Sainte-Lizaigne, Indre
This october 21st there was a small wine event that could get bigger in the following years : The Salon des Cépages Rares is a small
wine fair which was first launched in 2019 and
is centered around the wines
made from rare varieties. As you may know there were many more grape varieties grown in France in the 19th century when wine was made locally in all the French regions, then, with the replanting after the Phylloxera and above all after the ill-thought decision of the Appellation administrations to restrict the authorized varieties in the different wine regions to a handful of fashionable varieties, we saw the planted surface of many little-known varieties dwindle or even disappear. The contempt of the "modernist" wine authorities for tradition and authenticity carried in itself the germs of a future reactionary backlash and we all owe to visionary vigneron at Domaine Plageoles for example the quasi resurrection of the many indigenous Gaillac varieties. And of course on the front to give back these rare varieties their deserved place and surface, the natural-wine producers play a central role, because (beyond their attachment to authenticity) they are not shy of making wines out of the limitative Appellation-system boundaries; when you bottle as table wine/vin de France you're free to make the blends/choose the varieties you like, and we as wine amateurs are in return rewarded by what we can drink... Just thyink of the healthy comeback of Pineau d'Aunis or Grolleau for example, if it had been up to the administration only, they would have disappeared long time ago.
The fact that this wine event takes place in Sainte-Lizaigne in a corner of the Indre département is also a reminder that every region even the ones at a good distance of famous wine regions had producing vineyards including often from now-neglected varieties. There were just a few vignerons taking part, including Thierry Puzelat but he actually just came in the morning for a conference but didn't stay for the public event this afternoon.
Jacky Preys was there of course, he's the one who decades ago rediscovered by accident, while buying additional hectares, the almost extinct Sauvignon rose (pink Sauvignon) also know under the name of Fié Gris. He recounted years ago his surprise, when visiting the few hectares he just had bought to augment his surface, seeing a large parcel bearing dark fruit, he thought there was a problem, he was supposed to have bought a surface planted with whites only (Sauvignon mainly, possibly also Chardonnay, I don't remember). So he contacted the seller who told him it was Sauvignon, whith white juice, the only thing with this parent variety of the Sauvignon, its skin was red. He decided to vinify it separately, whi other vignerons who still had some didn't do (at least under its variety name) as the Appellation administration had pushed Fié Gris into oblivion by ignoring it in the list of "authorized" varieties.
__ Fié Gris 2022 :
nice chew, well-structured
white. 12 % Bottled a month before the event.
__ Vin Orange 2020, made with Chenin Blanc, 4 days on skins & stems, part going into amphora.
__ Also tasted his Silex 2022, a nice cuvée of Sauvignon he makes every year, he told me he just had a shipping order of 7 pallets for it from San Francisco (North Berkeley Imports).
The Domaines Tatin makes wine in the nearby wine area of Reuilly-Quincy on a total surface of 28 hectares,
one third of the surface is farmed organic.
__ Genouillet
2022. Hand picked, destemmed, bottled april 2023. I'm told there is a total of 4 hectares of the variety Genouillet planted in France today, and 80 % is located in the area near Issoudun (which includes the village of Sainte-Lizaigne), so this is really a rare variety at this point. By the way, Issoudun and its region had some 3000 hectares of vineyards before the phylloxera. The Genouillet wasn't much replanted because it didn't fare well when grafted on Riparia. The vigneron tells me his own surface for this variety is 40 ares.
__ Reuilly 2022, Pinot Noir (we can also taste their other wines).
__ Reuilly 2018
The Domaine du Chaillot is located in the area of Châteaumeillant (Loire). Pierre Picot the vigneron
was there to present his cuvée of Tressaller or Sacy.
__ Sainte Agathe 2022, made with Tressallier (well known in the Allier region in the area of Saint Pourçain), and also named Sacy. This variety is known to be pretty acidic and tends to deliver big yields. Because of its acidity it would travel easily at the time of the French kings and the wine was appreciated in the King's court. Mr Picot has a surface of 1 hectare of this variety.
Mouth : very nice, vivid, richness as well, nice balance. Public price 13,5 € at the domaine. Vinified in neutral fiber tank.
The Domaine de la Champinière is a family winery
located in the area of Cheverny and Cour-Cheverny with a total surface of 14 hectares, 4 of which planted with Romorantin, considered here as a rare variety. There is a total surface of planted Romorantin of 70 hectares.
__ Romorantin Cour-Cheverny 2021. Petrol notes
__ Romorantin Cour-Cheverny Prestige 2020. later harvest compared to the other cuvée (a month later). Dry white with nice richness in the mouth.
The Domaine Charpentier is a family
winery located in the
Reuilly/Quincy area with respectively 25 hectares and 5 hectares there.
__ Pinot Gris, Reuilly Saint Vincent 2022, a cuvée that costs 10 € public price. Mouth : dry white with a bit of bitterness that awakes the palate.
__ Genouillet, vin de France 2022. They have 1,5 hectare of this variety. Superb light color. No so2 here during vinification, just a bit at bottling. 15-day carbo in stainless steel. Superb mouth with some acidity. Alas this was filtered. 15 € public price.
At one point I bought this bottle of apéritif sold at the table of the organizers, it wasn't possible to taste it but they sold a bottle for 10 €. I'll add my comments when tasted. It is made from a clos in this village, the Clos aux Prêtres (hand harvest pictured in this linked page), by les Jardiniers de Sainte-Lizaigne, meaning a collective work in the (recently planted) parcel by the locals. The label further reads : Le Genoyer, apéritif nature, with vin de genouillet, noix verte du Berry, eau de vie. I'm impatient to try that !
The Domaine de Quissat is run by __ Négret de Banhars, À Mon Grand-Père 2022. Négret de Banhars is an almost extinct variety, its origin can be traced to the Aveyron département in the South-West of France. There are 2 hectares of this variety total in France, and their domaine has a surface of it of 33 ares. Mouth : quite tannic, better to eat with that wine. They made a short maceration, the juice ferments quickly. 15 hectoliters made, élevage in stainless steel. Unfiltered, unfined, vinified naturally. 9,5 € public price.
The Domaine de la Pagerie is run by Baptiste Pointereau in the
__ Sainte Lizaigne Genouillet 2022. Baptiste grows 50 ares of this rare variety (planted 3 years ago). Light red color. Light astringency, vividness.15 €.
The Domaine Michel Issaly or Domaine de la Ramaye is a family winery located near Gaillac, its vineyard surface is
So I had missed Thierry Puzelat who just came in the morning, he had come to present his Menu Pineau, now also a rare variety. There's an other producer who could have come here for his Menu Pineau, it's André Fouassier who makes wine in the Touraine/Valençay area. I happen to have visited him around that time and tasted both his white Valençay and his Menu Pineau.
__ Le Caillou des Arpents, Touraine Menu Pineau 2013 by André Fouassier. This variety, Menu Pineau, is also known under the names of Arbois (nothing to do with Jura), Orbois (and a few other odd names like Orboé), it is a now-rare variety that has its original home in the Loire, more precisely Touraine and the Loir-et-Cher département. The Appellation bodies which left it on the side of the road when making the list of "noble" varieties recognized in the AOC certainly played a part in the vanishing surface in the region.
organic a surface of 5 hectares in the
South-West (Lot et Garonne). They also grow figs and fruits from a 2-hectare orchard. Their grape varieties are Merlot, Tanat, Cabernet Franc, Petit & Gros Manseng, Négret de Banhars, Abouriou, Fer Servado, some of them being rare varieties indeed.
__ Abouriou 2022, Abouriou is not as rare a variety, there are several hundreds hectares of it. The wine here is a zero-zero type as well. Just delicious ! Nice concentration, makes you joyful at the first sip ! Their first vintage of it was 2018 (I understand they bought up the parcel in 2018). 25-are surface. You need to try that !
area of Reuilly, who took over in 2017 the reknowned Domaine Guy Malbète with now a vineyard surface of 12 hectares. Plowing in the vineyard and only organic fertilizers, converted organic (Ecocert) in 2019.
3,5 hectares with
many of the local varieties, No additives used in the vinification. Prunelard, Braucol (Fer Servadou), Duras, Mauzac, Loin de l'oeil and Oundenc.
__ Prunelard vin de France 2020, made of course with the Prunelard variety, which is a local one from Gaillac, has a total surface of 30 hectares and is parent to Côt/Malbec. This cuvée had a volume of 2000 bottles. 5-6 days of maceration with destemmed grapes. Nose : very aromatic with sweet spices. Mouth : a bit burning. Concentration and length. Astringency on the palate.
__ La Combe d'Avès, Gaillac 2018, a blend of Braucol and Duras. Quite harmonious with a nice mouth feel.
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Very aromatic wine. Wheat aromas here, with Lychees. Refined mouth with nice structure, crystal feel, length. 7 € at the domaine.
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