Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France

Tastings have resumed : Biotop

Things get on track again (video overview)

Gare de Lyon, Paris
It's been a fact that tastings had resumed already a bit in spring 2021 (still very limited because vaccination was just beginning and organizers were scary of problems with the authorities I guess) but in autumn 2021 I really felt we were back for some normalcy after almost two years of virtual shutdown on the wine-events front. The relatively high vaccination rate in France (reached after a late and sluggish start, to be honest) allowed for this easing which we hope will last throughout winter months). Some kind of complained on Instagram when i posted a picture of the event, like this unmasked crowd was a no-go signal and full of risks, but of course there was a document check at the door to make sure everyone was either fully vaxxed or had a recent negative test for the pandemic virus.

The Biotop tasting event is organized by Isabelle Jomain of Verre Bouteille, it is like usual open for professionnals only for an entry fee of 10 € which includes pen, notebook and a nice tasting glass, that's pretty well the norm for such tastings which costs routinely in Paris from 5 € to 10 € (we're lucky in this regard). The setting at Ground Control near the Gare de Lyon was a roomy former SNCF locomotive repair shop, it looks indeed like a former plant with high roofs and thus is perfectly suitable in these times of virus-related claustrophobic worries. Ground Control is a multi-purpose community center where you can eat and drink on any given day (open wednesday-saturday noon-midnight/1am, and sunday closes at 10:30 pm), looks like a good alternative experience.
For once I didn't use the motorbike and the most convenient metro stations are Reuilly Diderot, Gare de Lyon or Montgallet (you still have to walk a bit).

Antoine Lienhardt (Burgundy)

Antoine Lienhardt (black vest) with staff

Comblanchien (Burgundy)
I also visited at last (also unannounced) Domaine Antoine Lienhardt, whose wines impressed me every time I had the opportunity to taste them, I'd rather say, not just taste but drink to the last drop. Antoine's wine facility and house are located in the village of Comblanchien (sitting between Chorey and Nuits-Saint-Georges), this village is more known for its quarries (the hard limestone of Comblanchien) but it has a winegrowing history as well (more info on this page about the climats and vineyard surface in Comblanchien), and Antoine's organic/biodynamic farming (plus natural winemaking) certainly helps put back the village in the spotlight. This is a family 6-hectare domaine, Antoine took the reins in 2011 and his sister Héloïse joined the fray in 2017. This is a short story but hopefully I'll come back for a longer one on this domaine and have a look on the parcels.

Visit at Philippe Pacalet (Burgundy)

Monica and Philippe Pacalet outside the facility

Beaune, Burgundy
I dropped the other day (this was late september) for a short, unannounced visit at Philippe Pacalet's facility in downtown Beaune (rue de Chaumergy). I had not yet visited his new extension on the other side of the street and I was happy both Philippe and Monica were there and could tour me around.

The rebel winemaker and outsider who succeeded at making a brand of his name in Burgundy without owning vineyards there has longtime contracts for selected terroirs across the region, with also some grapes sourced in Beaujolais and the Rhône. This year he began picking his grapes september 20. asked about this year's particularities, he says they suffered from frost and thus have low volumes, but no other [disease] problem. There were also a few storms that made the picking and the coming and going of vehicules tricky, but this didn't impact the quality of the grapes. The alcohol level this year should be classic, he says, something like 12,5 %, which is fine for him. The 3 previous vintages were higher, they were more solar with warmer summers, in 2021 it's a comeback to something more typical of Burgundy.

Loire Harvest 2021 (2)

Pickers on Pinot Noir (Quastana)

Loir-et-Cher (Loire)
The following day and a half I toured again several growers and domaines, some being located on the Cher valley side, some on the edge of Sologne and the first place I visited was a parcel where Jeremy Quastana and a few people including his brother Jean where picking Pinot Noir. Jeremy Quastana himself had zero grapes in his parcels because of the catastrophic weather conditions this year, so here he was picking on a friends' vineyard and the grapes would be vinified by his brother Jean who is also joining the fray of artisan winemaking.
These friends who own this parcel don't make wine themselves, for now at least, they just sell the grapes. They grow organic of course and I spotted this intact mushroom between the rows (I've heard it's edible but I never tried), this is a Wolf-fart Puffball, known in French as vesse de loup.

Loire harvest 2021 (1)

Zoé, Thierry Puzelat and staff

Loire valley,
The harvest 2021 has come after months of weather incidents and worries. The weather was at least beautiful for the picking, under mild temperature and clear skies, which was also very enjoyable for me as I rode randomly to different producers on my motorbike in the Loir-et-Cher. The big issue in 2021 has been frost all over France in april, with temperatures going down for a week at around minus 7 C (19,4 F) and also mildew and oidium depending of the region, with some growers having more losses from the disease than the frost. Plus, summer was pretty humid and rainy, sometimes colder than usual.

When I showed up at Thierry Puzelat's Clos du Tue Boeuf they were busy unloading Gamay picked in Faverolles-sur-Cher. You can see here Zoé and Thierry putting the bunches on the belt conveyor leading atop a maceration tank. I asked Thierry what were thye losses compared to a "normal" year, he said for their own grapes he considers they got 80 % to 90 % less than usual. For example for the Cheverny red they have 4,5 hectares total and they decided to make a single cuvée from them.

Cooking pig head

A sudden urge for Gargantuan food

This was in a supermarket in the Cher valley when I was looking looking for meat and I stumbled upon this gorgeous [I mean for meat/pork lovers like many of us are] pig head. First of all, yes, I do shop in supermarkets, at least for meat, I'd love to be an exclusive client of boutique butchers and organic groceries but I don't, and not only for a question of price actually, also because I like to shop where ordinary people shop, be it in France or abroad, I'm not into, you know, this Beriozka shopping culture for the healthy, although I'll venture sometimes in one of these venues for a delicious terrine or charcuterie. On the vegetable front, I know a few vegetable growers selling their products on particular markets (or I buy directly at their farm), these growers don't flag themselves as organic but from what B. and I tasted they're certainly more than what you find in organic groceries. I think to one in particular whose leeks looks small and puny (compared to the giant, immaculate ones spotted in organic shops) but taste so good from the rootlets to the top... And they're darn cheap.

Whatever, here I admit, that's certainly industrially produced meat, but when I saw the packaged head, and in spite the fact that september isn't the season I'm usually planning this type of dish, I grabbed it, especially that its price tag was a steal, only 2,58 € (1,10 €/kg - 2,348 kg), can you imagine ?. But it's not uncommon to find such good deals in the French Provinces (albeit later, in winter), where until a few decades ago families used to kill a pig at the end of the year and make all sorts of salted meats, saucissons and charcuterie with it.

Anders Frederik Steen, Ardèche (Rhône)

Anders Frederik Steen in front of his village house

Valvignères, Ardèche (Rhône)
We know that in the world of natural wine many of these vignerons who make a difference are outsiders, like coming from large cities and often with a completely different professional background, but sometimes they come from really far, like it's the case with Anders Frederik Steen, who moved years ago from Denmark with his wife and children to tend vineyards and make wine in this sweet region of Ardéche, in the southern Rhône. We visited him a few weeks ago (around mid-july, I'm pretty late for the publishing, sorry, that's why I backdate it to august...) and Valvignères was still the quiet and lovely village I appreciate, surrounded with hills in a mixed landscape of garrigue, woods and vineyards.

When Anders met us in this square facing his home and cellar, he told us that he started in 2013 with vinifying grapes sourced at Domaine Le Mazel, making his three first vintages (2013, 2014 & 2015) with Jean-Marc Brignot, the iconic winemaker from Jura who now lives much of his time on Sado Island in Japan. He had befriended Jean-Marc in his years working at Noma (2006-2008) where he was a sommelier. where Anders recounted how they went through a terrible hailstorm in the area a few weeks before during which the vines lost all their leaves and buds, there was nothing left and not much to do. But fortunately the artisan wine milieu is caring, and fellow growers came here to help and they tried to minimize the long-term shock on the vines by pruning what was left the appropriate way, a different pruning compared to the one in winter, with only 3 or 4 eyes, meaning relatively long, which helped the foliage grow back. He's spotting flowers growing, just that these new flowers and potential bunches are in a stage the vine goes through usually around the end of may, meaning these grapes should be ready to be picked theorically between november 15 and december 1st....

Domaine Ozil, Ardèche (Rhône)

Thomas Ozil with wife Laura

Lagorce, Aredèche (Rhône)
Always happy to come back to this inspiring hilly region of Ardèche where there are these vibrant vignerons making wines that go down so easily. This time we stopped at Domaine Ozil which had been on my wish list for a long time. This domaine is managed by two brothers who took over from their parents, who themselves were growers (like their own parents and grandparents) but selling all their grapes to the local coop. The brothers who now farm 16 hectares quit the coop when they got in charge but kept selling part of the fruit, this time to same minded winemakers.

The Ozil brothers were friends with Gilles Azzoni and his son Antonin who make natural wine very close from here (Antonin who has a 3-year age difference with them now also took the wheel from his father), and Thomas says that he vinified a first vat with Antonin in 2010 (a few years before they launched the winery in 2013) using the grapes from Thomas' father, and again in 2011, it was so-so and tasted a bit like piquette but it was a first try. In 2012 as Antonin had left for Australia Thomas reiterated a vinification experiment with his brother, with a well-ripen Syrah and Ugni Blanc (1/3, acidulous, picked at 10 % potential) and the result was nice with the combination of the fully-matured Syrah and the fresh/acidic Ugni. The following year they started the winery for good, with a volume of 8000 bottles the first year, then 12 000, 15 000, 20 000, growing up every year. And they ended up selling the grapes they don't vinify to the Azzonis for their négoce, as they had stopped selling grapes to the coop.

Blandine Floch (Loire)

Blandine Floch among her old vines of Gamay (here with a huge marcotte)

Valaire, Loir-et-Cher (Loire)
We're here at the heart of an active community of natural wine producers in the Loir-et-Cher département in a corner of the Sologne south of Blois, with within a short distance people like Thierry Puzelat, Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme, Christian Venier, Jeremy Quastana, and Olivier Lemasson who alas left us a few weeks ago, and others. That's where Blandine Floch lives and tends her parcels alongside several of these growers. Blandine's first vinification was in 2018 when she vinified the grapes of Jeremie Choquet, she was pregnant at the time, and when I visited Jeremie, she was busy with their 3-year-old daughter. Both separated since and she's now on her own, tending her own parcels and vinifying her fruit. Blandine's early debuts were in 2011 and 2012 when she began to work for the harvest at Olivier Lemasson's Les Vins Contés, it was a new thing for her as she still had a job in the social sector then. She helped Olivier also on the cellar side, she also did some cooking for the pickers, with Jeremy Quastana's mother and his brother Jean. She discovered through these experiences the world of natural wine and she loved it much, so from then on she spent her free time and vacations working in the vineyard of these growers, doing the picking as well, at the end of summer. Through Olivier she met other interesting people like Isabelle Frère who makes wine in the Languedoc Roussillon, she also did some Wwoofing at the Ozil brothers in Ardèche. After these beautiful experiences she decided to get a training and quit her public service job. She, like us all, is still shocked of course of the sudden death of Olivier Lemasson, and she saw him just a few days before as both were taking part to Bamboche, a small natural wine fair that took place in the Languedoc near Sète and Faugères (it was the first edition). She recently found a warehouse to rent for her new facility (pictured on left), and that's where she'll vinify her cuvées this year.

Domaine Cambalu (Loire)

Julien Moreau near an old vine

Francueil, Loire
The Domaine de Cambalu is a second-generation winery now managed by Julien Moreau and his brother Frédéric. The two brothers were born here and took over the domaine from their parents, who in their time were selling all their grapes to the local coopérative. The name of the domaine stands for the lieu-dit where the farm sits, 2,5 kilometers west of the village of Francueil and maybe only 1 km as the crow flies from the Chateau de Chenonceaux along the Cher river. actually the grand parents on both sides also had vines and made a bit of wine, but like most farms at that time, grapes were accessory for the family consumption, along the other, mainstay crops and farm animals. Selling grapes to the coop was mainstream in many French wine regions, and well into the 1970s and 1980s, then that's when bottling became accessible for family wineries. Here, Julien's parents kept selling their grapes to the coop by convenience, and when the two brothers took over, they changed course, quitting the coop and starting right away to farm organic.

The main reason they stopped selling to the coop when they took over the domaine is that the coopérative didn't make a distinction between the quality of grapes they were buying, vinifying the whole mass of grapes together, the conventional, the organic, the culture raisonnée. His parents before 2016 were farming in culture raisonnée, that is without herbicides, his father would plow and prune relatively short, with yields that weren't excessive, and his work in the vineyard wasn't valued as it should have.