Cher valley, Loire
I managed to get in time in my Loire hideout just in time for the last days of harvest and toured a few producers, some by myself and some with Lexie Jordan who was at the time picking with Julien Prevel. Lexie is living in Paris mostly and she imports wine for her San Francisco-based company Funk De Funk (actually in Mill Valley, Marin county). Several producers had in fact already just finished picking, some still had a couple parcels yet to be picked, for which they were waiting for a bit more maturity. This story will be most a picture story, first because I/we visited unannounced (in some instances there was no body near the chai/cellar and we'd just move and try our luck elsewhere) and our hosts were busy or enjoying quietness at last after several weeks of stress, and also because the end of harvest is just, like, relax, take your time and pause...
This took place around the 3rd week of september, I know, this is late to post that (even with backdating it) but I keep being busy these days.
I found the parcel easily, Lexie had sent my the GPS coordinates, near Monthou-sur-Cher, it was closer to my place as it is at a distance from Julien's main parcels, this one not being his own, he just purchases the fruit here. Everyone was busy picking when I arrived on my motorbike.
The pause is when, around 10 am usually, everyone stops picking and gathers at the end of the rows to share what we could name a light meal provided by the vigneron (It's the rule for artisan producers but in conventional vineyard you won't be treated as well), and there's usually his own wine being poured as well (just for that you really want to go picking there !). I always feel a bit guilty when I myself take part to it (even if I'm invited to) because I haven't picked myself and these guys deserve it much more than me, they woke up early and that's a tough job whatever it looks.
We then took the road (I had brought an extra helmet for Lexie) and stopped at Laurent Saillard, there was no vehicule there and I was pretty sure we'd find nobody but Laurent was indeed, busy putting the chai in order, cleaning hoses and so on. The havest had finished the previous week and everything was over for good, the wines fermenting/macerating in the tanks.
On the way to Thésée (the bridge on the Cher being unusable because of road work, we had to make a huge detour through Montrichard) we passed along François and Estelle's cellar and seeing the door open I stopped there as well. They were close to the end of their harvest but still had something to pick the following week. Both of them were busy finishing the day in the cellar, cleaning all the stuff and tools.
We briefly stopped at Les Jardins de Theseiis and at Domaine de la Taupe (their respective cellar are next door to each other), either they had finished picking or were busy picking a parcel somewhere (in fact in the main street of Thésée I crossed his car which was pulling a trailer). So we went to Noëlla Morantin and they were all in there, busy with various cellar work including repairing the wheel of a forklift.
I love this side room along the main cellar, some kind of dining room complete with a fireplace, I imagine the nice time here with staff or clients, sharing a few bottles of wine with charcuterie and cheese...
Then we went to La Lunotte further east along the cher but on the other side of the river, and Christophe Foucher was there with all his pickers, enjoying quietly this sunny september day along the table in the shade. There was indeed a cool ambiance here like usual, some of the pickers were training themselves at juggle, I didn't take pictures so as not being intrusive but it was a very nice scene.
We didn't go tasting wine immediately but spent time chatting under the tree, always a pleasure to be here, and Lexie was certainly impressed, Christophe is very thoughtful about many aspects of his job, be it in the vineyard and the cellar of course but also on the issue of shipping far away, he says there are ambivalent feelings about that, happyness on one side because people love what he makes from this corner of Touraine, and also worry and guilt about the energy used to bring a few bottles on the other side of the world. I tell him that in my view his gorgeous wines help winemakers wherever they are on the world make the step to choose nature in both the vineyard management and the cellar...
It was maybe 4pm when we left Christophe Foucher and we headed back to Pouilly sur Cher to pay a visit at les Maisons Brûlées. When we were at Laurent Saillard at around noon, he told me he was heading to the Berlot that was taking place at Les Maisons Brûlées but I prefered not to go at that time because the Berlot is foremost a festive event for the pickers and the vignerons, and that'd be weird to kind of invite yourself for this very special lunch focused on those who did the hard work and shared the challenging adventure of the harvest. When we showed up between 4 and 5 pm this was nearly the end of it but everyone was still sitting around the table and having a good time.
Beatiful moment that we had with them around the table, sipping gorgeous wines from the Gillets, from Laurent and from Jean-Guillaume Caplain (pictured here standing)... Sitting at the table : Alban, on the left, who among other things handles the horses, Paul Gillet and Corinne Gillet. Feel the magic...
Separately on a different day I also dropped at André Fouassier and the day I showed up he was busy pressing his Arbois (Arbois is a variety also known as Orbois or Menu Pineau).
Glad to see this post! I was worried because you had not posted in a while!
Posted by: Tom | October 23, 2022 at 05:34 PM
Thank you Tom, yes it's been a while since the previous one, I'm still busy but will manage to get back to a more civilized pace....
Posted by: Bert | October 25, 2022 at 05:54 PM