Berrie, Vienne (Loire)
I think that François Saint-Lô was discovered at the Dive in 2013 (see the list of vignerons here), from what I heard he just popped up out of nowhere and people were just stunned by his wines, there was some kind of word-of-mouth going on, go taste this guy's wines !. François is originally a Normandy native and he worked in restaurants in Paris,
deciding one day to go work in artisan domaines. He ended up having his own production and since the first vintage people loved his easy-drinking
wines like his 9 %-alcool Grolleau. He of course vinifies naturally and uses no sulfur on his wines. François works on 4,5 hectares (fermages, or rentals) and he
buys grapes for the equilalent of one hectare. He looks for purchasing parcels of his own near the village, as he farms with a draft horse, it would be convenient.
Berrie is located in the southern flank of the Loire valley, this village is roughly 25 km south of Saumur by road, and while the surrounding landscape is mostly large fields, the village itself is a gem handcrafted by centuries of work by small farmers, with nice old houses, many troglodytic structures and an intricate maze of underground cellars and connected galleries that were a few centuries ago also used to resist through attrition the occasional invading armies. There's a certain disconnect by the way between the feel in this village and these large fields outside, obviously meant for industrial agriculture, but there were no open fields a century ago : the destruction of the traditionnal farming landscape (small fields surrounded by hedges) is a modern thing, mostly done in the 20th century even if it began in the 19th, This was considered very modern and progressive then to erase these hedges and regroup the parcels and fields, at stake was the rise in agricultural production volumes and the state pushed in this direction at the expense of the traditional way of life. Nothing much has changed since, we could say, the bright minds of the EU and the French administration subsidize the pulling-off of vineyards including some of the most qualitative, and this also for our own good, be sure of it...
François spent a year training at the Montreuil-Bellay wine school, he says he learnt more on the side while tasting with vignerons and along his trainee stays here and there. The teaching at the time at the wine school wasn't telling about organic or natural vinification, it changed since. After that year he travelled around here and there, much in Eastern Europe, Romania, Ukraine, Slovakia, also Spain. These travels opened his eyes on things like food and it certainly triggered something.
François moved in this cellar a year ago but he kept his previous location in the village, actually he says "we" because he works with some sort of collective or commune, with lots of different young people, each with a special interest or skill, carpenter, black-smith, vineyard worker for example. These people live in other places near this main cellar, either in troglodytic houses or trailers, which gives this small
village a buzzing bohemian feel. At some point François had to kind of hold a gathering with the village inhabitants to explain what this was about, because locals were worried of seeing what they might think were dropouts settle en masse in the village. He explained that they were working and helping revitalize the village, the houses of which being until now often empty and deserted, and they felt reassured.
Here on this picture above you can see the professionnal facility, which you reach after passing through the massive outside door recently renovated and this 2nd door (pictured on left). This main cellar is indeed impressive, you really feel sneaking into a forgotten temple or cathedral with huge pillars holding the ceiling like elephant legs. François intends to keep the magic feel of the place in spite of the necessary improvements in terms of access and lighting (they've already done a lot to improve the lighting without having wire all over the walls). This is the first vintages he's making here, previously he vinified in another cellar down the street at a short distance. I think this is where's there's a mail box made out of an old barrel, but not sure as he took over quite a few of these abandoned troglodytic structures in the village.
On the right you can see on this short video another of these awesome cellars on the rue des Belles Caves, if you enter this place you have samely a maze of cellar rooms, corridors, tunnels and underground hiding places, some built centuries ago for defensive use. This one is not used presently, certainly another great potential facility for an artisan vigneron...
The street address of François new chai & cellar (rue des Belles Caves) is so relevant : Belles Caves means beautiful cellars, you can't dream a better address for an artisan cellar, you get everything here, real wines made in a real place with history. His previous address before he moved here was just down the street, at number 13, the place had a beautiful cellar also. I made this visit early november, I came by motorbike, staying for the night at family relatives of mine who live 25 km south from here.
The carpenter in their collective rebuilt this massive door opening on the huge underground facility, he did it in the old tradition and it will now stand for a century or more. When there's some work to do François sees with them what can be done for his available budget and step by step they get the different structures repaired, keeping in perspective their desire to retain the authenticity of the place, that's a very nice way to work, we're used to see a strong trend of solidarity and mutual aid in the natural wine milieu but here there's this kind of commune brining people of different skills living together, very good to turn around a dying village.
They also renovated the troglodytic house here where people can live, and on the right this is intended to be a tasting room and lunch area for the pickers and visitors, there are several rooms in there including a large cowshed, there's ben an informal bar-counter, a small kitchen and so on. I think this is just terrific to see artisan vignerons succeeding with a small surface
At the end of the cement way going down in the cellar you can see a light well. François says there are several of them in the complex and near this one there's a pigeon loft with the individual cavities dug in the stone. In the past the farmers would also recover the droppings for soil betterment. He may in the future reopen some of these light wells (which have been sealed) and put a roof window with control of the light with shutters, but there are other, more urgents things to do before. There's now a garden above, they might as well have grown vines and used the openings to move the grapes straight into the cellar. These light wells can also help make a natural temperature control, he'll see that also in the future. No doubt, this place is not only magic, it has a tremendous potential.
Here we look at the press, if I remember in this corner there was a big cement partly embedded in the rock wall with an opening in the ceiling of the cellar through which the grapes could be thrown down. They took out this tank. There was certainly in this cellar in a more remote time a fixed press, one of these huge custom-made model like they often set up in this type of cave cellar, the beams fixed into a side wall. Here this press is a mobile type, on wheels, that's the one teams of pressers would move from farm to farm for a fee in the 19th century and even the 20th, as not everybody could afford a basket press for their small volumes.
When François could move in here (2 years & 2 months ago) the place was abandoned for about 10 years. The previous owner was a vigneron who had passed away and when his son took over he kept working the vineyards but didn't want to continue make wine. on the right where now stand a few tanks it was quite a mess, the whole cellar had a lot of junk, rubble and rusting tools spread here and there, and they also had to take down big cement tanks in pretty bad shape.
François works with Chenin, Cabernet Franc, Pineau d'Aunis on his rented surface and he additionally buy grapes of Grolleau and Gamay. He's been buying these grapes from the start, which helped him make cash and progress in his project.
Here in this small room (comparatively to the huge complex) on the side is what François calls the chai with a clean cement slab and washing water drainage. In the bottom of a room there seems to be a large brick wall as if there was another cellar behind, they haven't yet checked further bt when they took away the rubble and accumulated layers of dust and debris they found obviously traces of different stages, like the place had different uses. They found also ties fixed in the wall meant for large animals, cows or horses. There's the cellar of a neighbor also above the ceiling in a corner, and they did some consilation work on the neighbor's side because the road (there's aroad passing somzewhere above) was beginning to collapse. It's such a maze of interconnected galleries and cellars that if no one does the things seriously there might be some irreversible damage.
For the cement slab in some places they made the cement themselves and for the cement pathway going down the cellar they had a mixer truck park in front of the door and with 10 wheelbarrows manned by the folks of the collective they did all the hard work to move it down along the slope and make this pavement which looks pretty professionally made. By doing the thing mostly by themselves they also lowered the cost of the renovation, a masonry company would have asked much more. From what I understand they all help each other in a commune style, when one needs something he can count on the others, it's a win-win thing. There's Robin the black-smith, Jean who is starting to make craft beer in François' former house, he also begins to make a bit of wine, Margot who has a couple of draft horse (she keeps also François' mare), other friends who live here and have projects of their own, Gaël who started a small farm in the village with vegetable garden, orchard, pigs, rabbitts and other farm animals, Antoine who helps him for the vineyard work along the year, Marine who wants to work with him on the vineyard and the cellar, Damien who is making his barrel of wine each year and learns on the way.
Having these people working together this way is I think a superb way to bring these villages back to life, and it takes no subsidies from the state, and that's a revival conventional farming can't do, on the contrary, it helps the desertification of the countryside.
François showed me around, excusing himself for the mess here and there (I frankly didn't see any apart from a few empty bottles) saying they just had a theater performance here, with also a screening the previous day and they hadn't had time to clean everything. People were sitting on rugs which he had brought for the occasion and it was a nice moment, he plans to repeat the experience now and then with art shows and performances François says that they cleaned the place in order to get rid of the rust and mold that had overcome every corner over the years, they took all the dirt out and also scratched the walls and the place feels very different now, adding that when thet first walked in there you could barely breath, there was a smell of decay and mold with dilapidated barrels and foudres [certainly a photographer's paradise, though].
Now, that is a barrel cellar ! What an impressive place with such a high ceiling, I love this place and the casual bar counter in the bottom seems to have been there for ages (better picture on top and below).
I ask about the few demijohns on the counter, François says this is Pineau d'Aunis, he made a 400-liter batch of it and he had some 30 extra liters which he put in there to ferment as well. He'll use the small one to do the topping up. Man these demijohns of Aunis are very tempting, don't let me alone in this cellar...
As we were walking to the barrel cellar we passed a couple of mid-size cement fermenters (picture on right). François says they were in the place at this very spot and he didn't want to get rid of them because they are well made and potentially useable in the future, considering you do the renovation beforehand, like cleanng the inside and changing the doors. But for now he hasn't really a use for them, he'll see later, and moving them can only be done by a service company, so he has to be sure about their use. These tanks have a capacity of 30 hectoliters.
I ask François about the vintage 2018, he says it was not bad, the volumes of grapes were correct there's juce and foremost thuis was the first year he could vinify in a super place like this. Last year he vinified in the courtyard because they hadn't cleared the mess inside yet. They still brought the wine in the barrels here though. He says the juice this year a very fruity and delicious with a nice acidity, he thinks to his Cabernet for example.
__We first tast his Chenin "les Pouches" 2017 from a Stockinger foudre standing by itself on the side of the room, this is a new cuvée. He says at the beginning he wasn't making much white, he even had to buy grapes in order to still make a bit. He then had a parcel to work on for 2 years (les Fontenelles) but the yields were very low and it was also very hard to farm, not that the vines were that old but the rootstocks were not good, plus it was quyite far from here (30 km). Thankfully he got since another parcel of Chenin in Montreuil-Bellay 10 km from here, that's what we're tasting here, his first vintage from this parcel. The vines were conventionally farmed before so they're now in conversion to organic but they're nice and same for the terroir over there, he's happy with them. The surface there is 2 hectares. He was tired of working with the old barrels of the oprevious vintages for the Chenin and bought this Stockinger as well as 600-liter barrels from Atelier Centre France. the Chenin is obviously still at work but I like the acidulous feel beyond the remaining sugar, François noticed it went back fermenting quite actively since the harvest began.
We tasted the same wine from the demi-muids, tastes pretty good, looks like less sweet, the wine is obviously closer to be ready. The two will be blended at the end.
From the same parcel he made also two barrels with a 10-day maceration with whole-clustered grapes, this will make a separate cuvée. He reproduced the experience this year and it should be very good. That's really a carbonic maceration, he puts the bunches in the fermenter, seals it and leaves it alone, no input of inert gas, no pigeage, nothing, not even opening especially the first days to let the CO2 build up. He can't even taste because there's no juice or so little. Then one day when he decides to devat, he lifts the lid, tastes and presses before filling the barrels. All his macerations (for both reds & whites) are usually 10 to 14 days. He likes the idea to work this way, with careful picking and sorting if necessary in the vineyard, then when not pressed, putting these grapes to macerate in tanks, 30 hectoliters maximum each time (he has a 40-hectoliter one but he'd like to switch it for a 30).
__ Chenin 2017, whole-clustered maceration, from a 600-liter demi-muid. Very aromatic nose and in the mouth you feel this enjoyable character that has a white with a long maceration, i love that with this spicy edge, the tannin and this bitter side, delicious. François says the macerations were a bit hot for him for this vintage in 2017 because it took place outside on the courtyard in front of the cellar (the cellar hadn't been cleared and sanitized yet). He had put an insulation blanket around the tanks of course, but still it was warmer than it should have been and the fermentations were pretty quick, plus you had all these hornets flying around. This year it should be even better because the macerations took place inside in quieter conditions.
For his barrels he now wants to really fill the barrels straight after racking the previous wine so that the barrel doesn't through any interval, he doesn't want to use any sulfur wick, nothing else than cold or hot water, the only exception is when a barrel has problems, then he may use soda ash and oxygenated water. He succedded to do this direct transition of racking and filling with certain cuvées, eschewing the use of any sulfur even in light doses.
François began having some barrels here since 2016 although the rest of the cellar was not then cleared and useable for the fermentation, and he has now assess the quality of the cellar, in particular for the rate of topping up the wooden vessels (I asked him about the issue). Some élevage cellar need more frequent topping-ups, it depends of the average humidity around the year. François says that it's very good here, the humidity is 90 % and you have to add much less than you'd have in a temperature-controlled warehouse-type of cellar. You don't feel that much the humidity but François says that's because in summer they ventilated to with the ventilation wells and now it's slowly recovering its natural humidity.
_We now taste his Cabernet Franc "le Bois Guyon" 2016, a cuvée that always needs 2 years and a half to complete its fermentation, it always needed that time, even when he was using the previous location for the élevage. He says it is still fermenting and he hopes it will be ready by next spring (2019) for bottling. He by the way bottled the 2015 last spring, and each time he keeps the bottles in the cellar a few months before releasing them. Vinified 100 % whole-clustered, left intact in a fermenter for 10 days and then pressed. He tries to fill the grapes to the top in order to have a mass, he checks the air-tight seal of the lid, listening to bubbling noise. Superb translucid color, i ask if he stops pressing before extraction, he says no, he uses these old-style basket fermernters, with pressins taking from 10 to 24 hours, sometimes more (48), he goes to the end but slowly and eschews what we call rebêches, when you move around the pomace and press again. the press is not even electric, it's all manual, at the beginning he just leaves the weight of the wood lid over the grapes and starts pressing later. He uses hydraulic cylinders, not pawls which he thinks press too fast. Beautiful wine, i'd say maybe 6 grams of remaining sugar, there's also this lovely vivid acidity. I spot a few Stockinger barrels, 500 & 600 liters, François bought them at Clos Crystal where he worked for 2 years before starting his domaine.
We taste the same wine from another barrel, less remaing sugar, there's the typical tickling on the tongue when the wine still ferments. Very juicy-type of wine, very enjoyable. He says he likes to work with Cabernet Franc and after several tries he liked this way of going whole-clustered, even though the common narrative is to say that whole-cluster maceration doesn't fit Cabernet Franc because the stem is not ripe. 2016 was the 1st vintage where he applied this vinification to all the grapes. It took time though to see how the wine would taste but now he knows that this works well after a couple of years and he keeps working that way.
I ask about the vineyard work with the horse, François says that since he was a kid he always loved horses and had horses at home in Normandy, even though they were riding horses, not plow ones. He used to ride them in the countryside nearby along the ocean, he would take care of them all the time. And when he went to Anjou to work with vignerons he spent time working with Olivier Cousin where he reconnected with his love for horses, he could merge there his two passions, wine & horses, and in a superb ambiance, his stay at Olivier cousin was a triggering experience. Plus, after that he met Eric Dubois of Clos Crystal who told him he had the project to get the 10 hectares of the domaine farmed with draft horses and he worked there for 2 years. Eric was also the one who pushed him to start his own thing, find a cellar, which he did, continuing worrking his dazy job at Clos Crystal for a while before he had to stop to be able to pursue his own project that was taking momentum.
The real start was when in 2012 he asked Sylvie Augereau if he could have people taste his wine as well at La Dive where the Clos Crystal had a stand. He did that a few years after which he went to Les Anonymes. The first year at La Dive in 2013 he presented barrel samples, wines that were'nt fully finished and he had the luck to be spotted by Danes (Lieu-Dit) who ordered him 300 bottles of each cuvée... He exports quite a large part of his production, from 50 to 60 % but there's a lot of self-consumption within all the staff and people from the collective who help for the different tasks [I'm sure many of you are going to offer your skills to François...]. He sells on the Paris area also, Fleur Godart is the one who channels his wines there. He sells also quite a lot here at the chai, cavistes coming here to take away cases. In the United States his wines are imported through Chris Terrel. In Japan they sell through Ken & Yuki Kobayashi in Hokkaido (I happen to have met them at Jean Foillard by chance one day).
François says that he leant really how to prune at Clos Crystal, at the time Clos Crystal used to hire a service team but he said he could do the job himself and even train young workers, which he began to do, and one day at this time he met Marceau Bourdarias who was to become his friend and he discovered what really pruning was about, something he had no idea before, he realized that he had to start all over again on the issue on new bases. He subsequently trained with Marceau (it took place at Olivier Cousin's place) and it opened his eyes and changed completely his own approach to the vine and the pruning.
François opens one of his last bottles of Grolleau 2016, an exciting light red with still a lovely tannin touch, makes only 8,5 % alcohol, a real thirst wine which is certainly close to the wine our ancestors who drink everyday buy the liters. He's been making this wine since the start in 2012, from purchased grapes. Still feels fresh a couple years later although that's a wine intended to be had early. Made with zero SO2. On his first vintage (2012) he hesitated for the SO2 issue with a batch of Cabernet, putting 1 gram on half and nothing on the rest and he saw the difference and decided to make everything without SO2. When he was training he remember having spoiled wines that tasted terrific before the adding, he sulfur-wicked the wine and they never came back the way they were. Now with the experience he has confidence in his wines. Even for the Grolleau 2017 that seemed to go weird with an oxidative stage after bottling, he was anxious and just put the bottles on the side, then later the folks who helped him label the bottles didn't even want to open one, he still opened one and it had ended up recovering well. Also at the beginning he was having sometimes difficult recoveries from bottling with his 4-spour filler and also 1 16-spout rotating filler and then he hired a service company, Christian Braud, they're doing a very good job, very respectful on the wine, the juice falling directly in the bottom of the bottle without oxidation, he really saw the difference in the wines.
Pic on right : the pirates' saying : better a black flag than a table without red...
__ Les Palennes 2016, Vin de France, Cabernet Franc. Bottled last spring after one year and a half in barrels. Also vinified whole-clustered, he'll keep doing that in the foreseeable future even if the Bois
Gyuon 2014 which he's selling now is making a killing, everyone loves it. That's why he doesnt rule out a coming back to destemming as well, especially that he likes to make new things, which is why he turned to whole-cluster maceration in the first place.
Very nice substance in the mouth, beautiful, there's even a peppery something here. François says it needs morze time though, it's early to taste it, it'll be better to open it after one year and a half in bottle. The color again here is quite light.
I shot this picture on the mobile press. François says that in his former chai in the village (which he still owns, he rents it to a friend) there is a huge and very old fixed basket press, and he was hesitant to move to here just because he'd have to leave the press behind, but there's a possibility in the future that he disassembles it and moves it here. Plus it made a rerrific job, pressing very slowly without rebêchage. THe guy who rents the chai also makes a bit of wine but he'll put another press there.
__ Le Bois Guyon, Cabernet Franc, Vin de France 2014. Currently on the market (soon sold out). He'll sell the 2015 which he condiders way above this one in terms of quality. This 2014 had its élevage in his former cellar, bottled manually there and they moved the pallets here on the front room for another year and a half in bottles, making a 4-year élevage before release. More color here, and two years and a half to ferment... I like the meat-juice feel the tannin. For the color he says 2014 was quite dry, that's why the concentration.
The labels are designed by Justine Saint-Lô, his sister, she is a graphic artist and lives in the house here above. She is the author with Fleur Godart behind Pur Jus about natural wine vinification. You can see both of them in this vide explaining their project. You can see her other creation on her web page. She was there with other people when I visited but I couldn't manage to take a portrait of her.
In the same spirit that he invests in large capacity demi-muids which he'll keep for years, he's got these two new Grenier fermenters, the idea being to vinify in larger, more neutral wooden vessels which he'll keep for many years. Here on the left there's the Bois Guyon 2018 and on the right, Les Pouches. The one on the right leaks on the top, he has to fix that with Grenier, it's not worrying for now because the wine is fermenting and is protected by CO2, he'll discuss the issue soon with the cooper in Burgundy.
I spotted a pallet of what looked like natural-sparkling rosé, this was it, François says he made Pet'Nat from the very start, at the beginning just for himself and then he made it in more serious volumes, but still not that much. This year he made quite a bit of it and also a white sparkling, but this is still mostly
for himself and for friends, he says this type of wine is very time consuming, so for the bottles he sell he sets the price relatively high, basically because he wants to slow the sales and get enough for himself and his circle. It's a lot of work, all by hand, the riddling-table moves, the disgorging, the refilling, plus the glass bottles are much more expensive. At the same time it's a pleasure to drink, he loves it and doesn't want all the wine to be shipped. tHe customers always buy a few of them with other cuvées and it suits him well.
Here on these bottles the layer of lees and sediment is very thick, that's because it was the bottom of the vessel when they did the mise (bottling). Of course when you disgorge that you loose quite a bit of wine. He does part of the riddling with old-fashion riddling tables but he also bought a gyro pallet with which you can move by hand a pallet of bottles at once. But he says there's nothing better than doing it one by one on a riddling table.
Jamie Goode's profile on François Saint-Lô
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