declaration Attestation de Déplacement Dérogatoire listing the allowed motive, which was very restrictive, the main reasons letting you go out being going to work, going shopping for essential items (mainly food, and in the closest possible shops or supermarkets) and exercise (no more than 1 km from home and no more than an hour). Now we can move around without having to print/sign this paper, we can go up to 100 kilometers from our respective residence, keeping of course social distancing rules in shops and public space. For those stuck in big cities and small appartments this change was welcome especially for students and young people who often live in cramped appartments of 20 square meters [215 sqft] or less. And the apéritifs that are so popular along the Canal Saint Martin resumed overnight with many young people relaxing in a summer-like weather and not always keeping a safe distance from each other. Picture shot on 21 may.
Thésée, Touraine (Loire)
The publishing of this story was delayed due to the tragic events that touches us all around the world (I was holed up in a place without adequate computer, software and Internet connection), this visit was made early march. Having only the phone with a sketchy Internet signal made it very uneasy to write the story.
You certainly remember Bruno Allion,
the vigneron in Thésée in the Cher valley, he retired a couple years ago and while half of his vineyards
were purchased by new transplants from Canada (Anouk & Paul-André), the other half was taken over by a Dutch couple (Domaine de la Taupe) who was also eager to continue along his natural winemaking & biodynamic philosophy. Bertjan began with importing natural wine in Amsterdam in 2003 (his company was Klare Wijn and there were only two other natural-wine importers in the country then); at the time natural-wine producers were not many and he imported other wines as well that were just organic or biodynamic. On the side he was also a journalist for a Dutch financial newspaper (Het Financieele Dagblad). Beginning in 2005 he began now and then to go work and train at different wine farms, the first for example was Gilles Bonnefoy who farmed biodynamic in Auvergne. In 2014 & 2015 he worked at Paul Gillet's Les Maisons Brûlées, doing pruning, cellar work and harvest, and by that time he had decided that he'd like to live this vigneron life with his wife and he asked a few winemakers he knew in France and Spain (Lorenzo Valenzuela) if they heard about available parcels. He asked Bruno as well and they met in the summer of 2016, and he told them about his plans to retire and find successors. They could later make a deal with half of his surface, that is about 6,5 hectares. They harvested together in 2017 on Bruno's whole surface to finetune their skills and bought part of Bruno's bottled wine from 2016 & 2017. In the following years they were by their own but Bruno was still around for advice and help in case of need, and Bertjan also kept exchanging with a lot of other winemakers he came to befriend through his import business, from Alsace to the south of France.
Somewhere in the Loire...
Not easy to post using only the phone, without landline internet connection and reliable computer, that's why I delayed this story. I've been in this remote hideout since 23rd of april, i was abroad when the lockdown started in France a week earlier, it was eerie to arrive there in the middle of this pandemic situation with Paris mostly empty. B. Drove to Burgundy to take care of her parents and when i landed from Budapest i rushed to Paris, packed bags on the motorcycle and rode straight to the Loire house, not being sure i'd make it through the road checks, but I made it... This is a strange period to go through but certainly less difficult in the country side especially at this season when everything brightens up, having to go through this, say, in november would have been even more depressing.
Picture above : A Pineau d'Aunis, Bois Freslon 2017 by Philippe Chidaine. This was my first wine during the lockdown in days when we were still wondering what tomorrow would be (not that we're really in the clear today but the horizon may be less frightening)...
There's another regular visit story on its way, it has been delayed but will be published soon at last...
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