Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Thomas Puéchavy, Vouvray (Loire)

Thomas Puéchavy in front of his cellar

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).

Winemakers' life this spring

What a life

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.

First wine event after lockdown

Christian Venier pouring

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,

Wine news (77)

Apéros are back in Paris

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.

Domaine de la Taupe (Loire)

Bertjan Mol & Nicole Messer in the cellar

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.

Lockdown musings in the Loire

Making the best of a bad situation 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...

Anonymous Wine Scenes (8)

Toasting outside house - est. year 1946

Here we go again with a batch of wine scenes across mostly the 20th century with this serie of black-and-white pictures found here and there in the fleamarkets in France. Raise your glass and remember to celebrate friendship and good moments, especially in a time most of us are stuck at home and forbidden to socialize with friends. These people on the pictures couldn't imagine back their time that this innocent snap would eventually end up be screened worldwide in a virtual publication centered on drinking wine or booze together. Notice the glasses used here, there are both the "modern" iconic Duralex glasses (the Provence and Picardie in particular with their faceted sides) or these beautiful old glasses like the ones on the 1890 picture (and I still find this type of mouth-blown glasses on the flea markets, sometimes for as little as 1 € each).
You know the philosophy of this serie : pay attention to the moments the productivist mindset tend to consider as unproductive, these are the moments that count at the end. As usual, when no date information at the back of the print, I pit an estimated year, judging by the appearance, clothes and hairdo, and when there's a date written (and possibly a location) i put the info as such...

I'm presently holed up in the isolated hideout in the Loire without landline internet connection and little signal through the mobile phone but will still try to manage publishing more stuff....

Grafting fruit trees

An apple tree is born

Here is a grafting story, not about vines for a change, but trees : It's been years I needed to find someone who could help me graft some fruit trees in the Loire. I had for example a relatively-young apple tree that almost died for some reason a few years ago and grew back from the rootstock (pictured on right), thus not growing fruits anymore. Or also greengage trees growing from a kernel fallen on the ground (fruitless as well even years later because ungrafted). This grafting was the result of a decision on a whim with a very narrow time window, you sometimes make great things this way, think for example of the composer Jerry Goldsmith who fathered the Love Theme for Roman Polanski's Chinatown, he had 10 days to compose it after initial composer Phillip Lambro was dismissed, and what a gem of a piece ! So whatever, I decided enough is enough, I needed to take things in my own hands, quickly browsing on the Internet for clues and tutorials and I found this very informative page with pictures about grafting olive trees in Israel by a young lady who grew up in a Kibbutz. The whole thing was simple enough for me, no wax or sophisticated technique, I felt I could do it and here is what I did this early 2020.

I began in january with a try, grafting two wood sticks I cut from an unattended apple tree along a side road (pictured on left). I occasionally picked these nice apples in autumn as the owners don't seem to care (some people in the countryside have gems and don't realize it, but at least they didn't cut the trees). Here is this first try made in late january (pictures below) with two wood cuts only, but Valérie, a young Belgian who lives nearby and is a passionate about nature and gardening told me that it was necessary to cut the wood one or two months before the grafting (like in january), keeping the wood in a humid place until the grafting day (like in march). The other thing she told me when she saw my pictures was that I took wood cuts that were too old : you need to cut the extremity of the wood that grew last year (like the 10 or 15 last centimeters). Anyway, we'll see, this first grafting try will maybe bear fruits as well.

Les Anonymes 2020

The upper room

This tasting fair of Les Vins Anonymes (or Les Anonymes) in downtown Angers earlier that month was also very exciting, it lasts only one day (this year sunday 2 february) and given the long list of participating vignerons you'd need at least two days (I'd need a week...). Imagine that the first year there was a salon in Angers was 1987 when the Salon des Vins de Loire opened, this was then the first regional wine fair. Then, after what seems to be ages later in 1999, La Dive Bouteille was launched (in Bourgueil then, by Catherine Breton) with barely more than 10 vignerons. La Dive was thought as a competing wine fair centered on real wines, then, as opposed to the Salon d'Angers where mainstream wineries were the large majority.

Then soon all hell broke loose and this was the (welcome) avalanche of alternative tastings in and around Angers and visitors were flocking from all over the world. And in the early 2010s came Les Vins Anonymes. The last time I attended it, it was taking place in a church, that was eerie and exciting, only natural wine could honor a temple...
The fee for the tasting was very affordable : 5 € with glass included.

Tasting chez Babass

Buzzing crowd

This small tasting event with outstanding winemakers took place in Babass' vat room. There are quite a few of these smaller tastings around Angers at this time of the year and this is a very good idea as it allows the winemakers to set up a more intimate event without the administrative hurdle of the more established tastings (even if these were originally also established as a cooler alternative to the Salon des vins d'Angers). The bright side of these small events is also that there are fewer people [well, it does looked crowded, i know...] because you'll need a car to go in these far flung villages, the event usually taking place in the vatroom or cellar of a vigneron which implies no cost for the winemakers.

We can dream of such micro tastings multiplicating ad infinitum in the shadow of the major Salon d'Angers with every year another unexplored wonder somewhere in a village where people in the know will be invited to. I missed already such a tasting late january (i was tipped about it by Absentee's Avi) because I wasn't in Angers then and wouldn't probably have found a driver to go anyway, it was organized by Baptiste Cousin and the other participants were Jean Marie Brousset (Anjou), Hervé Bossé (Anjou), Hervé Cormier (Anjou), Titou Picard (Corbières), Ai Deixtler (Californie), Morgane, Arnaud & Etienne Thiebaud (Jura), must have been an exciting thing with these vignerons. The problem with these tasting events that pop up in the region is the distance from downtown Angers where most visitors arrived by train and that's when you feel lucky when you find someone who has room in his car to drive you there : Aaron found us a good angel in the person of Michaël Lemasle, no less than the caviste at Crus et Découvertes.