Reviving the vineyard of Jules Chauvet (Beaujolais)

Christophe Pacalet Cercié, Beaujolais
Cercié is only 5 kilometers away from Villié-Morgon, the village houses seem to be lower compared to Villié-Morgon, a long street around which the village built up. You already feel the proximity of the plain and of Belleville, a big village/small town along the Saone river.
Christophe Pacalet's facility is on thee outskirts of the village, and his wines are making quietly their way through the winter, but we could have a glimpse on their becoming. Christophe Pacalet doesn't own the vineyards he's making his wines from, he buys grapes from different growers who follow his organic guidelines and limited-yields requirements. This fits into the winery format which we usually call négoce although here it's mostly around a non-interventionist winemaking philosophy and overall small volumes.
__Christophe Pacalet Chiroubles 2011. Not bottled yet, a bit cold because it's quite cold around here. No SO2 during the vinification here. There will be a bit at bottling. He says that until now he thinks that 2011 is a good vintage in many regards although he thought differently last july (it was raining the whole of july). But august reversed this completely and was sunny and healthy; they harvested starting august 27. What was great was that the damaged grapes dried under the north wind and the sun (ça a "figué", he says in French, meaning that it dried fig style). He had to tell the pickers not to throw away these withered grapes here and there even if they didn't look so nice.

Tasting in the chai __ Christophe Pacalet, Côte de Brouilly 2011. From a vat. Very nice aromas on the nose. Every year, whatever the quality of the vintage, Christophe says, Côte de Brouilly shows as the best, and this is definitely the terroir. Also, the Côte de Brouilly is the only Beaujolais cru which is planted on all expositions, noth, south, west and east. Although there's no same-name village for this terroir (unlike Fleurie, Chenas or Morgon), it was planted by a Roman named Brulius and is one of the oldest. To be more precise, around 59 B.C there were several waves of invasions coming through here from what is now Switzerland and the local tribe named Ségusiaves here asked the Romans for help. The Romans came over, repelled the invaders and stayed for good, developping in the meantime the road system to expand commerce routes (source).
__ Christophe Pacalet Juliénas 2011, from a cask. Could be bottled in april, at Easter. Enjoyable. A bit oaky.
__ Christophe Pacalet Fleurie 2001. A bit of reduction here, he says. Not very noticeable for me. Very nice wine in the mouth, I like that. No sugar left, he says, it's dry. He says that before Christmas it was lots more reduced. He uses to be very wary when reduction shows up but his uncle Marcel Lapierre always taught him not to be afraid and just wait, adding that reduction is the opposite of oxydation, so it's good for the wine actually. This wine needs more time than the previous wine, and in june or july it should be fine, he says. He has 13 casks of this wine. Swift loading of 2 pallets for New York At one point, we made a pause in our tasting because a truck had arrived to load two pallets of wine for New York (for Winebow if it's not a secret). The driver had called a couple of times to get directions because he was not familiar with the roads and the chai is at some distance of the village. As soon as the truck showed up, Chistophe Pacalet took the wheel of his gas-powered forklift (powered by compressed gas, not gasoline) and loaded the pallets swiftly into the back of the truck. The truck may have its own lift system but this way the wine is carted in no time which is good for the wine as well as for the driver who hasn't to worry about it. Press in sleep mode __ Christophe Pacalet Chenas 2011, from a cask. Acidulous side, maybe because a bit perly. Tastes good. This year (2011), he says that the fermentation were swift and very active, and there was so much CO2 coming out of these casks that they avoided as much as possible to walk down the cellar... He says this is the first time he witnesses such quick fermentations.
Chenas is the Beaujolais cru which makes the highest alcohol, he says. While the north of Beaujolais has a terroir of crushed granite, here there's a lot of clay which holds the water and with the sun it makes higher photosynthesis which in turn makes more alcohol. The rain also brings occasionally problems on this terroir like for Pinot, same on Moulin à Vent where there's clay too. If rainy they can get lots of damaged grapes. Chenas is not a famous appellation including in France, he says, and there's a reason for that : before the AOC system was set up in 1936, all the Chenas wine was purchased in bulk by Burgundy wineries which would use it to blend with the Pinot Noir. The reason was that at that time the alcohol level of Pinot was too low and the Gamay adding helped it up. When the AOC rules were fixed in 1936, the Chenas growers lost their customers from Burgundy overnight and that's when the local coopératives were set up to open a new distribution window for Chenas wine. The Burgundy wineries were also unsettled by the fact that they couldn't anymore blend their Pinot with the Gamay of Chenas, so the AOC let a small window open : the Passetoutgrain, which is maybe the sole Burgundy wine where you blend Pinot with Gamay. The press, on its sleep mode Speaking of the CO2 in the wine, usually people take it out with nitrogen, but he, like the other winemakers following Jules Chauvet methodology, uses argon. Jules Chauvet had discovered that argon was leaving the aromas of the wine intact, unlike nitrogen.__
__Christophe Pacalet Moulin à Vent 2011. More closed at this stage. Moulin à Vent needs longer time in the cellar before it gives what it is meant to. Moulin à Vent is the Beaujolais cru which can have the longest cellaring time when bottled, something like 10 years, probably closer in this regard to Burgundy wines. It is thus a cru which isn't easy to taste that young. On a 3,5-hectare block formerly owned by Jules Chauvet Now, these unexpected news :
Christophe Pacalet had recently the opportunity to work with several parcels belonging to the family of Jules Chauvet. They are part of about 6,5 hectares of vineyards near La Chapelle de Guinchay (Jules Chauvet's hometown) which belong to the Chauvet family, namely to Jules-Chauvet's niece. As the previous grower in charge of these blocks was retiring, the Chauvet heirs looked for other vignerons to follow suit on the rent. The niece of Jules Chauvet knowing well the Beaujolais vintner Jean-Claude Lapalu, she offered him to take the surface but he didn't want to add more surface to his estate, so Mr Lapalu told Christophe about it. Christophe decided to take 1,7 hectare in Beaujolais Villages (in fermage or rent) while a couple of other vignerons took the rest. He will also rent an additional 3,5 hectare of the block with the other vignerons so they can share the investment needed to put the vineyard back in shape, particularly regarding the soil which hasn't been plowed for 20 years as it had been on conventional management with lots of weedkillers. They'll hire a service company to introduce back regular plowings, doing that on a gentle mode first, so that the vines can handle the change in the management. It will take a couple years, three maybe, before the weedkillers slowly vanish in the underground and the life comes back for good under the form of microbial activity, worms, insects and diverse weeds. They also got to drain the lower end of this plot so that the water doesn't surface. Chistophe Pacalet and Peter on an older Jules-Chauvet block On his 1,7 hectare surface, 1,5 hectare dates from 1946 and 25 ares from 1976. These vineyards were probably purchased originally by Jules Chauvet's grandfather and at the time of Jules chauvet they were exploited by a vigneron who gave them some wine along with the rent in return, this was often the way it worked. At the time it was organic and traditional in Beaujolais, Christophe says that the first tractor arrived in this region in 1965 and that the change toward industrial wines was made roughly between 1965 and 1990. He recounts for example that his grandfather bought a tractor for his son Marcel Lapierre (who is Christophe's uncle) in 1973. Before that time, there were still horses in the vineyard, people also owned goats and it was real farming with diverse products made in a given farm.
On the picture above you can see Christophe Pacalet with Peter who is beginning to take care of the vineyard. Peter comes from Slovakia he's been travelling to Beaujolais for 20 years, working part time here in the vineyards and the rest of the time he's a mountain guide in the natural reserves of slovakia. When we drove to the block, he was busy pruning the old vines and taking away the dead ones. He noticed that the density in this vineyard is higher than elsewhere, with only 70 cm between the vines in a row instead of 90 cm or 1,1 meter.

My profile of Christophe Pacalet
Christophe Pacalet's winery website
Article about Jules Chauvet by Philippe Pacalet, Christophe's cousin