Mareuil-su-Cher, Touraine (Loire)
I visited Julien Pineau the other day in their new home as he and Juliette were busy preparing horsetail tea for a later spraying. He and Juliette have moved on since they took over half of Clos Roche Blanche vineyards surface some 3 years ago. They lived in a couple of different rentals until they found out about this old farm that was
for sale in the village. They had the living quarters nicely renovated by and architect friend who
did a good job and moved in at the end of last year with their baby girl. there's lots of grassy land around, I'm sure there'll be a colorful vegetable garden one of these days, what a beautiful surrounding for their baby to grow in....
When I arrived here on my motorbike almost straight from Paris, Julien, Juliette and Paul Gillet were fixing the mobile gas stove on which they'd heat the water for the herb tea intended for the vineyard. Julien used to prepare these concoctions at Paul Gillet's Les Maisons Brûlées (like here for the 501) but it was time for him to do them at home now that he was beginning to have a home and soon a facility of his own. THe issue when i arrived was with Paul Gillet (who was there to give a hand) to get the narrow hose get into the somehow larger tip on the gas-stove side. I brought my own engineering experience, like using a previously-heated spear-like metal piece to soften and enlarge the hose, add to that a bit of soapy water and it's done. Certainly not square job but artisan vignerons work with whatever means they have at reach and you can make miracles with old tools.
Julien has been making horsetail tea to spray on the vines since he started to work on his own domaine 3 years ago. This season he already did already a first spray before the Easter moon with a backpack sprayer in order to dynamize the vineyard, the goal being to delay
the mildew, he says you don't spray the vines directly but on the ground, it's a way to channel
the information to the biosphere and say "I'm the boss". He will blend the horsetail tea to the copper in the next spray and that will help him reduce the amount of copper. The limit for copper use on organic farming today is 6 kg/year per hectare and Julien says he's using about 2 kg, but they also use a brand-new spraying machine (he fixed it on his old straddle tractor) that optimizes the spray and allows minimal doses thanks to the thin mist it is capable of making.
He bought the horsetail at Pierre Masson's Biodynamie Services, he and Juliette could ideally take time to pick it in the wild but they haven't had really the time until now. He first heats the water, he does that in the small outbuilding where they have lunch with the pickers at harvest, then he puts some dry horsetail in a jute bag (sort of bigger tea bag) which he'll leave infuse for a few days, mixing it with the copper thereafter when ge does the spray. In between if he has time he'll make a nettle concoction also (easy to find, grows everywhere) to add also in the mix.
What a wonderful thing, they have a few sheep since a few months (now, it's almost a herd !) which they can keep on their property and also on the adjacent one as the neighbor is OK for the sheep to keep the grass in control. When I walked to
the back of the house with Juliette to see them I couldn't believe it, they're so many and with also all these young ones happilly grazing on this generous prairie...
What Juliette did
when we walked there together was move the mobile enclosure so that the sheep get another square of grass to eat, they noticed that when you give them a whole prairie at once they tend to be picky and leave aside some grass, which they don't do if you restrain them to a small square enclosed with the mobile fence. They bought 5 sheep last autumn (4 ewes and 1 ram) and they (with the lambs that came after) can graze from their own 3,5 hectare surface plus the neighbors's 2 hectares. Asked where they found the sheep, i was astounded to hear it was on Le Bon Coin, the French equivalent of Craigslist and indeed, choosing what's on sale on the site in the Loire/Centre area I found sheep at 50 € apiece... I just bought a fridge on Le Bon Coin (taking advantage B. is in Japan for a few weeks to remodel our small kitchen) but I wouldn't have thought I could indulge myself one day with buying a sheep to mow the grass year along, will think about it...
I ask if they'll eat the meat one day, Juliette says yes, they'll probably ask a local slaughterhouse 30 minutes away to do the job later this year (in august probably when things ease up in the vineyard) they'll have 7 of them, the adults, to get done, this will make a good weight of meat for themselves and friends.The babies still have time before reaching their fate, they were born in march just the day after these snowfall days. When they bought these sheep last autumn they also put them some time in a field near the vineyards and the lambs were born over there, they didn't even have a shack they were just fine in the open in this fallow field; you can't really leave them in a vineyard, not only because of the shoots & buds they might eat but also because they like to rub against something and that could prove fatal for some old vines.
I asked what was the triggering factor to buy these sheep, Juliette says for the meat, and also for their baby, that's a nice experience to grow and see farm animals like these.
I notice this simple sign under the tree in the courtyard reading "le Vin des Pouilleux", Julien says this was the name of an informal friendly gathering that was held here last july. Pouilleux means lousy in French, this derogatory was used a century ago maybe to name the dirty, also bum-like poor in the back country.
This private festive event is organized by Laurent Saillard, Noëlla Morantin, Paul Gillet and Julien himself, the first edition took place here in this open courtyard and the idea is to have it every other year, the next one will be in 2019 and certainly at the wine farm of one of the other vignerons. Great idea, I can understand these guys love their job !
They had maybe 120 people altogether with the friends, many of them fellow growers but not only, they had put 4 barrels as tasting tables under the linded, and to add some spice, the barrels were manned by another person, like Laurent was pouring the wine of Noella, Noëlle the ones of Laurent, Julien poured the wines of Paul & Corine and they poured his own. after the tasting they'd all have lunch, for which Laurent had put 4 sheep on the spit. What a salivating scene... You can see the nice poster designed for this small event, and I love how they make things beautifully even for non-commercial events like this one. that's certainly what put these natural-wine vintners largely above their commercial/conventional peers; beyond the obvious quality and truthness of their wines, it's the fact that friendship and fun counts more than cold business figures, it's a whole philosophy that at the end transpires into the wines, and I'm sure Rudolf Steiner although he didn't drink alcohol would have explained the connection between all this.
Julien drove me to the cellar to taste a few wines, they'll have all the facility & cellar in a warehouse they're going to rebuild soon but until then they still use the underground cellar of Clos Roche Blanche as well as the chai and press
under the tin roof on the plateau. after we parked near the CBR mansion we saw Catherine who as a happy retiree was busy mowing her grass, her cat wandering arounnd her legs.
To sum up the situation of his surface Julien works on 6,5 hectares or half of CBR former surface and he's right now replanting 80 ares of Menu Pineau; he didfn't have any menu pineau yet and he plans to make a separate cuvée from it. From the initial vineyard surface he took over he just has uprooted 20 ares of Sauvignon, a parcel with lots of missing vines. Right now he makes 2 whites, 2 natural sparkling rosés, and 3 reds, 7 cuvées altogether. He sells most of hiw wine abroad (90 %), mostly Japan (Diony) and the United States (Louis-Dressner Selections / Farm Wine Imports), then Australia (Ryan Larkin), Denmark (Melin Vin), the U.K. (Joel Wines). In France he sells mostly through Le Vin Vivant in Nantes as well as a couple of venues in Tours & Angers. He doesn't do the wine fairs around France, hasn't much time for that with the vineyard management, the house and his family, and he tries to rest when he can.
I love this cellar deep under the hill in the back of CBR, it reminds me the tastings experienced there with Didier Barrouillet. We're going to taste a few wines which Julien is going to bottle june 18 (this visit took a few weeks ago).
__ Substance 2016, old vines of Sauvignon (70), sample taken from a 600-liter barrel. All the
cuvée is in barrels, no tronconic wooden vats. THe wie has a golden color, nice ripe aromas
in the first sip, with raisin notes. There may still be a bit of gas, Julien says he hasn't racked them, the wine remained on its lees. THe wine finished its sugar during the harvest 2017, the fermentation of the incoming grapes having triggered the yeast ambiance for this 2016. For this cuvée he always wants a longer élevage, may have released certain cuvées earlier on his first vintage for financial reasons. He picks the grapes according to the pH, not the potential sugar. The grapes here have macerated one day in the press, then pressed and went into the barrels right away, no racking, no SO2 adding, there will not be any including at bottling. Nice wine, sells for 13 € without tax (professional buyers). 15 hectoliters in total for this cuvée.
__ Substance 2017, which has . We taste from a new barrel (Centre France), from this vintage of Substance he has 2 barrels and a tronconic vat (21 hectoliters total). 3-day maceration in the press. In 2017 he blended all the Sauvignons, both young and old because of the losses, blending what would have otherwise been separate cuvées. Nice character in this wine, more sappy, may be the new oak, but very enjoyable nonetheless, and this oaky character will be tamed with the blending with the 13-hectoliter tronconic vat.
__ Pineau d'Aunis 2017, a cuvée he makes since the start of his domaine in 2015, will be a blend from a resin vat and a wooden vat, Julien reproduces the blend here
__ L'Ecume des Nuits 2017, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Côt. Again here there's an exceptionnal change because of the low volumes (frost) and he made a blend, usually it's 100 % Cabernet Franc. He's been making this cuvée since the start
This blend has a pleasant tannic touch that is well rounded by the fruit and sweet feel of the fruit. Small red fruit aromas. Zero SO2 here and none planned for the bottling.Didn't make a problem for the shipping until now he says, including for long journeys overseas. Asked if he says something on the label regarding his no-added-sulfites vinification, he says yes, printing a Franglish word for fun : No sulphite ajouté
. Here the Côt is destemmed and the Cabernets which grow in the same parcel together are kept whole-clustered.
__ From a barrel : Côt 2015 from very old vines. 130 years to be precise, parcel planted in 1890 when the domaine of Clos Roche Blanche was created, this is the original parcel of its beginning. Wine also pictured above right with Julien holding his glass. He has only one barrel of this, the parcel has a 80-are surface with low yields. Will be bottle in june 2018 also, the sale on the market happening somewhere before Christmas. Vinification : 2- or 3-week maceration with whole-clustered grapes. there was a 1,5 SO2 adding here. Julien has not yet a name for this cuvée, he made it in the 1st year of his domaine. Inky notes on the nose. Nice vividness and freshness in the mouth, lovely, with chalky tannins. Julien says it's a long way from what it tasted like in the beginning, the tannins were really rough, but a 3-year élevage brought this nice smoothening of the edges. Very nice wine, very sappy, and with still laying-down potential.
__ Boisson d'Avril, a natural sparkling made from purchased Cabernet Franc (from Chinon) as a compensation for the frost losses. Already on the market now. Label made by his friend Brice Poil in Nantes who also designed the
posters of ViniCircus, les Vins du Coin, and other natural-wine events like La Boire (Nantes). The funny thing is that Julien
was the one who kind of made him be discovered by natural-wine milieu : he first made several This was the 1st time he bought grapes and he hopes it will be the last (as it would imply another natural disaster on the vineyard side). He made 2000 bottles of this. The name of the cuvée comes from the name of the growers he bought the grapes from (Pascal & Mathieu Avril) whose domaine in Ligré is on organic conversion. These peopler do a good job, working on something like 13 hectares and planting vegetables between the rows; they don't make wine themselves yet. These grapes come from a nice parcel of theirs, a clos near the Chateau de Ligré. Also No sulphite ajouté (no added sulfites) as printed on the back label. Usually he makes a Pet'Nat from his own Cabernet (cuvée name Bocca di Rosa) but with ther frost he used the few remaining grapes for a blend.
As we were leaving the cellar at Clos Rohe Blanche and heading to the car, we saw Julien's nurseryman driving down the gravel road back from the vineyards on the plateau and Julien chatted with him a moment. He is about to do the planting of Menu Pineau, waiting for the right time window as well as the right weather/soil condition for this work using a tractor. The nursery is located in Thésée on the other side of the Cher river and prepares vines for Bruno Allion and virtually everyone in the area, he knows the philosophy of the vignerons and does a nice job with grafting massal selections on appropriate rootstock.
in the glass. This year as he suffered lossed with the frost, this cuvée will be 50 % Pineau d'aunis, 50 % Gamay. Will also be bottled soon. All is already reserved for the sales alas. Has this pepper note on the nose and in the mouth an inky aroma, enjoyable wine. tHe color is a bit darker than usual with the Gamay part.Vinification : 2-day maceration in resin vats (under the tin roof on the plateau's edge) with destemmed grapes, pressed and
also. This year because of the frost he was allowed to buy grapes elsewhere for his wine (he hasn't the legal status of négociant and can thus do it only when such natural disasters like frost yield a legal authorization from the wine authorities). Julien bought grapes in Chinon and will make a separate cuvée labelled in a way people will understand it's from purchased grapes (he wants transparency). Asked if he is otherwise open to the négoce thing (making wine from purchased grapes regularly, not only on big-frost years) he says not really : there are going to be soon available vineyards in the region due to farmers retiring and it's better to take control of this land (or have new vignerons take them) ibstead of letting big conventional domaines increase their surface and weight.
labels for Julien and from that on was contacted by everyone beginning with events organizers. He has the
disgorgement done at Berger where Bertrand Jousset, Frantz Saumon and others also bring their own, this élaborateur being also certified organic..
In the mouth it tastes like candy, grenadine; Julien says that in the vat it smelled like crushed strawberry. It tastes different from his own usual pet'nat on a normal year, this is a different terroir plus he also puts Cabernet Sauvignon and a bit of Gamay in addition of Cab Franc when he makes it with his estate grapes.
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