This small tasting event with outstanding winemakers took place in Babass' vat room. There are quite a few of these smaller tastings around Angers at this time of the year and this is a very good idea as it allows the winemakers
to set up a more intimate event without the administrative hurdle of the more established tastings (even if these were originally also established as a cooler alternative
to the Salon des vins d'Angers). The bright side of these small events is also that there are fewer people [well, it does looked crowded, i know...] because you'll need a car to go in these far flung villages, the event usually taking place in the vatroom or cellar of a vigneron which implies no cost for the winemakers.
We can dream of such micro tastings multiplicating ad infinitum in the shadow of the major Salon d'Angers with every year another unexplored wonder somewhere in a village where people in the know will be invited to. I missed already such a tasting late january (i was tipped about it by Absentee's Avi) because I wasn't in Angers then and wouldn't probably have found a driver to go anyway, it was organized by Baptiste Cousin and the other participants were Jean Marie Brousset (Anjou), Hervé Bossé (Anjou), Hervé Cormier (Anjou), Titou Picard (Corbières), Ai Deixtler (Californie), Morgane, Arnaud & Etienne Thiebaud (Jura), must have been an exciting thing with these vignerons. The problem with these tasting events that pop up in the region is the distance from downtown Angers where most visitors arrived by train and that's when you feel lucky when you find someone who has room in his car to drive you there : Aaron found us a good angel in the person of Michaël Lemasle, no less than the caviste at Crus et Découvertes.
Babass (Sébastien Dervieux) of Les Vignes de Babass who thus enjoyed the luxury to have his tasting table sitting in his own chai had 3 cuvées to taste, the others not being ready yet, the chosen cuvées were more bubblies this time, with if possible 2 years of élevage :
__ Brutal Babass, a white Pet-nat made with 2 vintages of Chenin, 2016 & 2017. Wheat color, turbid. Nice bubbly with acidulous mouth feel.
__ La Navine 2018, Chenin from the same parcel, dry but with 5 grams of residual sugar. Lightly turbid. Generous mouthfeel with fruity touch.
__ Groll n'Roll 2019, made with Grolleau of course, bottled december 26. Sharpness in the mouth, ça décoiffe like we say in France. I feel will be very nice this spring after a few more months. But beautiful chew already. As a reminder there's no added so2 at all here with Babass. He says he does degassing before the fermentations and also a racking 2 days before bottling, both helping when eschewing any so2.
Here is another reader I met (we crossed path at last Brumaire as well) : Brian Simon is from L.A. and he's a musician who loves wine, and wines I love too actually, listen to his piece Aunis ! If I remember he works for Kensho, a restaurant with a nice natural wine list. After listening at a couple of his pieces on his website and looking at the picture I found he's looking much like a young Brian Eno...
When I walked in the vatroom and had a glimpse of several of the winemakers there I knew Babass had indeed gathered quite a hot list of sought-after vignerons many would have scrambled to be part of this... My next table was Philippe Jambon :
__ Une Tranche de Paradis 2016, vat sample. This is a Chenas, even though of course
bottled as Vin de France. Temperature of the wine is a bit low, warms the glass in my hands. The wine feels still a bit young, will need to breath a little.
__ Une Tranche made in Chenas 2016, a wine by Louis Damien Bouchacourt from several parcels. Mouth : Oh yes, this coats so well the palate, flows down easy. Light sweetness feel, very enjoyable !
__ Une Tranche made in Chenas 2017, also by Louis Damien, whose domaine by the way is located in La Chapelle de Guinchay, the home village of Jules Chauvet. The turbid, lightly milky color sends me the right signal. Philippe says it was a hot year like 2018/2019. Mouth : super mouth feel, onctuous with chalky tannins, delicious ! About 13 € public price, great value indeed !
__ Aux Amis d'une Tranche Charmeuse, grapes from Benoit Camus (Beaujolais), Denis Tardieu (Vaucluse) and Jean-Luc Gauthier (Beaujolais). Very nice with aromas like coffee, moka, superb ! 12 € public price, super deal !
__ Une Tranche Sudiste, a blend of Grenache and Syrah (from Denis Tardieu). Tannic chew, more astringency here, but that's fine after the surprise. And I think that if you just wait a year or two this will be great.
When B. and I visited Casot des Mailloles a long time ago at the beginning of this blog, Alain Castex was working on windy micro terraces above Banyuls with Ghislaine Magnier (if I remember she was tilling there herself), but since they divorced and he didn't keep these parcels (now managed by Jordi Perez) but he kept working on the others in the valley and the name of his new domaine is named Les Vins du Cabanon (located 40 km inland from Banyuls), a cabanon or shack in English being another
name for casot. He says with a grin that his facility is like a cabanon, totally uninsulated.
__ Tir à Blanc [means blank shooting] 2019, a white blend, majority of Macabeu with also Grenache blanc, Bourboulenc, Clairette & Muscat d'Alexandrie. Aromatic and fresh with some subtle anise aroma that comes on the tongue, very exciting wine. Vines on the slopes at the edge of the Canigou range.
__ Canta Mañana 2019, Rosé made with many varieties, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Grenache Noir, Macabeu, Syrah, Mourvèdre (some vines are 100 years old) near the village of Trouillas. Unfined, unfiltered, no added sulfites anytime. What a feast of a rosé ! That's good, if you don't like usually rosé, try this, there's nothing in common with we usually call a rosé !! Costs between 19 & 21 € public price, wasn't sure.
__ Ezo 2019, a Vin de France like all these cuvées. Made with Merlot & Syrah, 100-year old vines on Trouillas. No so2, unfiltered like the others. Superb chew in the mouth, astringent but you'll love this astringency, believe me. Short élevage in old foudre. Bottled last november.
__ La Poudre d'Escampette 2019, vat sample. Same large blend than the rosé with also some Carignan. Wow, so feminine and delicate, subtle ! Don't miss this one either when it will be bottled. He made 20 hectoliters of this.
Here again, great wine people I met on this salon far away from Angers : On the left is Trevor Kellog who is the manager & buyer
at Discovery Wines in New Yortk since 2015, and Camille Rivière on the right whose name I often heard while visiting artisan vigneroins, she is also based in New York (Brooklyn) and has a pretty nice portfolio to distribute throughout the U.S. She is also a fervent reader, i am very proud !
Here on the left Camille and Benoit compared their flamboyant hair, very close style indeed (I'd have trouble to compete). I didn't taste the wines of Benoit Courault this time alas, even with a very intimate number of vignerons I managed to miss a few...
Here is Romain des Grottes who makes wine in the Beaujolais since 2002 when he started from family parcel. To know more about Romain you must read Aaron's report on him, Aaron was the one who made me discover him. He began as early as 2005 to work without any sulfur, filtration and even
élevage, he has his own ways and it works.
Truc de Buve 2018 (play or words with brut de cuve which means vat sample).
Carbonic maceration. Color : turbid, almost evolved or tile. Exciting tickling at the tip of the tongue, this feels like the liquid food category if you know what I mean and share this taste for suave wines yoy could down by yourself. 8 € (don't remember if public or pro), 3500 bottles of this.
__ P (IK) ETNAT rosé 2019, a piquette ! He did an initial light press so that there remained enough juice in the partly-pressed berries, and this way unlique the
piquettes people used to make until well into the 20th century, he didn't have to add sugar, just water. This is piquette nature (he should register the name, I think) ! It does pique the tongue (stings the tongue) a bit, tastes like a real candy, very funny (pic on the glass on lower right). 1000 bottles of this, makes about 5 % alcohol, we should make tons of this ! In spite of the very innocent nature of this piquette, he had trouble with the Douanes (wine police) for this cuvée.
__ L'Antidote, a pet-nat. Nose smells like honey. Actually a drink without alcohol, it's a blend of herb tea. It's the 4th year he makes this, designed for children in families who lie wine, or for those who for some reasons don't drink alcohol. There's no so2 but this beverage is pasteurized. In the mouth it's really candy style and I feel it's very good to educate children in the philosophy of healthy, real drinks and paving the way for their future real wines. 5,3 € pro.
__ August XIX, Gamay. Super exciting turbid color, almost a rosé. Man, that's pretty wild after the previous "wine", I love it ! 10 % alcohol !! Just delicious, to drink all night (but bring a magnum instead). 8 € pro.
__ Chard-Honey, a 11 % alcohol beverage made with honey, color happens to remind the one of honey. In spite of 11 % it feels almost alcohol free.
And Patrick Bouju who has become a reference in Auvergne was there as well, a treat to taste his wines. Patrick is also an easy-going guy, not taking himself too seriously. I wish I can visit Auvergne again, very exciting wines are made in this far-flung corner of the Loire. Vinified in different types of vessels including amphora.
__ Livia 2018, a white from Samos (Greece) made from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, planted at 300m elevation. Négoce wine from what I understand. Unfines, unfiltered, no added sulfites. Exquisite wine !
__ Octave 2018, a white from Samos, same variety. Vinified in cement and oak, samely without any additives nor filtration. Turbid. Intensity in the mouth, an exhilarating wine, living wine !
__ Brouilly 2018 (not sure it's the actual name of the cuvée), purchased gamay grapes from Brouilly. Lovely wine, a bit tight though right now but I'm confident you open that in a year and it will be great (these living wines really move and breath, taste me that again in a year or two). Very promising at this stage.
__ Pinot Noir from Saint-Pourçain. Wow, delicious with acidulous notes. Really love this one, so good ! Proof you can make terrific wines in Saint-Pourçain.
At one point I saw Julie Balagny walking in my direction in the middle of the
room while chatting with the caviste of Crus et Découvertes and I thought this was really a dream team that Babass had gathered here. She told me that she was supposed to bring three different cuvées to taste but messed up when rushing to prepare her cases and ended up with having all of the same cuvée__ but not any cuvée : her legendary En Rémont....
__En Rémont 2018, from the namesake parcel which you can see in this story (picture on top) made during my first visit. B. and I loved the label of this cuvée, but it seems it changed. Mmmmm, delicious wine, fresh and alive if certainly at the beginning of its life. Let it open its wings in a few months. Julie says that the volumes in 2019 were OK, it was hot like elsewhere but they had rain in august. And the vinification are going well.
I also spoke briefly to Chris Terrell of Terrell Wines who imports these wonderful Georgian natural wine to the United States. A few days before Chris had hosted a few Georgian winemakers for a small tasting and feast at Patrick Desplats' place and invited me to come, but I wasn't in Angers yet, another terrific event I missed (I need to come here with a camper and sleep inside !).
As I was leaving I was approached by Shaunt Oungoulian who somehow recognized me, Shaunt is part of the Living Wines Collective, a small group of vintners focused on natural winemaking. I first heard about this group when visiting Martha Stoumen a couple years ago as she started to make wines in California with this group when she came back from overseas. Shaunt worked at the collective with Les Lunes and Populis after spending time in France with Philippe Valette and Julie Balagny (I guess training there respectively for the whites and for the reds). Great job, Shaunt and thank you for chatting a few minutes !
That is not just an "associate" that is the legend CLOVIS!
Shoutout Quentin & Ordinaire also
Posted by: Who Killed Tupac | October 13, 2020 at 02:10 AM