Tasting wines with Olivier Cousin (Anjou, Loire)

Pouring the Gamay Primeur Martigné Briand, Anjou (Loire)
After arriving at the farm of Claire and Olivier Cousin, I spent maybe an hour chatting with both of them in the kitchen, which is also a pleasant living room with a fireplace and a wood cookstove. First, they hadn't finished their lunch yet, as I showed up earlier than planned, but this turned out to be convenient, because he could expose to me the events he had been through in the recent years with the administration, the compulsory tax to the Loire-wines corporate body et al. He left a second for the cellar and came back with this bottle of Gamay Yamag, a delicious Primeur or Nouveau wine, with a vivid and bright red color, and a healthy feel of life and pleasure with the small-red-fruits aromas to go with. That's how all Nouveau wines should be, and I'm sure that not so long ago, maybe around the mid-20th century and before, many were probably of this style, light, fresh and so appealing that you can drink quite a few glasses. It's made with a 15-day carbonic maceration (whole-clustered), harvested in boxes an vinified of course without additives including SO2.
Olivier Cousin is a free thinker in many issues, and not only regarding the appellation clergy, he says with a grin that some people may complain that he's never going to the church, but he points to the kitchen window, he doesn't need to, the church is so close that he hears everything that is said in the church, and its tower almost peers through the courtyard [I heard the church bells, very nice by the way, at least for a Parisian like me who longs for the real village life].

A Gamay Primeur from the Loire The label just says Yamag on the label, back-to-front for Gamay, a forbidden word, as telling the grape variety is Verboten here, including for a table-wine label. There's also Vin d'Ici underneath (wine from here), and Olivier Cousin, paysan angevin (paysan means farmer, but with a more traditional sense than fermier, angevin being the adjective for being from Anjou). This should make it, until now there's no law forbidding this on a table wine. On the back label, it says in French that the table wine was made from biodynamicly-grown grapes, then there's a line about the ethic of the house "L'Ethique de la Maison", which should pass the scrutiny of the censors because there's no allusion to domaine (estate), which is barred apparently for a table wine label. Previously, he used to print a few words about his work ethic under the words "L'Ethique du domaine", which was considered verboten by the wine-administration censors, so he changed it for the "Ethic of the house". The ethic line reads "To produce without harming humans or the earth" [earth in French means at the same time the planet Earth and the soil]. "The observation and understanding of nature allowed me to make my wine with grapes only - without [added] yeasts, no sugar, no sulphites, no sorbats added". "Natural wine - bottled in the cellar by Olivier Cousin, farmer [paysan]". There's also the logo of Demeter, the biodynamic certificator, and an asterix with the fine print "goddess of fertility". That's also where he puts the compulsory logo representing a pregnant woman (a health warning), it's a sticker that he puts only for the French market, as he doesn't like this segregation-type logo. He chose to print "bottled in the cellar" instead of the traditional "bottled at the estate" (Mis en Bouteille au Domaine) because the latter was considered an infrigement for a table-wine labelling... Walking to the cellar in Martigné While Olivier was busy plowing his Cabernet Franc with his horse Romeo, a car of Dutch acquaintances of Olivier who were visiting the region joined us and we all came back to the farm, including the horse which went to the stable. Then we all walked to the cellar, which belonged to Olivier's grandfather. It's a short walk from the farm, and also within the village. The keys opening the doors are beatifully big; on the other side, the courtyard of the winery and the open chai has no special feature, there's no spending on decoration or renovation, no search for vintage seduction.
Before walking to the cellar, we stop at an intriguing machine in the outside, looks like a mobile air defence unit. I didn't know things had got this bad with the wine authorities or the DGCCRF and that Olivier was preparing for a long siege... No, actually, it's a relatively-modern military field kitchen from the Dutch army. It has nothing to do with the Dutch who were visiting that day, Olivier got this wheeled kitchen from someone else (don't ask me where it comes from) who let it here because he knew Olivier could make a use of it. It's very convenient to feed the pickers, there are two containers in its midst, and the food (actually some kind of soup or semi-liquid bortsh) can be cooked or maintained hot with a dual energy system, either gasoil or wood. He pulls it near his vegetable garden where the pickers camp at harvest, that's near where the horses graze and also not far from the vineyards, with an orchard and a cabin looks almost like a summer camp. Pouring the Gamay Primeur 2011 Our first treat was another glass of this very pleasant gamay primeur which I already had before going to the vineyards with the horses. This time, he filled the glass straight from the enamelled-steel vat, which stands under the roof in the open chai.
He's making the Gamay and the Grolleau with a carbonic maceration, and this, since 1986, and he always passed the appellation agreement without problem (he labelled his wines under the Appellation until 2005), and he was already vinifying this way then, SO2-free and no additives. He makes successive bottlings of this gamay, which means that this wine will be availabe also later, in 2012, this way, the tartar deposits in the bottom of the vat, which takes away some of the acidity. So after this recent bottling for the Nouveau, there will be another one in february, and a 3rd one in april, in the spring. He doesn't store the wine under artificially-controlled temperature in spite of the lack of SO2. He considers that as soon as you put a SO2-free wine away from the real temperature, it will turn bad when it's released in the real world without air-conditioning. So, in short, the wine is at colder temperature in winter and gets warmer in spring and summer, and it learns to behave and stand the changing conditions. He says that he tries to make wine without electricity, it's been done this way for ages, and it can be done today just the same. Sampling the Grolleau Olivier then filled glasses with more serious stuff, his Grolleau 2011, which is still in a beige enamelled-steel vat. That's more serious in the sense that it has a definite and particular tannic feel, and that unlike the Gamay which was really ready to drink as a thirst wine, the Grolleau shows itself in a more austere way at this stage. Olivier Cousin says that in the past this was a very popular variety in the region for rosé d'Anjou, which was mellow and sweet, no very good he adds. He vinifies it in red, it makes a light and fruity red wine, and people love it. Speaking of rosé, he sells a lot of it in Japan, but it's a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay noir à jus blanc, Pineau d´Aunis, and Grolleau. It sells very well there, it is not very expensive even though it's farmed in biodynamy withh all the work in the vineyard.
Grolleau is a grape variety which was very widepread in the Loire, like Pineau d'Aunis or Fié Gris (a Sauvignon with a pink skin but a white inside). After the phyloxerra and the massive replantings, it was not as much replanted as before, and the appellation rules almost finished them off, by ignoring them in the allowed blends or single varieties. Olivier Cousin's Grolleau is maybe the flagship of this cuvées, and this local-variety wine is, like Pineau d'Aunis, high on pepper and freshness, and very surprising for a first-timer. The Loire shares with Jura (Trousseau, Poulsard) this particularity of being home to very distinctive red varieties with a small, but strong followship. I myself don't drink these wines very often, but it's always with excitement, especially that the vignerons who make these wines nowadays are particularly attentive at letting the wine express itself, without forcing it in a format demanded by the mass market (there's no mass market for these wines anyway). While I still prefer the Pineau d'Aunis among the two, I must make myself more accustomed to its unique tasting features. Olivier Cousin in the cask cellar Olivier Cousin doesn't keep most of his wine long, and from his 7 hectares he makes 200 hectoliters of wine, or 30 000 bottles, and sells most of it the following year, except the cabernet franc which needs a bit of élevage, and which you will find in this cellar as well as in an other cellar. His other wines are thought to be drunk the following year, he says, not that they can't be stored more time and enjoyed later, but his primary goal was to make wine to be drunk young.
Olivier Cousin tells us that the season was very easy in 2011, very nice spring at al, he just had some hailstorm 15 days before the harvest. The growers who wanted to make liquoreux could wait as late as they wanted safely (end of october). The wines are lower in alcohol than usual, around 12 ° (instead of 13 °), but that's nice too. Today, the malolactic fermentation is also over, and the wines have fermented smoothly and swiftly. Tasting Cabernet Franc (old vines) __ We now taste from the cask, a Cabernet Franc vieilles vignes (old vines). Olivier took the wine from a big demi muid, a 552-liter barrel, he has several of them, as well as slighter-smaller demi muids (400 liters). He buys them used, he jokes that it's to cheat the repression des fraudes (that's the way we call the DGCCRF in France), because they get confused with the different volumes [note to the people of the DGCCRF : it's a joke, Olivier was just joking...].
I have no notes, to my shame, about this old-vines can franc. I remember I liked it and felt you had a nice wine on its way, but I didn't elaborate the nose or the mouth.
As said, Olivier vinifies the Grolleau and the Gamay in carbonic maceration in the enamelled-metal vat, the wine process taking place inside the grapes, the grapes being pressed 2 weeks later or so, without any free-run juice occuring whatsoever. For his young vines of Cab Franc (the "Pur Breton"), he vinifies differently : he puts the grapes to macerate in a big 100-hectoliter metal vat, all destemmed, then he takes the juice off one night, leaves it separate a while at the ambiant temperature to help it ferment, then he puts it back on the top of the grapes in the vat again. The fermentation starts again in there for another 30 days or so.
The 3rd vinification process for his red is the one he uses for the old vines of cabernet franc : he destems the grapes on top of an open-top wooden tronconic vat, like it used to be in the past centuries. There's no hygiene risk for the grapes, they're brought here in boxes and destemmed just over the vat, no delay, pump or dubious transfer during which the juice can get spoiled by air or contaminants. Then it's foot stomped during about 8 days. He says that harvesting the grapes whole and in boxes is the only way to make SO2-free wines without risk. You can't make a SO2-free wine with a combine, he says, or if you use a machine to crush your grapes, because there's too much extraction and oxydation.
Olivier uses several presses, two of them vertical, and a larger, horizontal one, depending of the size of the batch and possibly in parrallel if needed (pics on the side). Barrels and metal vats He adds with a laugh that the foot stomping is made by girls, gives a better result... Actually it's really made by girls, some of the pickers to be precise. I'd like to see that, I think that this time of the season is pretty festive around here : the tent camp near the vineyards with I guess good wine, the foot crushing, I hope there's not another enforcement agency reading this, they might send a vice squad...
The wine we're tasting will stay a year in here, under the chai, and another year in his other cellar (under his house), in 225-liter casks, this time. This cuvée will be named Le Franc. He says that until this stage in this cellar, the wine didn't go through a pump, it all came here by gravity. The first pumping happens when he lifts the wine above (before going to the casks in the other cellar), and the second before bottling the wine. For bottling he uses either his 4-spout filler when it's less than 1000 bottles, or he rents a machine when it's a larger volume to bottle (he sets it at a very reasonable speed so as not to stress the wine).
__ We taste now a Pineau d'Aunis from a 220-liter cask. From a 2-year old vineyard (10 are, very small), he made a rosé from these grapes. There's a bit of Cabernet Franc in there too. Delicious wine, with this pepper we'll all looking for in Pineau d'Aunis. That's a try and if he likes it, he will plant some more Pineau d'Aunis, adding that he still prefers the Grolleau, which brings him more satisfaction and pleasure. Plus, the variety is more regular year after year in terms of volume, with less disease pressure. He like the Cabernet Franc too but it's more complicated, you need to age the wine a bit, in the casks and possibly a bit in the bottle too. Pineau d'Aunis & Pinot Noir casks __ We taste a Coteaux du Layon 2005. In between, we speak about beer : Olivier is beginning to make beer, he says that they drink too much around here and he's in shortage of wine, plus, you know, he adds with a smile, wine needs to get all the rubber stamps of the appellation system, while beer is more easy to reach out to the consumer. He does grow hop, he says it grows very easily. He says that at the harvest, they're drinking already much beer, and from what I understood it's the one he makes himself. I see already the dawn of another hit in Martigné : an additives-free beer brand is born...
This is actually more a farm than a winery here, and Olivier often says that he is a paysan or a cultivateur, which are two traditional names for farmer. I once made the mistake to speak of exploitation, which in French and in the agriculture context means an individual farm, but he said no, as exploitation underlines the concept of exploiting the land. He says that he plows the land, it's not easy to translate, he says je cultive la terre, which implies a different, almost sensual relation to the land. And Olivier's estate is really a farm as he has different types of animal farms and he grows also wheat (or rye if I remember), partly to feed his horses. In this sense, this is also in line with the agriculture envisionned by Rudolf Steiner in his biodynamy principles. Pouring a divine Chenin 2005 __ Now that's a surprise : Olivier reaches to a cask on the side and announces what's behind this weird color : a Coteaux du Layon 2005 which he never bottled because for years he didn't like the way the wine was evolving. He chose one of the casks as there are a handful of casks of Chenin from this Coteaux-du-Layon vineyard, some casks turning to be better than others, he says. What I can tell you is that first, the nose is just gorgeous, intense and promising, very nice indeed. Second, the mouth is equally so beautiful, an intense pleasure to swallow. The wine is still turbid, it's still working, even it doesn't show it in the mouth. Aromas of English candy, caramel and other things. This Chenin was harvested at more than 20 ° potential. If it had been vinified to the end it would be very high in alcohol, but the yeasts didn't go to the end because there was already too much alcohol for them to work properly. If you happen to have the chance to taste this, you'll know what a great sulphur-free Coteaux-du-Layon wine can be (liquoreux wines are usually high on SO2). unclassifiable Chenin wine As we reached for the surface, Olivier finds another suprise wine for us : he walked to a cask sitting alone along the wall in the open chai, and took a sample with the wine thief, saying that this cask is staying year after year in different places, sometimes straight outside when they need the room, even hours in the sun. It is a cask of Chenin of different vintages put together, remains of other containers I guess, and the casks isn't even full or topped-up, and it sits sometimes in full exposure of the sun as they really don't take any particular care of it. Another splendid wine, made mostly of the cask bottoms of his Coteaux du Layon 2001, which he put in there then because there were still lots of lees. At the rate of 20 liters of lees per cask, he could almost fill this cask with the thicker lees of his Chenin 2001, and this is it. There is also in there Chenin from 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1999. This wine which didn't get any SO2 at all during all these years has become very strong because he has been left basically unprotected, and it never turned into vinegar. It's not even a veil wine, although the cask is far to be full. It's unique, it's a dry wine with something maybe oxydative in its mouthfeel, but I'll not try to describe it. Just one word : superb. We got a second pour of this, thank you, Olivier
Olivier says that he stopped making white in 2008, adding that he feels more comfortable with the reds. Too bad.
See the previous story for the contact info. Good dog Olivier's dog turned me crazy, he's addicted to ball fetching and he saw immediately that I was a good accomplice in his vice. He is incredibly efficient at this sport. when I say ball fetching, it's rather about a flattened remain which was long ago a ball, but he probably fetched it thousands of times since then. Indefatigable dog, he was often catching my missile before it touched ground. Reminded me of Jacky Prey's small dog (who alas passed away) who would fetch unrelentlessly the corks that I'd throw dozens of times in the cellar while tasting the wines... This is a few kilometers from there on the Loire, in a charming village named Chenehutte (map link & satellite link). This village, which is located on the south bank between Saumur and Gennes, is just a dream of a place along the Loire, very quiet and not much traffic on the road, and I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing by pointing the spotlight on it. Anyway, this video shows a place where the barrels would board the flatbed barges to reach the larger cities. That's from a place like this one that the wines of the region would travel, every village along the Loire had this type of ramp. As the Loire level was also varrying, the cobblestone ramp was designed to be workable at any season and river level. The name of the street along the Loire at this spot is Quai des Bateliers, which means something like "boatmen pier". If I could just have 0,05 % of the wine which passed along this steep and short street, I'd be a happy man....
The Loire is a very wide river, and what you see on the other side is not the north bank of the river, but an island. The Loire has often changed its course, even if slightly sometimes, and islands have appeared and disappeared along the years after the high waters and strong currents of spring.

Comments

[florian]

This video is also describing well his work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV09zFbQONM

Thanks for your interesting article

[liz jacklin]

I bought a bottle of Groll'O sparkling red 12,5% by volume I was able to drink this without the slightest feeling of being drunk why was this