Thésée, Touraine (Loire)
The publishing of this story was delayed due to the tragic events that touches us all around the world (I was holed up in a place without adequate computer, software and Internet connection), this visit was made early march. Having only the phone with a sketchy Internet signal made it very uneasy to write the story.
You certainly remember Bruno Allion,
the vigneron in Thésée in the Cher valley, he retired a couple years ago and while half of his vineyards
were purchased by new transplants from Canada (Anouk & Paul-André), the other half was taken over by a Dutch couple (Domaine de la Taupe) who was also eager to
continue along his natural winemaking & biodynamic philosophy. Bertjan began with importing natural wine in Amsterdam in 2003 (his company was Klare Wijn and there were only two other natural-wine importers in the country then); at the time natural-wine producers were not many and he imported other wines as well that were just organic or biodynamic. On the side he was also a journalist for a Dutch financial newspaper (Het Financieele Dagblad). Beginning in 2005 he began now and then to go work and train at different wine farms, the first for example was Gilles Bonnefoy who farmed biodynamic in Auvergne. In 2014 & 2015 he worked at Paul Gillet's Les Maisons Brûlées, doing pruning, cellar work and harvest, and by that time he had decided that he'd like to live this vigneron life with his wife and he asked a few winemakers he knew in France and Spain (Lorenzo Valenzuela) if they heard about available parcels. He asked Bruno as well and they met in the summer of 2016, and he told them about his plans to retire and find successors. They could later make a deal with half of his surface, that is about 6,5 hectares. They harvested together in 2017 on Bruno's whole surface to finetune their skills and bought part of Bruno's bottled wine from 2016 & 2017. In the following years they were by their own but Bruno was still around for advice and help in case of need, and Bertjan also kept exchanging with a lot of other winemakers he came to befriend through his import business, from Alsace to the south of France.
Today Bertjan still manages this import business (with an associate), now renamed Bruutwijn, bringing to Holland the wines of 25 producers, mostly French except for a German and also a Belgian, Servaas Blockeel of Wijngaard Lijsternest, who makes interesting wines from hybrids that don't don't need any spraying. Plus his viticulture style is very interesting as well. This Belgian vigneron has his own work style including for the viticulture which was very interesting for Bertjan to see; here in Thésée Bertjan keeps working along Bruno's method but he may change some things because for example he doesn't like too much the décavaillonnage (plowing along the vines). They didn't learn the job in an agriculture school but took advice from the vigneron they worked with, beginning with Bruno. Recently they spent time with 4 or 5 vignerons and looked at the way they farm, there are some differences and they'll take some ideas and inspiration from what they saw with more like a permaculture approach. This plowing disturbs the soil life in the upper layer in addition to touching the vine (sometimes roughly) each time and as some growers manage to make without and have nice results, they'll try as well. He'll try to instead cut the grass and leave the soil untouched.
Otherwise Bertjan and Nicole keep practicing the biodynamic procedures and Bruno (who lives next door from this cellar) gives a hand for example during the collective workshops held a couple times a year on the grassy lot just near the cellar (the linked story was for the Prep 500) along with Michel Augé, the former owner of Les Granges Brûlées, and also the younger generation who has since acquired a good experience and can train newcomers. Nicole says that this year there was a television team that came to film shootage and do some interview. Some of the attending growers come sometimes from quite a distance, most grow vines but there are also a few market gardeners among them.
The picture above shows the place near the cellar where the earth-cosmic nexus that are these buried manure horns lie, half meter deep. This was the same area that was used when I made my story a few years ago.
This chai which stands in front of the limestone cliff and opening of the cellar galleries was in the past some kind of repair workshop for Bruno's tractors, other tools and machinery were stored there too. Bruno had enough room for himself at the time (remember that Anouk & Paul-André took also part of the cellar and the detached chai as well) not to use this large room for wine, plus he didn't vinify all of his surface, selling grapes for half if I remember. They cleaned the slab to get it rid from the oils stains and had built the gutters and drains in the cement to evacuate the rinsing water, something they need because they put the press there at harvest time. tHe thin (plastic or metal I don't remember) above is high enough to let air circulate, it's very roomy.
They bought all the tools, the tanks, it was pretty tough to find them all, especially Nicole says that their French was pretty bad (I think they spezak well though, even if with a Dutch accent). They looked through the classifieds of Agriaffaires and Le Bon Coin (all the vignerons I know use these classified sites), travelling in different regions to make the deals... the couple of shiny stainless-steel vats (made by Ruralinox) for example come from around Chinon, they're from 1993 and they bought them from a divorcing vigneron. Nicole says it was not easy to find what they wanted at a correct price. Each of these vats cost 3000 € but when you have many different tanks and tools it adds up fast.
They bought this press from the vigneron near Chinon as well, he was happy to sell the whole in spite of his own personnal problems. It's quite a classic Vaslin from the 70s or 80s but it works fine (the former owner was still using it), the only thing is that with the wood you have to do a lot of hosing and cleaning.
Here are the machines Bertjan uses but he's eying in the future a smaller, lighter tractor like they have in Alsace because it's important that the soil is not compacted. He'll certainly sell the straddle tractor and change for a much smaller, he'll see next year. Speaking of small tractors you can watch again Bruno Allion showing his cute Renault D 22 that dates from the late 50s or early 60s, I love watching it because there's all the philosophy of doing things quietly and with these unpretentious weathered tools, it fits perfectly with Bruno's wine farm and wines... These images were shot right near the cellar but I think he kept this tractor for himself when he partitioned his domaine.
Here is the barrel cellar that starts at the bottom of the chai and runs deep under the hill. They fixed the wiring and lighting, cleaned it up and it was ready. The only thing is it may be very humid, they may dig a vertical duct to the surface on the top of the hill to alleviate the problem. They bought some barrels from Bruno but there weren't enough and they had to buy more and look elsewhere as well. Not all the wine is in oak right now, there's some Cab Franc in stainless steel. Otherwise they have an élevage in barrel for all the whites, the Gamay, the Côt, everything. Last year the volumes were good, they had more whites than they ever had and had to find more vessels, especially that some 2018 stayed longer in barrels.
These old cellars are really a wonder, look at this fermenter/tank carved into the limestone in the middle of the cellar, with the ideal temperature inertia.... They also have a nice cellar in the house where they settled in with their children on the other side of the Cher river in Pouillé. It's located interestingly bust below Noëlla Morantin's parcel of Chez Charles, a beautiful and quiet place in the back of the village. It is an old wine farm but the cellar wouldn't be convenient to work in nowadays, it was built at a time of small surfaces and lots of manual work, no pallet access for example. Still, there are 3 cement vats there and an old press (vertical I guess), they could make something there maybe in the future, but with the low ceiling that would be a small batch.
Here are the labels of the cuvées, last year they made 10 different cuvées, some of the cuvées names existed already under Bruno Allion's time like Surin, a cuvée for which they make a volume of 8000 or 9000 bottles yearly. they make 3 cuvées of Sauvignon. The white/red ration is roughly 50 %, just that for the reds they have several varieties. They'll stop making the rosé so from now on they'll make probably 9 cuvées instead of 10.
To make their wines known they pour them in a few wine fairs like Les Anonymes in Angers (where I met them), in Germany Wein Salon Natürel in Cologne (it was alas cancelled this year at the last minute because of the pandemic), also les Vignerons de L'Irréel in Montpellier, La Goulayance in Paris, the Portes Ouvertes Latour de France in the Roussillon, Vinos Naturales in Barcelona, Spain and les Réunions Tupeuxr'Boire (not Tupperware...) in Dijon. These wine events are small size and these are the type of exciting tasting fairs I like to attend when I can, usually the visitors can both taste and buy wine, it's a good direct-sale thing for the vignerons.
Bertjan and Nicole otherwise export 80 % of their wine (Japan, Ken & Yuki Kobayashi in Hokkaido), USA (Fifi Imports), Canada (Vancouver, Dachi), Denmark (Rosforth & Rosforth), Germany (La Vincaillerie), Australia (Larkin Imports), Belgium (Altro Vino), Holland (his company, Bruutwijn).
The other cellar gallery which is parallel to the barrel cellar is used for the bottle pallets, they cleaned it up also, Bruno didn't use these cellars, he vinified only the equivalent of 3,5 hectares and was selling the other grapes, he didn't need all this room. They put the labels just before shipping because of the humidity and they have to clean them with a towel beforehand.
Well, here is another gem in this cellar : on the side of one of the long cellars there's an opening on what was in the past the press room, and in both senses of the word : It can be used again like in the old times to press the grapes (there's still the vertical screw, should be easy to reassemble the basket parts) or as a conference room, partying room using the custom-made benches that Bruno Allion built around the screw when having a hearty lunch with his pickers... In the background you can see another access to the fermenter carved into the rock (may have been used to settle the gross lees as well).Given the aspect of the cement it must have been used not so many years ago.
We're tasting a first Sauvignon from the barrel (cuvée Surin), it comes from the parcel right near Thésée in Monthou-sur-Cher. They have only Sauvignon for their whites, just different terroirs and parcels, planted from 1966 to 2001. Barrels are a few years old, like 2012 or 2014, 2015. The color is very pure, no turbidity, Bertjan say it's dry here, malolactic finished. I ask about their policy for the whites, do they filter ? He says no, never, whites like reds are unfiltered here, he says he loves nature wines and if the white wine is turbid it's not a problem. Until now they never filtered any wine and never added any sulfites. Thjere's a very enjoyable energy here, I love it. Nice tension, aromas of raisins. Nicole says there may be a bit of residual sugar still, that can be felt in the mouth. Could be. For the energy feel Bertjan says that may be related to the fact that they picked earlier this year (Nicole says they were the first in the area). Bruno told them that they were right in spite of his own trend to pick later. Bertjan says that he'll try to keep picking earlier. They might make 3 bottling of this, one in april, then june and a last one at harvest time. In 2018 this cuvée had much more potential sugar and they had made a first bottling with 2 grams residual sugar, naming this first batch Sol instead of Surin.
Other barrel, the first Sauvignon of this same parcel to be picked, on 7 september 2019. Nose is a bit more acidulous maybe, richer feel in the mouth, powerful but vivid. Elder flower notes. Bertjan says that for him it is very important to have a white with a good acidity. For the reds, a nice structure with a good acidity. In 2019 the summer was sunny and they didn't have to wait longer, otherwise they'd be too ripe, the wine gets heavy, you loose the acidity for no advantage. I ask about the mainstream wineries around, if the block the malolactic to keep artificially the vividness of the wine, I may have known but I forgot. tHey aren't sure either but they tell me an anecdote : they took part to the Saint Vincent event here where every domaine based in Thésée brings its respective wines to celebrate the vignerons' saint's day, and for their part they had brought a very cloudy Surin (Sauvignon) 2018; other vignerons would ask suspiciously, looking at the cloudy white, "what's that ?", they obviously didn't like its aspect, but Nicole says that oddly they'd come back to their table and ask if there was still some and if they could have another pour... The odd thing in spite of this interest is no one asked how they do this or shows any intent of trying make themselves this type of wine. I understand why : their business with formatted, SO2-soaked wine is a well oiled money machine, they sell for less but with bigger volumes to a clientèle that is used to their "product", in their mind there's no incentive to change anything...
Another Sauvignon from a parcel named Paradis, making about 0,5 hectare close to the village of Thésée. Picked at the end of the sauvignon picking, in mid-september, it took 3 days to pick this parcel. Very turbid. Nicole says it's not ready, the malolactic is not over. Not dry as well. Doesn't feel very sweet though. This was early march and Bertjan was confident the wine would go on fermenting when the spring temperature reaches the cellar. Bertjan says that their different cuvées of Sauvignon aren't delimited on parcel lines, it is always a blend of barrels regardless of the parcel origin. All the parcels are vinified separately but the blending will go beyond the parcels. When they make successive bottlings they'll make a test blend each time to check if the wine is what they like. Bruno did that too.
Now we taste a Sauvignon 2019 that was made through a 2-week maceration with skins in a tank, they have 2 barrels of it. the color is quite intense as you can see, but pure, not turbid. On the nose you feel almost like if you could smell the tannin of the skin. Rainsins, dry quince or apricot aromas too. It was the first time they made a maceration of white this long, in 2018 they made a 6-day try. Bertjan thinks this type of wine is very interesting, he tasted many maceration sauvignons from Austria, where it's more common than here, and some of them are really good. He prefers when there's not too much extraction, with wines that don't have this excessive dryness feel in the mouth. Here for this 2019 he thought at first the maceration was too long and he thought to blend it partly but after second thoughts the wine has evolved with the élevage and it's getting back in tracks. Very interesting wine. He thinks he'll make more volume of it in 23020, picking early also for a good acidity level.
Now we taste from a tank a skin maceration Sauvignon 2018 (6-day maceration). It is in a tank because the bottling is coming soon but it had its élevage in barrels before, for around 14 months (it was certainly bottled when this story is published). Very interesting, Bertjan says, richer, and small flower aromas. Because of the shorter maceration, the tannins and astringency are discreet, the wine is refined with a good acidity as well and I feel ripeness also. Bertjan says at this stage there might be a bit of residual sugar. They don't make analysis for residual sugar, they just taste and decide from there, both have a good tasting ability and they discuss a lot when deciding the blends. Paul Gillet and Christophe Foucher also come and taste and take part to the debate, and the other way around they visit them and taste their wines. The only lab analysis they do is for the picking.
This sol 2018 was technically the first bottling of Surin 2018 but because of the residual sugar (even if only 2 grams) they changed the name to Sol 2018. Nice glycerol legs on the glass. Nicole says that she likes more this wine than Bertjan and she knows many women who prefer it to the regular Surin. Bertjan says that he likes it now after the bottle élevage. Tastes good, not really sweet but more like glycerol richness, very enjoyable.
__ Surin 2018 (Sauvignon), from a bottle. This is the 2nd bottling where the longer élevage made it fully dry this time. Nice
color too (see by yourself on the left), a bit turbid also. Very nice mouth and palate touch, you feel it's a whole wine, and even the color and light turbidity transmits this impression, I believe. True wine. Bertjan says also what counts is that they press the grapes tight, till the end, keeping all the juice together. Nicole who oversees the pickers says that they press 200 to 250 boxes (12 kg of grapes each) per day. They share the pickers team with les Maisons Brûlées and there's a good synergy between the two domaines, some staff sleeping here and the others at Paul & Corinne's farm, they take their meals together, work for example in one of the farms in the morning and in the other the afternoon, there's a good harmony and it allows to keep unripe parcels for later without the pickers staying idle. These pickers often come from all continents, including Japan, America, they love the ambiance.
Here is a future pet-nat 2019 made from direct press of Cabernet Franc & Cabernet Sauvignon, very old vines, 85 years old. Very nice color and very exciting aromas. The bottling was to be done the following week, that's why there's this sweet feel in the mouth, but I actually like it this way, it would make a terrific sweet rosé as a still wine (there should be 26 grams at this stage) ! But Bertjan says he likes the dry pet-nats, the wine will referment by itself in the bottles when the spring temperature comes. This is the first year they made a pet-nat, the previous year in 2018 they vinified these grapes in red and they loved it too.
Back to the cellar we taste the Gamay 2019 from the barrel, they put the 100 % destemmed grapes through a 11-day maceration in a fiber vat. They destem by hand using a metal grid on the top of the vat; he says he used a destemmer machine once and it's not good, very violent, it crushes the grapes badly. By handf it's fine and not so long with 4 people moving the bunches gently along the grid. The Gamay tastes super good, I love it. Not really turbid, it's pretty clean visually.
In 2019 they made 8 barrels and the vintage is good in terms of volume, but in early august Bertjan thought they'd loose the fruit because of the heatwave and the drought. They had a parcel of Gamay completely burned, grilled by the sun. But surprisingly they still made good volumes after all. Destemmed grapes also, by hand as well. In 2018 they had used 40 % whole bunches but not in 2019 because the berries were small with little juice and a thicker skin, so the stems would have been too much. Tastes good already with astringency in check even if you understand that a couple years later it will be even better.
Behind the barrels of Côt, look at this other fermenter dug into the depth of the hill. With the cement wall that looks fairly recent I guess it could be used again one day if needed.
I now taste the Cabernet Franc 2019 from the parcel of La Croix, glass poured from the large stainless-steel tank here (I warm up the glass with my hands because it's pretty cold). The Cabernet Sauvignon was vinified as rosé for the pet-nat. Still tickling feel on the tongue, not finished. Aromas of spices, Speculos (the biscuits), very different from 2018, he says. Destemmed by hand with a 7-day maceration, after which it went into this tank (no barrels).
We then tasted the Cabernet Franc 2018 which is bottled since late may 2019, they still had 300 bottles. They had part with whole clusters but short maceration, around 7 days and an élevage in stainless steel. Enjoyable chew but I think another year will make good.
Like the other cuvées there's no added sulfites and the information is on the label. i think they should have put unfiltered wine as well. But Bertjan says that nowadays there are other products to stabilize the wine, some vitamins that some may be tempted to use. We're speaking about the new certification for nature wines that is coming out, Bertjan says that he likes Vins S.A.I.N.S because it is small and the vignerons really added nothing to the wine, there's no compromise, otherwise he doesn't like the certification because exception might happen and so on. I agree.
We speak about the lab analysis and they say the hardest part for them was to work without relying on them : both have been through university and there you learn a mindset of doing things squarely, having analysis and adapting your work thereafter, but with natural wine you have to make without, just by tasting and feeling the wine and that's like working without safety net. It's like the insurance many growers take for everything, frost, this calamity, that other thing, and they got rid of all of them, sparing a lot of money in the way and eschewing even more the use of mental safety nets. Nicole says by the way that the initial name that was registered for their winery (for administration purpose) was "Rien ne va Plus" which is the sentence the croupier in the casino says when he sends the ball rolling. They chose this name, like saying, leave the fate, the spirit do the job, but the administration and banks had a hard time getting it and they changed it since.
This Cuvée Carnix 2018 is a blend of Cabernet Franc (70 %) and Cabernet Sauvignon (30 %). 70 % destemmed. 7-day maceration, short in order to keep the freshness (both varieties vinified together). Bottled september 2019. 15 hectoliters, already on the market. In 2019 they made a sparkling rosé with the Cabernets instead, in spite of the fact he likes the red version, but that was a choice (I guess they don't have enough volume to make both). He had the opportunity to taste pet-nats made with Cabernet Sauvignon and like it very much, that's why he did that in 2019. The two cabernets here come from the same parcel, they ripe together and were planted 85 years ago. Maybe next year he'll revert to making a red with them and will use another variety for the bubbly. Tastes already very good but certainly even more terrific in a year or two. Don't miss it (already now).
We drove to have a look at a couple of parcel, the first one, a parcel of old vines of Sauvignon (planted between 1961 and 2001), was not far from a wind tower for frost protection (a problem in this area). They're also part of the local growers group who collectively bought 9 or 10 such wind towers. It protects about 2 hectares of their own surface (the rest is out of reach of these towers). He didn't plow the plot, first because the ground was too wet to drive a tractor on (the previous months have been rainy), and now (when the visit took place) it was too late, so he planned to pass with a tool that cuts the roots of the weeds superficially.His total surface of Sauvignon in this terroir is 2,20 hectares, fragmented in several plot. Not too many missing vines at first glance.
We drove further to another parcel, Gamay. the vines hadn't been pruned yet but in a little more than one week it was supposed to be done with an experienced team of workers scheduled. the distance between the rows is 1,5 meter, like for his other vineyards, it's the good size for a small tractor.
A few rows after the Gamay there's some Côt as well, the vines look a bit more older or thicker i don't know. the rows are long and the woods are far enough so that they don't have a problem with roe deers eating the fruits before harvest. Here also, few missing vines, the casualties usually occur because of an improper handling of the tractor and plow , Bertjan says that the first year he did the décavaillonnage without much prior experience and he lost a few vines. Now he's more skilled and can do it without risk. We speak about marcotage and he says it's very common around here, but he has to learn how to do it.
We see another parcel along a side road with Cabernet Franc (pictured) and a few rows of Côt as well (which looked younger). the Cab Franc hasn't been pruned yet. Bertjan says they don't trim these vines and it's not common in the area to let the apex grow, while it's more common in Alsace and Ardèche, he remembers having seen vines with a very tall foliage because untrimmed, and in these conditions you can't pass with a straddle tractor, that's another reason he needs a small tractor instead. Claude Courtois in Sologne told him that if you don't trim and the vines keeps growing it means it needs to grow both the roots and the canes. On this vineyard there's more frost risk especially with the woods that are quite close. He can't yet tell about the risk here because in 2018 and 2019 the seasons were mild [2020 was OK also] but that may happen one day, like usual around the end of april or early may.
Here is a new parcel of Pineau d'Aunis, planted in may 2019, half an hectare total. The thing is, Bruno had some Aunis in his domaine but Anouk & Paul who bought the other half of the surface were lucky to have the Aunis, so Bertjan decided to plant some. 2019 was very dry and they watered the baby vines, all seem to have survived. They'll make a plowing for the weeds. It is very difficult to find an existing parcel of Aunis in the region so it's easier to use plantation rights, you need to wait 2 or 3 more years but at least you'll have a fully functionnal parcel. He'll make a red with the Pineau d'Aunis, he loves the red Aunis as well.
As we were driving back to the cellar we saw Paul who with Anouk bought the other half of Bruno's domaine (naming their domaine les Jardins de Theseiis). I was thrilled to see they had changed they Russian-made Niva 4X4 for a more recent model, looked like brand new....
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