Monthou-sur-Bièvre, Loire
Jérémie Choquet and his wife has been starting their winery last year, I met them at Christian Venier's Open Doors (a yearly event I strongly recommend for everything), actually I just met him because she was breatfeeding her baby when I had come to their table to taste the wines. I'm always excited when i taste the wines of a new player in the natural wine scene and it's very encouraging to see that more people are showing up, resulting in more wines made available for our thirsty crowd...
Stéphane had first worked in 2009
for Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme when PO bought back the shares of Thierry Puzelat for the négoce and then he worked for Pascal Pibaleau in Azay-le-Rideau. As Pascal needed someone to prune in winter he had him enlisted in the viticulture school in Chinon , after which he worked for this Domaine Pascal Pibaleau alrernatively in the vineyard and in the cellar.
At the time Jérémie was looking for an agriculture job but not exclusively in viticulture and at that time he jumped on an opportunity to work with his wife as manager of a large hunting property in Sologne with an opportunity to develop agriculture activities. It was a bit different but he had free reins and he worked there from 2010 to 2014, when family dissensions among the owners terminated his job. Jérémie then tried to get a training for tree pruning (which he had aborted 10 years before because of a knee accident) in order to set up a business where he'd have time to devote time for his baby girl, but he had a knee ligament problem again, as if a sign that this career was not recommended. That's when he found employment again at POB, bouncing back unexpectedly to the vigneron's life. He worked there a year or two on and off and around that time he began to find a few parcels to work for himself and try his hand.
pic on left : the magnificent Chateau in the neighboring village of Fougères-sur-Bièvre
One of his first opportunity to get parcels to take care of himself was when the grower at La Gaudronnière near Cellettes passed away unexpectedly; a son-in-law in the family could follow up the farm but he needed beforehand to get trained at the viticulture school, so Stéphane was given an arrangement to maintain the vineyard, being paid and in addition given part of the fruit. in agreement with the owners
he converted the vineyard organic, he wouldn't anyway have accepted to spray herbicides or other stuff, it's a belief he has had for a very long time, since he was a child actually, when he was already part of a nature club. He's still working there (it's the 4th year now) and the vineyard is fully certified, except that he can't use the label for the grapes he receives there, that's because the rent is not a long-term fermage but a lesser-known commodat (also known as prêt à usage gratuit or free use loan) under which the conditions are more restrictive and have to be renegociated every year (here are more infos about the commodat). Because of the uncertainty of this parcel loan he prefers not take the certification, and anyway in general he feels he doesn't need it, he knows how he works, people who know him also know his work ethics and there's no need to pay a third party to give him this seal of approval.
Jérémie needed then a place to vinify and he ended up finding a facility to rent, this longère (or at least part of it), a longère a traditional long one-level farm like you often find in this region (most of these farm types have been built between, say, 1850 and 1915), with the living quarters and the farm buildings in the same line; this farm is conveniently just next door to POB's own warehouse/facility. POB had heard about this old farm building that was available for rent and as it was too big for himself (he just needed a place to park his tractors and tools) he shared it with Jérémie who needed a place to live in addition to a chai and a cellar.
It's too bad that Blandine (his wife, pictured on left in this chai) wasn't there that day because she plays an important fart in the winery : while Jérémie feels comfortable with the viticulture
work (which is perfectly in line with his initial quest for a career in agriculture), Blandine is the one who is at the wheel in the cellar,
she is a trained enologist
and likes the vinification part, and she also does all the administrative work, in addition
to taking care of their baby. When she was studying at the enology school she
did her training at Thierry Puzelat, having worked also in the beginning with Olivier Lemasson. Just before they started the winery she worked part of the harvest at Remi Dufaitre and made a trip to Georgia during the harvest to see how they vinify there. She had also a few other experiences here and there like at Isabelle Frêre in the Languedoc or Jeremy Quastana near here. Stéphane says he himself helped POB vinify now and then (most of his work being in the vineyard) but Blandine has a more lengthy experience in addition to her formal training in the school.
The chai here is a former grain storage building and you can see here and there amenities typical of this type of business. Jérémie adapted it a bit for a clean vinification purpose, it remains simple but efficient, with the raised level that was designed for keeping the rodents at bay allowing the work by gravity. They didn't get the whole surface at once, they got this part in july 2018, it had to be cleared first from all the stuff and garbage sitting there for years. The first vinification took place here in september 2018 with just a few weeks to finetune the place.
In a matter of weeks they had to find the basic tools for the vinification and the good thing in France is that you have just to look around a bit, there's no shortage of tanks, fermenters which sit idle etheir because of retirement or because they've been replaced by more modern ones. Be it for vineyard machinery or winery tools, it's all there waiting for you
at all kind of prices. So here it's all second-hand stuff found here and there, also sometimes from soon-to-retire growers. The nice metal tank here comes from the Capriades for which Blandine had been
working for a wine fair, they knew Blandine & stéphane were looking for tools to start their winery and they gave her this one which they didn't use anymore. Jérémie has yet to finish renovating it, especially that Blandine found a parcel of Sauvignon and they're going to have a lot of juice to stock.
Speaking of the barrels (pictured on left), the 5 on the bottom are originally from Burgundy and were given to them by Olivier Lemasson (who is not far from here) and the others come from Bordeaux, from Chateau Chasse-Spleen, they're from 2014 and had 3 wines on 18 months. They were a bit wary these barrels would be oaky on the wines but they're fine after a first experience. At the time of this visit the barrels were empty except for a bit of lees, with a sulfur wick every month to keep them safe.
Speaking of the surface they work on 5 hectares together (2,5 he each), but these parcels have quite a few missing vines and the real surface in terms of production is smaller. They've chosen the administrative status of Cotisant Solidaire which is fit for debuting growers with small surface and little financial backing. The taxes and compulsory social insurances are punitively high for farm businesses, and small farms often choose this status which goes with reduced taxes & social security charges if you stay in the limit of the annual turnover ceiling. Considering that the rent contract is short-term and not really stable, Jérémie and Blandine also keep their eyes open to any opportunity that could come their way if they have to replace their surface. In the long term they're envisioning working on 6 or 7 hectares together maybe, but not more, Jérémie says he want to farm correctly and also keep time on the side for other things including family life.
Here on the picture, Jérémie's Renault 60, a tractor made in 1972 which is doing a very good job, he started it in front of me, such a beautiful noise. Seems in good condition with several parts on the engine which look new, recently changed (by the former owner). This is a narrow tracteur vigneron with a minimum width of 110 centimeters, but it can be widened to 1,8 meter for a better stability when the inter-row width allows it. He also bought a mulcher (gyrobroyeur) tool to Hervé Villemade to put behind this tractor. He bought this tractor for the parcel of Sauvignon recently acquired by Blandine, for his parcels of reds near Cellettes he uses the owners' tractors. Her parcel is located near Monthou-sur-Bièvre and the width between the rows is only 1,4 meter. She'll vinify this Sauvignon under her own name, the reason is they have to keep their production separate because of the 2,5-hectare surface limit for each of them under their administrative status.
This year it's been very dry and Jérémie had much less to do for the weed control [even along the winter and spring it's been unusually dry in this region with the rive levels abnormally low]. This said there are still flowers here and there and he saw insect activity with bees and other pollinators. He says it's good to keep the vineyard with some weeds and flowers, not get rid of everything because it's good for these insects, he feels that also through his father who is retired and keeps 30 hives, it's important to keep the global perspective all the time. The soil in this parcel is very sandy, this is typical in the Sologne region. This is a 7-row parcel with a 40-are surface and aged 45 more or less.
There was a big frost on may 6 this year but new buds grew after that and when you look at the vines they have quite a nice load of bunches. We stopped here on the Pinot Noir parcels at la Gaudronnière (the parcels he's been taking care of after the death of the grower). Also planted some 40 years ago,
and they grew new buds and bunches after the frost also, Jérémie says that they
might get as much grapes as last year. There's a light slope and there's a small river (the Beuvron) flowing after the houses in the far, which doesn't help for the frost. Jérémie says he unwittingly limited the losses because he was late to bend and tie the canes. when he heard about a possible frost a week later, he saw Olivier Lemasson who told him to put the bending on hold if he hadn't finished. The reason is when the cane stands high above, it has more chance to evade the frost that usually strikes closer to the ground, plus the wires to which they'll get tied conduct the frost. Another thing that helps is to keep two canes whole and unpruned on each side without taking out anything, and once the frost risk is behind you prune, keep the eyes you want and get rid of the rest. The frost usually begin by burning the extremities, so after the damage you can prune so that you cut out the frozen and keep what's still alive. The down thing is you have to do the job
We passed also a few rows of Romorantin, it's not alas a parcel he gets the fruit of (he only manages part of the domaine), but who knows, one day maybe, depends of what the heirs decide. The vines seemed to have a nice load of grapes also. No need to say this is Romorantin country of course, and this white is one of the gems of the Loire with a total planted surface which is still quite low overall. And this parcel had only two passes this year, he wasn't supposed to do it but he had extra spray mix and passed a couple times, so virtually no spraying, and the owners didn't keep the weeds in check but it still has a nice volume hanging, so it's a good omen if one day he had the possibility to work it fully.
Here these are the parcels of
Gamay, the vines are a bit older, around 60, very nices vines with quite a few missing ones. The rows along the woods feel the concurrence, they struggle more he says. Also there's the issue of the roe deers and wild boars who plunder the grapes as there's no fence around the parcels. If he had his say and a long-term rent there would certainly be a way to fence the block and limit the loss with the wild animmals. By the way Jérémie is a hunter occasionally, and he does bow hunting.
We visited two parcels of Côt, first the one he farms for La Gaudronnière and then the one (pictured here) he got through Hervé Villemade, with a more
comfortable 9-year rent contract though which he can long term and invest. 40 ares along 15 short rows, vines aged 40, and oddly they were planted by the same people than the parcels of La Gaudronnière. No frost damage here this year, nice frui load. This year he pased 5 times (copper & sulfur) to spray and maybe retrospectively he could have done less, but it always hard to know in advance.
In the early season he also makes a herb tea spray with comfrey, ferns, horsetail, manure and nettle which he blends to the Bordeaux mix, liker 20 liters of tea in a 400 liter tank, it's very diluted but he's convinced it brings good things to the plants. This year he had Cédric Bernard come here with his horse to plow under the vines because he had no tool for that. The parcel is surrounded by woods and a hay field (on which maybe he could replant vines, who knows), so it's pretty clean. the soil is also very sandy here.
Speaking of the wines, Jérémie and Blandine at first wanted to label a cuvée of red as Cheverny but their declaration at the administration was based on the Gamay/Pinot-Noir ratio on the parcels rather than in volume of juice and the result was a 10 %
difference from the authorized ratio. For just this rather minor error (it was the 1st time they had to go through these administrative paperwork and narrow appellation requirements) they had the Appellation refused and as a result they'll not try anymore to apply through the appellation system, it cost money, time and sample controls and at the end you get a refusal at the slightest mistake.
He and Blandine will thus now on remain in the table-wine status (Vin de France) where they're free to do as they please, blend or not blend, and at the beginning they'll experiment what a given parcel can express by itself and blend if they feel like it. They vinified the 3 red varieties the same way for this 1st vintage, through a whole-clustered carbonic maceration from 7 to 10 days depending of the grapes and batches; the Côt was 7 days to avoid an excessive extraction, especially as part of the stems weren't fully ripe, Blandine didn't want to veer on the tannic side. They liked the wines this way and will see for a blend later when they'll have more bottles and volume also.
__ Sansonnet, Gamay Vin de France 2018. 11,5 %, a bit cloudy, warmful, very enjoyable, will be more open in a year or two, it's maybe a bit early to have it. 1500 bopttles. 8 € tax included. The fermentations took place in the fiber tanks (the whites and the others on the pictures) and after that the wine had an élevage in barrels, 6 months in average, with racking a week before their baby girl was born (Noël who works at Thierry Puzelat came here to help him) and bottling a week after, with the help of Ludovic. Right now he has a small basket press but he's just bough second-hand a 22-hectoliter Vaslin (non-pneumatic) which he was to bring back here later that day. You still find such cheap Vaslin presses (he paid 1000 €) but he says they're getting rarer especially that some winemakers choose to stop using pneumatic presses and work with these old ones instead because they like the press style.
Speaking of presses he says that on the other hand when they travelled to Georgia they were stunned to see how they work there, no press (just the feet), no lab analysis and the wine goes fine, that helps put into question even the moderate use of tools they and others make here in France, they realize they could even work with less machinery, tests and still make nice wines. Speaking of the Pinot Noir he's opening, Jérémie says that he likes working on these parcels in Cellettes, the rows are planted 2,8 meter apart and the vines are high enough to work comfortably.
__ Pic Noir, Pinot Noir (variety not printed on the label), Vin de France 2018. also 11,5 % alcohol. Nice ampleness, lightness and generous feel with an enjoyable tannic chew. 10-day carbonic maceration (like the Gamay) after which they devatted & pressed, blended the two juices with racking into the tanks, and when there was only 1 or 2 grams of residual sugar they filled the barrels with topping up every week. Unfiltered. 1,5 gram SO2 added here at bottling. He knows he could have tried add no sulfites at all but for their first vintage he preferred to be careful. 12 € tax included. Already they're happy the fermentation went well on the indigenous yeast in spite of the fact this chai never had a vinification before (no yeast ambiance). 1800 bottles (they lost some volume with the frost). Labels made by himself and layout by Blandine.
__ The Last Cow, Côt, Vin de France 2018, the name is a play on words with Lascaux (Lascaux cave) in south-western France where you have these paintings of wild animals dating from around 17 000 years. I like this wine, it is vivid and again a beautiful chew in the mouth with fine tannins. And amazingly this low alcohol, 11 % only, makes for a very enjoyable wine. Jérémy says that the fact they suffured from the frost delayed the grape maturity for 15 days minimum, plus the fact that they harvested only on weekends resulted in picking a bit early, which explains the character of this wine, compared to what many people made around resulting in more powerful reds. 2800 bottles. Retail price : 10 € tax included.
Having arrived in the area 20 minutes early for this visit, I rode my motorbike a kilometer away to the village of Les Montils just to see if there was some activity at Thierry Puzelat's Clos du Tue Boeuf and as i had stopped briefly in the village to take a picture of this poster about a Concours de Pétanque I spotted Jean-Marie who was just exiting his house in the background. I had always noticed this nice house but ignored he lived there, beautiful piece of history...
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