Mai & Kenji with their first Cabenet-Franc vineyard
The winery where Kenji went for an internship in Japan was not located in the mainstream wine-producing areas like Yamanashi, but in the Tochigi prefecture :
Cocoromi-Gakuen (Cocoromi means challenge in Japanese) which is at the origin of
Coco Farm & Winery is a school/institution which was created in 1950
to help disabled and autist adults find their place in the Japanese society, with a farm where the students could work and produce. Centered on shitake mushroom and table grapes at first, the farm turned to wine grapes and winemaking later, hiring UC-Davis-trained winemaker Bruce Gutlove to improve the winemaking there. When Kenji had his training there, Bruce had begun to get interested the natural-wine vinification, starting with reducing SO2 levels and working with indigenous yeats, and Kenji benefited from his questioning and research, as the American winemaker was making his first natural-wine tries. Kenji also came across many French natural wines during his sojourn in Japan, like the ones of Olivier Cousin or Marc Angeli, as these wines are widely exported to Japan and have a large following. He felt that these wines had something different that was missing in other wines, and his interest in this winemaking grew. That's when he dropped the project to be a wine writer and embarked into the winemaking adventure.
The pic above was shot in the first 1-hectare block that they purchased near Rablay, about 60-year-old Cab-Franc vines, which have been farmed organic before they took control of it.
The picture on left was shot right outside of Rablay, this is a very old fortified farm in the middle of the woods with a small bridge on a stream. Pic on right : vineyards on slopes near Rablay-sur-Layon (not their vineyards).
Mai holding the wheeled stove
Kenji and Mai had been pruning the previous day and as you see, Mai knows how to move the wheeled stove where workers burn the stems. She worked in vineyards in Okanagan in 2008 and 2009, and she knows the arduous tasks even if here it will be fully organic and with a non-productivist mindset. Mai, who is a Japan native, met Kenji in Vacouver, and when Kenji flew back to British Columbia, they both went to Penticton, which is the capital of Okanagan, British Columbia's wine region. There, Kenji worked as a seller, then as an assistant winemaker (at Joie Farm Winery). But in British Columbia most of the wineries don't own the vineyards because the land is so expensive, or because it belongs to native American Indians (known here as "the First Nations"). So, in Okanagan you may work in the winery side of the job, but rarely on the vineyard side because the job is made by the other party, and there is a disconnect in this sense, which is frustrating when you know that this vineyard and soil life is so central for natural winemaking. All the while they kept trying natural wines here and there in Vancouver (Marcel Lapierrre, Guy Bossard and Guillemot-Michel for example), although at that time there weren't many of them imported in B.C. (Since then,
Racines Wine Imports opened shop in Vancouver).
Another vineyard of theirs, along an abandonned one
That's when they decided to head for France, to explore more this natural-wine issues and the people behind this type of wines. They took a one-year
working/holyday visa and flew to France in 2009 to immerse themselves in this world. First, they took part to the harvest in the south of France, at
Chateau de Stony (Frontignan), which is not into natural wine but helped adapt to a French winery. Then the headed north to the Loire, and went to visit
Claude Courtois in Sologne and
Olivier Cousin in Anjou after asking Bruce Gutlove (at Coco farm) for advice. The visit at Claude Courtois, their first vist ever to a natural-wine farm, was incredible, the guy just opened everything, it was an exciting experience. They had lunch with him, managing to gather all their meager knowledge of the French language to understand and communicate about all this information and these wines (they tasted many). This visit set the course for everything that came afterwards, the visit at Olivier Cousin in Anjou was samely a thrilling and great day for them both, I can imagine the humor of Olivier and the good time tasting the different wines in his cellar... Then they met Marc Angeli who is not far from there and did the harvest there, as the harvest time was later in the season compared to Frontignan.
The picture above shows another vineyard of theirs, planted with Chenin, which was previously farmed conventionally (whth chemicals) and that they're carefully bringing back to life at both the surface and the undersoil. You can see all their different vineyards on
this page, quite a nice range of mature vines on interesting climats, some of them still recovering from long-time neglect.
The hand-destemming table
Working with
Marc Angeli was amazing, like doing the harvest back hundred years ago with baskets and so on. Compared to everything he learnt in Coco Farm, everything seemed to be the opposite here, for example no sulfur adding or dry ice at the harvest to protect the juice from oxydization, which are the regular wine-school-taught methods in place everywhere. Marc just doesn't mind if the juice gets in contact with oxygen, and as the grapes were pressed, he could see this juice staying in the open air, something he never saw during his previous winemaking experience. On the back of his mind he thought about all the problems this wine risked to face with such a relaxed winemaking, but tasting the wines afterward, he could see that it didn't translate into flawed wines at all. So he realized through this hands-on experience that there was really a different approach in winemaking with which they were completely unfamilar with, and that contradicted the absolute requirements imposed to the students in the wineschools who are kept in the mindset of constant fear of how wines would turn bad if given free rein.
Tasting the wines at Mai and Kenji's
Thinking of going back to Canada and start a vineyard, he was thinking with Mai about the fact that this was an out-of-reach project because of the price of land in Canada, and as he was speaking about this issue with Marc, Marc told him, why don't you just try to make some wine around here and find available vineyards for that ? From there their adventure took a new direction and they purchased a first block of one hectare early 2010, which became their first vintage. in 2011 they bought two more hectares, which brings them with a total surface of 3 hectares, a good size to begin a winery. Inbetween, they looked for a residency permit and applied for a "Compétence & Talents" visa (
Skills and Talent visa) to which non-EU foreigners can apply when they have a significant project they want to set up in France. This way, they could live and set up a business here. What helped them a lot during the first months was the supportive community of vignerons involved in natural winemaking : Anjou is among the Loire regions with the highest number of vignerons making natural wines from organicly-grown vineyards, and each time they had a problem or a doubt, one of them could help find a solution, like
Richard Leroy who lives and work nearby and helps them a lot with his advice whenever needed.
Tasting more wines at the chai
For his vinification and storage, Kenji found this facility that he shares with another vigneron, which is very convenient as he has such a small volume of wines. We tasted a few wines there :
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson, Chenin 2011, from a barrel. Nice color, a bit turbid, still fermenting but almost finished, Kenji says. The first vintage for the Chenin, as they only got the vineyard in 2011. Almost dry wine, will be finished in spring. But Kenji says that with Chenin has to wait more before being ready, at least until the harvest. He won't look for an appellation, the wine will be bottled as table wine (vin de France). The wine has no SO2 at any time yet. THere will probably be a bit of it at bottling. Kenji sent a few bottles to a Calgary wine shop, Richard Harvey's
Metrovino, and he put a bit of it for the long trip, same for Japan where they'll ship some wine too (François Dumas,
Le Vin Nature). For their first year they'll be careful for their export shippings. This cuvée has no name yet. May be bottled single or blended with Chenin from other vineyards.
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson, Chenin, different vineyard. First press of old vines, maybe 80 or 90 years old, with very low yields. Clos de Vignou. Very nice nose, aromatic and inspiring. More complexity, minerality and length. 2 casks for 40 ares only. But they made a first sorting from this vineyard for a sparkling wine (pet' nat). Most has been reserved for Alberta and Japan already, they made only 600 bottles and it sells very easily. Japan in particumlar, Mai says, loves Pet' Nat sparklings. They've not set their price for the Chenin, but it should be more expensive than the reds.
Mai swirling a beautiful primeur
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson Cabernet Franc Primeur. Carbonic maceration. Strikingly vivid color, appealing wine. From young vines of Cab Franc. They wanted to make different types of wines with Cabernet Franc, this
one being a low-alcohol, easy-drinking type of wine, vinified in a vat, and the other cuvée being meant for longer élevage and more structure. Asked if it was fully carbonic, Kenji says that one point they tasted the wine and felt that it lacked a little bit of structure, so they added 10 % of non-carbonic-maceration Cabernet Franc. On the nose, a bit of reduction which goes away fast. 950 liters volume. As soon the residual sugar will be finished (there was 5 grams a month ago), they'll bottle it and sell it in spring. Nice aromas of small red fruits, here is an enjoyable wine, especially after I warmed my glass (it's pretty cold in this vatroom). This cuvée was his first carbonic maceration ever. They took care to make it really carbonic maceration, taking away every day the small amount of juice that would accumulate at the bottom of the vat and putting it separately so as the wholeclustred grapes remain dry. This helped make clearly-different Cabernet-Franc wines, each enjoyable in its own style. This thirst-wine cuvée will be named Ptit Luchini, in reference hip-hop, but the French wine amateurs will probably think it is related to the French actor
Fabrice Luchini (my remark), which may help because the guy is easy-going and popular (with classics like Les Nuits de la Pleine Lune, directed by Eric Rohmer). Mai studied cinema and when Kenji selected this name she immediately thought to Luchini, the actor, and to Eric Rohmer. This wine costs 6 € only retail at the winery, good value.
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson, Cabernet Franc. From the first vineyard we visited (second picture from top). A traditional vinification here, with a different wine in mind. Very nice substance, balanced wine, with gentle tannins.
In the shared chai
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson, Ô Galarneau, a Cabernet Franc from another vineyard with lighter, sandy/gravel soils, on a terroir named Les Rouliers, which is located near this nice old fortified farm pictured on the side above, and also near one of Benoit Courault vineyards, a young vigneron of the area (scroll to 7th picture on
this story). Intense and aromatic nose. Name of the cuvée : Ô Galarneau, a Quebec word for sun. This Cabernet Franc should cost 8 € retail at the winery. Good value too.
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson, Grolleau 2011. Dark wine with magenta ring, very aromatic. Already attractive. They will make 6 cuvées in all this year, two whites, a sparkling and the reds. They're trying to limit the number the cuvées and blend as much as possible. Tannins very easy on this Grolleau. They extracted through cap-punching (
pigeage on the whole-clustered grapes during 10 days for a quick extraction and toward the end of the fermentation they stopped the punching, in a way to get the extraction of the best quality. This wine tastes good, it's hard to understand why the appellation keeps this variety out, may be because Grolleau was in the past a high-yield variety. This cuvée will cost 7 € retail at the winery.
Mai tells me about
Cyril Le Moing
who makes artisanal wine from super-low yields near Martigné Briand. He is known for his Grolleau wine which he vinifies in casks and she and Kenji love it.
Disgorging a Pet'Nat just for us
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson natural sparkling 2011. Kenji disgorges the bottle right outside the building. 2nd vintage already, they sold the bottles in Alberta, in Japan and at a small wine gathering they took part to in Champ-sur-Layon not far from here :
En Joue Connection
(they organise
another meeting next april). 300 people came there and they could make direct sales of their wines. The Pet'Nat costs 8 €, retail price. Nice sparkling already, but they want to keep the bottles
sur lattes as long as they can because the wine gets more savoury after a long lees exchange.
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson Cabernet Franc 2010, from a bottle opened 5 days ago. Made from the old vineyard we saw first, with many missing vines. Fruit, not oxydized at all. It was bottled last december, and they say it shows off already much better than right after bottling. THe wine got 2 grams of SO2 at bottling. They try to add as little as possible but they do it according to the Ph, and the Ph of the Cabernet was very high, so they prefered to protect a bit the wine. They're very interested in the sulfur-free thing, but they considered that for their first vintages they were going to be careful even if with only minimal doses. They need to be more comfortable before going full-blown SO2 free. They know friends who started with the will to be
SO2-free from scratch and then veered to a classical vinification with sulfur addings because they made mistakes, and Mai & Kenji don't want to do the same.
__ Mai et Kenji Hodgson, Grolleau Noir 2010 (La Grande Pièce - bottle) got 1,5 gram per hectoliter. What a nose, cooked cherries, clafoutis. A bit of caramel or English candy at the end. They have one cask only of it. There are only 40 bottles left of this wine. Costs 7 €. In 2010, because the vineyard was in such a bad shape (it was almost abandonned before), they pruned very short to invigorate the vines which turned into very low yields. That the same overall on their vineyard and in 2010 they produced roughly 1500 bottles when this year they should have 6000 bottles, part of the increase being because they took more land. They could reach 10 000 bottles in 2012 as the vines recover.
Kenji & Mai's wines are currently exported to Canada (Calgary/Alberta,
Metrovino) and to Japan (
Le Vin Nature).
Went down so well
A few days later, we had this bottle of Ô Galarneau that Mai and Kenji gave to us, it with an improvised dinner, and man, this wine was gulped very easily and with lots of pleasure. The Cabernet Franc was savoury and light at the same time, that's the type of wine I personally love more and more. I emailed Kenji shortly after not to forget to tell me when he goes to Paris to sell his wines, I'll buy him wine for sure myself...
Mai & Kenji Hodgson
Le Breil 49380
Champ sur Layon (chai address)
phone + 33 6 48 41 03 90
vinshodgson [at] gmail [dot] com
Article about the Hodgsons by writer James Nevison
Mai & Kenji's Website
L'Auberge du Layon (left)
The tide is coming.... Another incredible thing : Rablay-sur-Layon is a small village with only a handful of shops or businesses, but its pizzeria/restaurant
L'Auberge du Layon serves only natural wines, can you believe that ?? And the place is also a magnet for musicians ans artists. We couldn't go there to enjoy the place by ourselves because it was a tuesday and it was closed, but I'll not miss this place when I come around here next time. Seems indeed that the real-wines thirst sweeps the back roads of the French provinces...
Man, you're the best!!! Always very good reading and nice pictures. Thank you!
Posted by: Francois Dumas | February 07, 2012 at 06:16 PM
Yes, it seems you're a man of good taste! Hope i can meet you one day in Anjou or in Tokyo where i spend 5 months a year.
Cyril.
Posted by: cyril le moing | March 03, 2013 at 03:05 AM
Hello Kenji and Mai! It's been a long time since we last met you. Finally, we got to read about you, WOW!!! Hope we get a chance to meet up with you this summer. We are heading to South of France and Spain for a short visit in July-August.
Hugs,
Eric, Grace and Jade
Posted by: Eric Clemson | May 17, 2015 at 08:42 PM
Hello Kenji and Mai - I bought a bottle of your rouge Galarneau today at Vessels specialty wine and spirits store in Victoria BC.
My mother's maiden name is Galarneau, and I am curious how it is you decided to name this wine Galarneau or your other O Galarneau.
I am enjoying the wine with some cheese and to me it smells like the morning air on a cow farm. Very french country terroir.
Merci Beaucoup Mes Amis
Lea (nee Galarneau)
Posted by: Lea | March 02, 2016 at 01:42 AM