Monthou-sur-Cher (Loire)
I visited a few weeks ago Jean-Guillaume Caplain of domaine Peaux Rouges for his 2nd vintage, he is a new vigneron who is working on a small surface near Monthou-sur-Cher. He's lived quite a few years in Canada in the documentary film industry before coming back to France for this adventure after buying a nice and charming old
farm which he's fixing little by little. He has 30 ares of Pinot which he planted in 2011 and he just took over 1,5 hectare of Gamay and Cöt on the plateau. He also buy grapes (for exemple to Manu and Vincent in Ardèche) to make more wine and complement his small surface (making a total estate/purchased surface of 4 hectares). In Ardèche he buys Syrah, Grenache and Merlot (bringing them in boxes with a refrigerated truck to this region of the Loire) which allows him to do quite interesting wines, blending Loire & Ardèche styles. He also bought last year some grapes to Mikaël Bouges near here in the Cher valley. All his wines are labelled as Vin de France (table wine).
The property where he settled is itself an inducement to leave the city life and immerse oneself in the inspiring beauty of derelict farms and country mansions that only wait for a caring dweller to breath life again. The place is gorgeous, it's at the end of a dirt road with a small vineyard on one side, fruit trees, a greenhouse and lots of woods, largely enough for the firewood, all Jean-Guillaume has to do is cut a tree from time to time and have it dry, or find a dead tree.
The house is being renovated room by room, here's the kitchen, an essential room with view on the garden and where you spend time, there's the stoves here either for cooking or heating, the firewood being picked on the property. I asked about Canada where I thought heating houses with wood was widespread, but he says in the far north it's hydro-electricity and mostly people don"t
even pay the bills, plus this normative government push toward electric heating has deprived the local population (First Nations & Europeans as well) of a real life experience and tradition. This is like an acculturation, it has taken place in the course of a single generation and coupled with the welfare money that takes away from Amerindians the value of work they have nothing to make of their life, it explains much of the drug, alcohol and other social problems there.
This room was the farm's stable in the past, with a manger for the horse or whatever large animal slept here. The property is a former wine farm, he bought it in 2006 with 5 hectares of grounds and woods around it, there's even a stream going through. The little plus that made him decide to buy it was the large wooded surface. From 1996 to 2011 he was living in Quebec, much of it in the far north shooting documentaries on the issue of hydroelectric dams and Amerindians and during this whole time he only made small trips back to France. In 2009 he studied at the Université du Vin in Suze-la-Rousse in the Rhöne Valley, after which he trained at Philippe Tessier near Cheverny.
This is the parcel of Pinot Noir which Jean-Guillaume planted in 2011 (the weeds were soon to be mowed apparently), this is a massal selection made from wood sourced at Hervé Villemade and Philippe Tessier. He has another droit de plantation allowance [in France & the EU you need an administrative permit to plant vines and the allowance is limited and heavily enforced] for 30 ares and he'll use it to replant Aunis along the Pinot. He's also looking for vacant parcels (retiring farmer or else) to augment a little bit more his surface with another one or two hectares, for example he's looking for Menu Pineau and Pineau d'Aunis, which he knows is very rare and in high demand but he keeps looking. Of course it'll make more work but he likes that, especially now that he's full time on the farm (he still did documentary-film stints until recently to pay the bills).
His awaking to wine was like for many of us a long road with starting with Champagne, Burgundies and Bordeaux (his grandfather had a very nice cellar). While in Quebec he began to drink natural wines (Quebec was from very early a good place to find these wines through the private imports) and this was a life-changing experience like for many of us and it's very difficult to go back to mainstream wines after that... Sipping these nice Baujolais and Loire wines, the idea of making wine himself took root slowly, and having no family connection with this vigneron world he moved slowly, going to the viticulture school, training on the job with winemakers, especially with Philippe Tessier where he was the second in charge in the cellar & chai for 3 vintages. He had already bought the property back then and his first vinification with Philippe was in 2009, sleeping in his own house (about 20 km from Tessier's place) which was needing much repair.
Jean-Guillame makes a majority of red wine, with 2017 being the first vintage of his wine farm, he made 3000 bottles that year and he could show his wines to a first natural-wine fair at Les Affranchis in Montpellier in 2018 and begin to get known. Today he makes a rosé, a pet-nat (rather symbolic, just a few bottles this year to try his hand at this wine style), plus 4 cuvées of red. I think that's quite a wide range already for a start. In 2018 the volumes were not big in Ardèche because of flowering issues and his own Pinot Noir had suffered from gluttonous blackbirds especially that he picked the grapes a few days later than he should have. He had more volume with the Gamay and Côt, which he buys from Fabien Dinocheau near here who is converting 4 hectares organic.
The basket press here is the first one he used, it belonged to the grandfather of a childhood friend in Fougères-sur-Bièvre, he made his first barrel of Pinot Noir with it. It looks small but he says you still need 5 people to move it.
Speaking of his vinification philosophy, Jean-Guillaume says his wines are normally unfiltered and get no SO2, there's only the rosé that got 2 grams/hectoliter and also Côt Boy; his modus operandi is, before bottling he makes a simple test : he fills a glass of a given cuvée, puts it in the kitchen with a small plate as lid and tastes 24 hours later; if the wine falls down he protects it, if it remains stable, neat and clean he leaves it naked. It's interesting to note that Jean-Guillaume vinified from the start without filtration and sulfites, he says he made his first wine actually in 2014 when he began to have a few grapes in his pinot that had been planted in 2011, he made a single barrel for himself and he did it without SO2 with a very nice wine at the end. He still has a few magnums of it which he hides in his grandmother's cellar to be sure not to be tempted to open them (a recurrent risk when good friends drop by). This first wine was super clean and neat and he considers that when you work from a super-healthy fruit and sort the grapes in the vineyard & the cellar so that not a sngle rotten bunch gets in, you can work sans filet (without safety net). This said, he adds that accidents can happen and he lost a tank once.
Right now in the cellar he has only the Sauvignon 2018 in the barrels, he'll blend them together with the wine of a stainless vat for a total of 8 hectoliters, he's not in hurry to bottle it because he doesn't want to sell it this year. For the bottling he does it by gravity, using a 4-spout filler that comes from Pascal Potaire.
Here are the presses he uses, the vertical hydraulic press on the left is a very good tool, he bought it 2nd-hand in Burgundy, quite an investment by the way, he says, but he says it's worth the effort because he considers the fineness of the pressing of utmost importance for the wine. He does long pressing sessions, 48 hours for a batch, with allows him to have very smooth infusions, he doesn't look to extract too much tannins. He uses the other press on the right also because the grapes often arrive at the chai at the same time.
Speaking of the fermenters and vats he bought them here and there along the needs, for example last year he had to find tanks at the last minute, and the good thing is that he has an investment partner for the winery (Thierry Blouin), because some vessels are quite expensive like the five 300-liter barrels in the cellar, the 21-hectoliter tronconic vat (which he found in Burgundy) or the recent vertical press. At the beginning there's lots of money to spend along with paying the grapes and the pickers for a return that will come later.
This custom-made greenhouse was made with the old windows of the house and the ones of Pascal Potaire as well when he changed his own, Jean-Guillaume has planted a few vegetables in there, like eggplants, tomatoes. There's an orchard full of fruit trees just behind the greenhouse, it is overgrown with brambles and bushes and he says he has to take care of this when he has time.
We then drove a couple kilometers away just down the slope (on the riverbed level) between Monthou and Thésée, and interestingly we went there also because Pascal Potaire was to come help Jean-Guillaume disgorge a small batch of Pet'Nat for the soon-to-come Bulles au Centre which was to take place in Faverolles-sur-Cher, at the Capriades & Mikaël Bouges' cellars (I'll give a few insights about this tasting later). There was an appointment for that at the cellar and it was also for me a good opportunity to see some disgorging by Pascal (I remember when a few years ago I witnessed Pascal helping Noëlla disgorge her pet-nats).
The cellar is also next to the one of François & Estelle Saint-Leger who have started their wine farm a few years ago (you'll recognize the morphology of the foothill on the pictures). There are many cellars along this D176 road between Thésée and Montrichard, the vertical foothill is made of limestone (sandstone) and I guess in the past it was very convenient for shipping the wines through the river, the road and later the railway. Many of these cellars are unused and abandonned, but it's not that easy to get one nonetheless, the retired growers or their family tend to keep them even if they don't do anything with them, you have to be patient.
The cellar was not part of the 5-hectare wine farm, and he found it last year, they belong to the parents of a friend-vigneron, he's renting it there's a good chance he'll buy it from them in a few years. It was a hot day when I visited and it's as you guess pleasantly cool under the hill, especially a few meters from the wooden doors. The people who dug it left natural pillars here and there to support the weight of the hill, that makes it look like a forgotten temple, very simple and beautiful.
Behind these pillars you can see the fixed press which was used a few decades ago, this is indeed an ageless vinification style with the juice droping on the cement floor for a short decanting of the gross lees. Then the juice would be pumped into the cement tank with the square opening above, and with the hill's rock all around you'd have a n atural temperature control helping keeping the fermentation temp low without need of modern tools or electricity; again, simple and ageless efficiency...
Better view on the fix press and its cement bed, the small semi-circular decanting vessel and the tank behind the wall. Jean-Guillaume doesn't use this fixed press and the fermenter but it's so nice to see them still there. The temperature varies little from summer to winter, he says in winter it stands at 12 C (54 F) even when it's freezing outside. There's no electricity nor water in the cellar but he may modernize this if he buys it. He could also pour a slab in part of the cellar which will make the shipment easier.
We were beginning to be thirsty and Jean-Guillaume opened this wine 2018 he's made with Ardèche grapes grown on basalt soils sourced from Manu and Vincent of Les Deux Terres. As said above he brings the whole-custered grapes here in a refrigerated truck (it's about 600 km from here). This red is a small batch of maybe 1500 bottles, it is named Paw Paw; this year he has made many pacellaire cuvées for the fun of it. He got to know Manu and Vincent when he was in the documentary film business because one of his documentaries was screened at the Documentary Film Festival in Lussas in Ardèche : while there he was looking for good wine to drink but In the village of Lussas you had only the Coopérative wine and a friend told him they had to visit Les Deux Terres where she said the wines were terrific. They became friend and in 2017 when he was supposed to make his 1st vintage he lost 100 % of his grapes with the frost, so he called them to ask if they knew someone who would have spare grapes to sell him. They told him it was fortunate he called because they just had recovered the uncle's parcels (organic farmed but the grapes were sold before to the Coop) and this made too much volume for them at once, so he bought them grapes. That's how it all started, and as he likes this exercise of vinifying Ardèche grapes he repeated the move, given Manu and Vincent could still sell him grapes.
Very nice color, and I like the mouth which is very close to a white-wine's mouth, that may be the minerality of the basalt, I don't know. The Merlot had very little color this year (2018) in Ardèche compared to 2017, that's because of heavy downpours in august, and on the cellar side he doesn't extract, he favors infusion with 3-week macerations in the form of a semi carbo with alternate layers of destemmed and whole-clustered grapes, virtually whithout remontage. 12,4 % alc. easy drinking. Unfiltered, no added SO2, he says he likes easy-drinking, digestible wines.
Jean-Guillaume says that Pascal helped him from the start (and new vignerons in the area praise him also for his supportive help), generous with his time and advice when people ask for it, and Jean-Guillaume calls him fondly docteur Potaire.
Philippe was also very helpful, he's the other one he calls regularly. Asked about the next harvest, Pascal said that it's been dry for a long time and they're waiting for rain [this visit took place late july and it came in time since then], he expected the picking to begin early september. Millerandage has been an issue this year, and the very high temperature of two heat waves in june and july [that weeks apart funnelled here hot air from the Sahara, then the Iberian Peninsula] are also worrying [see here report on these heatwaves & stationery anticyclones]. Pascal says that it would be interesting to see you they're managing their vineyards in North Africa , as the weather there is routinely hot in summer and they don't seem to have issues of burnt grapes and blocked maturity [as a side note I'll add that Algerian wine for example has been made continuously since the Phoenicians and few people know that by the 1950s, together with Tunisia and Morocco, Algerian wine accounted for nearly two thirds of the wine that was internationally traded].
There are just 300 bottles of this Pet-Nat, and with the dexterity of Pascal it took little time. Exceptionally he didn't don his plastic coat to do the job, and not only for the pictures but also because it was hot outside and there were very few bottles to handle. Pascal brought a custome-made box that helps minimize the splashing when he takes down the crown cap and the sediments burst out. Jean-Guillaume on the table was busy filling the bottles to replace the disgorged volume (with the same wine of course). He says it's fun to do and he'll make one next year. Asked about his sales he says it starts slowly with the only 11 000 bottles he has made yearly, he exports to Quebec (Vin Vrai), also soon to the United States (Phoenix, AZ, Selection Sauvage). In Paris : Cave de Belleville at the limit of the 19th & 20th arrondissements, Les Arlots in the 10th arrondissement, le Rubis near Montorgueil, la Cave des Papilles at Denfert Rochereau, la Cave de L'Insolite and a few other places.
What a luxury to taste a Pet-Nat right in the cellar after disgorgement, the good thing is there's always a bottle that has a piece of sediment that fell in the bottom, a good excuse to down the bottle in the name of tasting. Very nice sparkling indeed, with this gentle sweetness I liked in the earlier versions of Piège à Filles [I had the impression that the Piège à Filles became dryier but Pascal says no, it's still sweet).
Asked how he vinified this pet-nat rosé, Jean-Guillaume says that Pascal guided him well here, it's 100 % Gamay and he made two passes in the vineyard because of the different maturities (the second pass was for the red). For the 1st pass he made a direct press and when it reached 22 or 23 grams of sugar he bottled it with crown caps. The wine makes 11,5 %. The fermentation kind of stalled in winter, he thought it'd rebound in spring but it didn't and he prefers it this way, he doesn't like that much the rosé pet-nats when they're bone dry. There's wasn't a lab test to tell how much sugar is left but Pascal says it may not be that much, he says there's a nice balance between the acidity and the sweetness which makes it an enjoyable drink in the summer in the shade. He noticed himself that gamay sparklings lose their aromatics when they're dry and a light sweetness preserves this side.
Jean-Guillaume grabbed a few bottles and brought them outside in front of the farm under the large tree so that we could taste them. Real a cool place to live, I love the fact it's not paved, and the weeds add to the relax feel.
__ San Jose, Vin de France 2018, the 2nd vintage of his wine farm and the first year he makes a rosé (from Gamay if I'm right). Usually he doesn't like too much the rosé and here he wanted to make a gastronomy wine that goes with eating. Nice substance indeed, I understand his motive here. He says he uses the same grapes than for the reds, it's not a saignée rosé but rather a direct-press rosé. the fermentation unfolded very swiftly, the only thing he regrets is that he would have liked to block the malolactic (even if it's going against nature) because the fruit was nicer before it. But this said he still likes it a lot like that, and it pairs very well with a south east asia dish. the serving temperature is not cold enough but I still likes a lot this way. SO2 here is 2 grams/hectoliter at blending because the 24-hour test in the glass was so-so. On the other hand it is unfiltered. Pro price is 6,8 € without tax.
The labels of Jean-Guillaume are designed by Marine Luszpinski who happens to be friend of Luz (Luz was a caricaturist at Charlie Hebdo, he survived the terrorist attack because he was late for the editors' briefing that fateful morning of january 2015).
__ Côt Boy, Vin de France 2018, 100 % Côt, first vintage he makes this cuvée. Semi-carbo vinfication, the volume was plentiful this year, he picked at maturity but with grapes that had very little potential alcohol, like 10,5 %, which for him is an ideal scenario, you have the fruit, a nice fatness in the mouth, chew and freshness. Very enjoyable Côt indeed, don't miss that, it's fresh, delicious. It was vinified as said aboce with alternate layers of destemmed and whole-clustered grapes, in the wooden tronconic vat, in a way that the grapes weren't too much choked or crushed by their own weight. No real remontage, just a bit of juice poured on the cap to rehumidify it. The maceration lasted 3 weeks, and he prefers to call it an infusion. 10,8 % alcohol, goes down so wel...
He says he had this type of cuvée and vinification in mind for a while, this is not the type of cuvée he witnessed at Philippe Tessier. Pro price (without tax) is 7,5 €. He'll sell it 12 € tax included for the visitors at Bulles au Centre.
__ Paw Paw, Vin de France 2018, made from 50 % Grenache & Merlot sourced at Les Deux Terres in Ardèche. THe Merlot grapes are planted in the plain on sandy soil which makes them light and fresh. The Grenache are on a basalt terroir on a higher altitude. As said above Jean-Guillaume began to buy them grapes when all his own grapes froze in 2017 and he is thankful for their help, especially that they again sold him grapes in 2018 when they might have used them themselves (they had frlowering issues and hail in 2018). He buys them 8 tons of grapes or enough to make 5000 bottles. Visually I like the color and appearance of this wine, it is unfiltered and when you sip it you have the impression to feel and enjoy the whole wine with its life, not a sanitized version of it. He's happy with this wine because it's really the wine he wanted to make for this cuvée, he says that's not always the case, the wine taking its own way sometimes. Pro price : 8,5 € without tax.
Speaking about the wines and winemakers he admires, the first name that comes out is Pfifferling of L'Anglore, he says it's a wine from the south but they're drinkable and don't knock you out with high alcohol.
__ Alfredo Garcia, single-variety red. Couldn't guess which, it was 100 % Syrah, he picked it at Les deux Terres, it was full maturity but just in time so that alcohol didn"t hike, this wine makes only 12 % alcohol. More substance, fit for autumn and winter, to eat with. 8 hectoliters. Vinification : one vat was 100 % destemmed with remontages and a bit of extraction and another vat in semi-carbo to keep the fruity side, his idea was to have a part vinfied in a classic Syrah way, and another with a more Beaujolais style, blending the two allowing to have both the substance and the freshness. He put it in barrels after the fermentation was complete, with 8 month élevage (bottled in june). First year he makes Syrah, same grapes than the ones Les Deux Terres sell to Matthieu Barret. 10 € without tax. Unfiltered, zero sulfites here. Speaking of the farming of course it's organic and he does some biodynamic things on the vineyard with herb tea and the likes but he aknowledges that he can do more, he took part a couple of times to the biodynamic group with Bruno Allion (like the gathering on this story).
__ L'Eté Indien, Vin de France 2018, made from his Pinot Noir planted here in 2011 (30 ares) blended with 80-year-old Grenache (20 ares - yield : 2 hectoliters/hectare) sourced from Les Deux Terres in Ardèche. 2nd year he makes this. Jean-Guillaume says he loves to cook, he's the cook at home and he likes to see what goes with which wine. His girlfriend is half Indian [from India] half Breton [from Brittany] and they also cook Indian food (they also travel often to India) and this wine pairs beautifully for example with a dish from Kerala. This cuvée is his darling, his petite cuvée he says fondly, it's a bit expensive compared to the others. He destemmed 3/4 of the Pinot because oddly (possibly because of hydric stress) the stems were'nt ripe in spite of the 14 % potential. The Grenache on the other hand were fully ripe including for the stems and he vinified them whole clustered. Tastes pretty good already (was bottled a month before). He made only two 300-liter barrels of this. This is an usual blend and he decided to make it because in 2017 he had little volume of each variety then, he kept repeating the experience because the result was so nice. Very nice red with a gentle mouth touch ! __ L'Eté Indien, Vin de France 2017, 80 % Grenache, 20 % Pinot Noir. Had lots of mildew losses that year on the Pinot. He still has 300 bottles of this vintage. the color is a bit darker here, normal with the Grenache. The two were vinified whole clustered and he added 2 grams here because he felt it was a bit fragile. Very different wine indeed, more powerful, good length in the mouth.
__ Sauvignon 2018 (still in barrel & stainless steel) which took time to ferment he says, the fermentations of the whites were sluggish this year everywhere around, and this one stalled at the end of october. Grapes sourced from Mikaël Bouges not far from here, it's a nice 60-year-old parcel. Nice anise aromas, almost Pastis like, with a vibrant acidity. Absolutely remote to the mainstream Sauvignon, i love that. He says there remained 2 grams or something like that in the wine when we tasted it. Should be bottled soon and on the market next spring (made the equivalent of 1000 bottles of this. I'm the first to taste this Sauvignon and I feel honored, good job, super good.
I saw Jean-Guillaume again at Bulles au Centre, the Pet-Nat wine fair that took place this year in Faverolles-sur-Cher at Les Capriades' & Mikaël Bouges' places (this is the one and only Pet-Nat fair in the world !!!) and I tasted his sparkling again, he was selling it for 12 € tax included there. Alongside was his son who came here from Quebec for the holidays. This is the first time he takes part to this wine fair as this is his first Pet-Nat, 100 % gamay, lovely with this nice sweet wrapping !
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