Fleurie, Beaujolais
This is the first of a few stories following several visits of winemakers I made with Aaron and also Juliette (a former staff at Coinstotvino who now studies in a wine school) who joined us in Beaune. We arrived at Jean-Louis Dutraive's Domaine de la Grande Cour as he was about to prepare a nettle tea for a spraying. Jean-Louis Dutraive is a long time actor in the Beaujolais nature scene and beyond the about 11 hectares of the domaine he and his children vinify purchased grapes, so this visit was a good opportunity to taste a few of their wines.
At one point Jean-Louis spoke about the conditions in 2019 (we tasted this vintage), he said they had no mildew at all but the vines were still recovering from the hail damage of the previous years, so they didn't have a big load. But altogether the fruit load was not that bad that year, they expected less. In 2018 they made about the same yield, like 24-25 hectoliters/hectare. This means that year after year the vines recover and this year should get even better. This year there has been a bit of hail near Julienas, but that was not too bad.
Jean-Louis grabbed a few bottles to taste, Juliette (pictured here) studies at the wine school in Beaune but she has already been in contact with the real-wine culture during her years at Coinstot Vino is familiar with all the winemaking issues. She will one day start make wine herself but meanwhile she does her training with several domaines in the Beaujolais, namely Romuald Valot, Rosenhager (Auvergne), in the Roussillon, and soon in the Jura as well.
We tasted the wines in this vat room which is lined with cement fermenters like the one in the background. I like this facility, it's very low key and traditionnal, no fancy tool, looks like mom-and-pop family wineries in France (except that most lost the art of making wine, I'm afraid).
__The 2nd wine (a 2019) we tasted was so good, its color was light and turbid with a silky touch in the mouth and a vibrant acidity. It was this Fleurie Chapelle des Bois 2019 above. Don't miss that one and in this vintage ! The parcel is just on the other side of the small road, vines not that old (the youngest of the domaine at 30) and the soil is sandy.
Jean-Louis speaks about the process and vinification : Be it for his wines or the ones of his daughter Ophélie or his son Justin, they pick the grapes in 18-kg boxes, then they let the boxes in refrigerated chambers to cool the harvest and they put the whole-clustered grapes into fermenters the following morning, the grapes' temperature fell to 6 or 7 C (42,8 to 44,6 F) at this stage. They put some CO2 manually at the beginning, once or twice until fermentation starts by itself (he says even at 7 C, the following day enough CO2 has usually been produced by the batch). Otherwise they just let the grapes alone, and they don't even take out the free run juice every day. He says it's that simple but you need to have good indigenous yeast as they add nothing, no yeast, no sulfur. They just do regular surveillance, opening the fermenters to smell or taste the little juice at the bottom.
They use small fermenters like 50 hectoliter or even 30 to avoid excessive weight on the grapes, to avoid crushing. Normally they don't wet the cap, only if they feel risks of acetate, then they would put a bit of already-fermented juice or even alcohol (marc diluted with juice), as these acetate-producing yeast fear alcohol. They spray just a bit of mist on the grapes on top, it's not like a remontage. The fermentation temperature will rise from 7 C to something like 18 C (64,4 F), they don't extract tannin this way. In 2019 they had less color, and he likes it this way; 2018 had more color. After that they press and put the juice in the fermenters without doing anything. The juice temperature in the fermenters will slowly grow from 7 C to 18 C or 20 C (64,4 to 68 F) over a long fermentation time, 2 to 3 weeks, they don't look for tannin extraction, just fruit notes. The color here goes out on the lengthy maceration, not heat.
For pressing, they do it at around 1000 or 1020, depends. They press quite high in density to avoid getting harsh wines, it's always a guess game, he tastes the juice and one day decides. The fact they work with cooled grapes allow to get longer maceration and press with higher densities. Along the 3-week fermentation they'll get color through the time length. The feel of the juice is important also, as soon as they feel this juice risks getting harsh, they'll press. If they press at 1020 they'll bounce back to 1050 with the sugar still in the whole berries, or they'll bounce back at 1020-1030 if they press with a density of 1000.
I was pleased to see that the Dutraives have a Béné, an iconic mix of tractor and truck which you basically find only in the Beaujolais. I remember the one I saw at Julie Balagny during my first visit, these incredible machines even have a winch pulling system on the side to plow the very steep parcels, I guess that's why artisan vignerons often have them. They're easy to spot in wine farms because they're all orange.
__ Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, Le Clos, Fleurie 2019. Superb wine, refined, fresh, silky tannins, goes down deliciously, its color is just magic as well. We learn they have 9,3 hectares on Fleurie and 1,8 hectare on Brouilly. The wine is made from the 6,5-hectare block around the wine farm, of which 5,5 hectares are aged from 30 to 45 years, and the rest was planted around 1930 by the former owners.
At some point during the visit, additionnal visitors joined in, it was the team of Vercoquin (a wine shop in Lyon) with several regular customers. I understand the group had just had lunch at Olivier Metras' restaurant L'Ephemère and they already had had a few good wines there... This wine shop is specialized on nature wines and is worth a visit if you pass through Lyon, a nice city so damn closed to the Beaujolais, the northern Rhône and Ardèche (plus Auvergne, Saint Pourçain, Côte Roannaise and côtes du Forez...) that they must have things we don't have in Paris. Imagine : this is the crossroads of the Loire (the 4 latter regions), Beaujolais and Rhône... and Bugey on the east side...
At one point during the tasting, Jean-Louis went out to put the dried nettle into the boiling water, that's really as simple as an infusion or tea. He'll later use the tea for a spraying on some of his parcels.
__ Cuvée Vieille Vignes, Lieu-dit "Champagne", Fleurie 2019. Nice bitterness wrapped by a gentle sweetness feel, delicious ! Aaron asks about the consequences for him of the pandemic, he says there's just a lag for the orders to be delivered, and financially, of the payments of course. What he did was he halved the allotments of each importer so that he could sell and deliver for the French market. The importers hadn't reduced or cancelled their orders but he had to find a solution around the frozen shipments. And as it is likely that the shipments will be able to fully resume when the vintage 2020 will itself become available, the importers will be able to compensate with both years.
__ Les Bulands, Beaujolais 2019, Justin Dutraive. Jean-Louis' son made here a very light and easy-drinking wine, beautiful color, really a thirst wine, goes down by itself.
__We tasted another of Justin's wines, made from vines near Saint Etienne des Ouillières, near Jean-Claude Lapalu. Wine with more substance, but still easy to drink.
__ Moulin à Vent 2019, by Ophélie Dutraive, her first wine or at least her first bottling, a micro cuvée (7 hectoliters) made from a 30-are parcel near Romanèche-Thorins. Not bad at all for a first wine ! 2nd mouth is even more ewquisite even if powerful (14 %). Nice drinkability and freshness.
Why no white? Beaujolais Blanc is most underrated
Posted by: fatFred | July 25, 2020 at 10:37 PM
I guess not ready yet, maybe ?
Posted by: Bert | July 26, 2020 at 04:59 PM
would have liked to hear more about what the nettle tea prep does and how its used?
Posted by: Bill mcClintick | July 26, 2020 at 06:50 PM