Bras/Brue-Auriac, Var (Provence)
Gwennaëlle Le Bars started about 3 years ago her own domaine in this part of inner Provence known as La Provence Verte, between the two cute villages of Bras (pictured on right) and Brue-Auriac. I met Gwennaëlle a few years ago at Les Pénitentes [scroll to third pic] as she was working for Chablis vigneron Thomas Pico. The large warehouse in a corner of which
where she is setting up her chai is located in a
ranch-size property of 500 hectares (pretty large for France) which was previously raising 2000 sheep for meat, the new owners will tend the 2000 olive trees organicly and there are also Aurochs, an ancient breed of cattle being raised here. Gwennaëlle shares the building with two market gardeners, one of whom is pictured on the left.
Gwennaëlle's first wine experience was when she worked at the Domaine Les Terres Promises (Jean Christophe Comor) not far from here. She grew up in the port city of Toulon (Var), began to study in Toulon then in Paris in physics, worked in a lab as research engineer but in 2014 she decided to try other jobs closer to what she'd feel comfortable with, and one of these jobs was doing the harvest at Comor in 2017. By chance they also needed someone in the cellar and she was tasked to watch over the fermenters during the whole harvest and that was a great experience. Comor was also confident with her lab training (even if not in wine) meaning she had the skills to check the analysis data for the fermenting juice. She left in october after which she worked 3 months in Ma Cave Fleury in Paris, another great experience in this natural-wine bar that not only serves the Fleury Champagnes but a superb selection of still wines from around France, she tasted lots on nice wines there. Natural wines were a new experience for her, she was from a family where tasting/enjoying wine was revered, visting producers as well, but she discovered another dimension with natural wines.
On the picture above you can see the inside of Gwennaëlle's new facility near Brue-Auriac in which she just moved her tools, her former (also rented) place was in nearby Bras.
After spending a few months working in this wine bar in Paris she heard Jean Christophe was looking for people to do the pruning and then the foliage management, so she went back there in january, at the time there was a guy working there who was teaching pruning (he was a teacher at the IFCO, the vineyard/wine school in Marseille), so it was a very good timing and she learnt the trade during one week and later, on the job. Durng this spring 2018 she felt she needed more info and training, hesitating between doing an oenology and a more technical training like a BTS, she opted for the latter, a BTS in Beaune. She enlisted for one year, 2018-2019, it's a BTS designed for people who already have an experience in wine. She needed to have trainig on the field as well between theorical courses during this BTS and for that she chose to work at Domaine Pattes Loup (Thomas Pico) in Chablis. She was very happy to work there both in the vineyard (pruning, among others) and during the harvest, she was at the press, 2018 was exceptional, they were doing 8 to 10 press batches per day, with both volume and quality fruit.
After she completed her degree she went to work in the Gard at le Petit Oratoire, a quite large surface of 24 hectares at the start, the vigneron took it over from a retiring vigneron right after his BTS degree with the aim of making natural wine. For Gwennaëlle it was another major step because she was cellar master with a different wine region,
many different grape varieties to handle and vinify, the presses and follow-up of the fermentations. The domaine had good equipment and tools, on the other side 2019 was tricky because there was a heat wave and thus low nitrogen in the must and weak yeasts, not an easy year in the south in particular. At one point that year they had to use some so2 to counter volatile. She finished her job there in december after the blends and went in january 2020 to Les Maoù (Aurélie and Vincent Garreta) in the Luberon, at the time they had 9 hectares and they were looking for someone along the year to help both in the vineyard and the cellar, and they wanted someone who intended later to set up his/her own domaine, because people like that are more motivated. She was very happy of the offer, the couple is lovely and she loves their wines. Then the pandemic came and it didn't change too much except that the village she lived in was eerily empty, but as a worker you were allowed of course to come and go in the vineyard and elsewhere. Aurélie and Vincent are very precise in their work and Gwennaëlle likes this approach to natural winemaking. She left in november and began to look around for having her own parcels and place. she learned a lot with this couple who had also started from scratch (no family connection in the trade) with the issues of where to buy the tools, new or second-hand, how to find parcels, how to find a building or cellar and so on.
We stopped at another warehouse near Bras where Gwennaëlle stores her vineyard tools.
In the Luberon it was nearly impossible to find a place to live and a building for vinification because the real estate
is taken over by second homes and the prices are out of reach for locals, that's why she looked in the Var instead even though she had found a 6-hectare planted surface to farm in the Luberon. She found parcels near Bras in spring 2021 : 2,3 hectares of vineyards plus 2 hectares to plant and also woods, that's how she began. She likes Bras, it's an area where there are fewer vineyards (not a monoculture area like Cuers or Pierrefeu) and there is also cattle and hay; the village also has a paysan boulanger (peasant baker), Bertrand Allais who grows his own wheat from ancient varieties. Also nights are a little cooler here.
In the Luberon she had the opportunity to drive a tractor but it had no cab and she felt that in her own business she needed to have a comfortable one because it'd be easier to learn and feel secure; this one even has aircon even if it's out of service right now. Asked if it's easy to negociate a second-hand tractor with a seller she says no : for example she tried to negociate a Lamborghini before this one and she felt that one of the gears was not working but the guy pretented everything was fine, so she called a friend familiar with these tools and he confirmed there was an issue with the gearbox, after which the seller conceded there "may be a problem after all"...
For the second-hand tools and tanks the classifieds website Le Bon Coin was very useful. Also she learnt from the couple in the Luberon the distinction between fermage and ownership for parcels and their respective advantage, or also the estimated number of bottles for a given surface in the south of France, the legal aspect of the trade and so on. She was advised to make contact with the SAFER, a French agricultural administration in charge of (among other things) letting know the aspiring farmers or growers of the available parcels and land in the region they intend to set up their farm.
So she had this first surface from the SAFER in spring 2021 and she had to prune the vines although she had no building yet, barely any tool and she had everything to do at the same time, including find a place to live. She had the chance to find a place to rent in Bras for the vinification. She stores these plowing tools and her tractor in a corner of this large warehouse owned by a guy who grows hay. The tractor is a New Holland TN75V, about 20 years old, it runs well, she didn't have too many breakdowns. After getting this first couple of hectares she felt it was difficult to find more surface, as locals tend to keep any available surface among them. She ended up finding more vineyards las winter near Seillons-Source-d'Argens, another village nearby, she got 1,8 hectare there, making her a total of nearly 4 hectares. She is letting weeds grow on the unplanted surface to prepare the land for plantings.
Here is the sprayer which is Italian made. The first year she used a backpack sprayer but it weighed 13 kg empty and 25 kg full, which is ok when your surface is small but begins to be too much when you're working on 4 hectares. She didn't buy a used sprayer because she wanted a relatively small size one (which is rare second-hand) and a good-quality one. There was financial help through the MSA (the health system for farmers) for investments intended to prevent health problems, and this outside help financed half of this tool. She sprays at night because in this region that's the only time you're sure there's no wind. Because of its size she has to refill it once during the night but it's ok.
Asked about the peopl around that can help and be good advice in a shared philosophy, she tells about Jérôme Maillot of Le Temps des Rêveurs, also Fabrice & Agathe of Terres d'Esclans at La Motte, who are good friends and work beautifully their vineyard. Of course I guess there's Les Terres Promises as well, where she discovered this world of real wines.
We then drive to some of the parcels that are nearby. The landscape is indeed hilly and mixed with woods and prairies. Here in general growers plant in majority Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah, with an eye on the appellation requirements. For what she bought there was also some merlot which she decided (and already began in spring 2022 with Cinsault) to overgraft. here we're near the village of Seillons-Source-d'Argens where Gwennaëlle has a parcel of 35-year_old Grenache. Her vines are dry farmed but here in the region growers irrigate routinely, there's water ducts from the Canal de Provence to provide the water.
When she took over this 35-year-old parcel of Grenache, it was already farmed organic but it had been let down for quite a while and she had to work to put it back on tracks, there were bushed of brambles for example she had to get rid of. She plows every other row, I notives she doesn't trim the apex let it grow and slide them between the wires, making sure not to break them. The surface here is half an hectare. She still has to till by hand near the vines for whatever weeds remained after she passed with the tractor. At one point she shows me the hail damage on the leaves. Speaking of yields she thinks she'll make about 30 or 35 hectoliters/hectare here. This said, she's not against higher yields when the vineyard can do it : in 2022 she had high yields on her Vermentino/rolle parcel, like 70 ho/ha and the result was a refreshing 11,5 % white wine which she likes a lot.
We then walk uphill to a separate and smaller parcel of Cinsault, which has a surface of 26 ares. It is 7 years old and this year because of the hail damage of may 19 she may use much of the fruit for the rosé. This parcel is not easy because of the twisted slope which makes the tractor use arduous. It's also hard to turn around because there's lack of room at the end of the rows. Speaking about at which time of the day she works, she says when it's by hand she often has to start
at 6 to enjoy milder temperatures and stop at 1 pm. This parcel has never got irrigation even this could have been possible at the beginning. As said anyway irrigation has become very mainstream and it has been authorized in the Appellation for some time, the rule being only that the grower must signal the relevant administration 2 days before and the latest date for irrigation being august 15 or veraison. And as if these rules weren't already lax, last year they pushed the limit date until september 15... It's quite mind-boggling to watch an appellation system openly encouraging artificially big yields, and in a region known as the Provence Verte, where it's all geen with rich aquifers underneath... The Chambre d'Agriculture du Var for example plans to extend the water ducts of the Canal de Provence (which uses the water from the Durance river) on 20 000 more hectares in this département. Today in the Var, with a total vineyard surface of 30 000 hectares, 10 000 are irrigated and the goal is thus to make water accessible for the remnant 20 000. And that is without speaking about the fact that vineyard plantation in richer soils (more fit for other crops) jhas been encouraged for IGP category. The strange thing by the way is that, until she passed away recently, the President of the Chambre d'Agriculture du Var and the President of the Société du Canal de Provence was the same person, Fabienne Joly. We'd need a Jake Gittes like in Chinatown to dig up the untold secrets of this water issues... As you know, the region has turned over the years into a mega producer of rosé, which may explain this irrigation push, but there's also some kind of over production issue here, so it doesn't make sense if you think about it. As you know, the region has turned over the years into a mega producer of rosé, which may explain this irrigation push, but there's also some kind of over production issue here, so it doesn't make sense if you think about it.
We drive a bit further until we're near the village of Brazs where Gwennaëlle fot her first batch of parcels, the place is a tiny valley with lots of woods and wildlife around. There's an irrigation system here also for the growers of the area (not her of course). Here the 12 first rows are Cinsault that have been overgrafted on Merlot, thezre's also a rows of Mourvèdre overgraft as an experiment, as she doesn't know yet if it'll ripen to the end. The portrait on top of this story was shot in front of a vine of Cinsault overgrafted on Merlot. She comes regularly to debud the feet of these vines in order to avoid the Merlot underneath to keep growing canes and foliage. Then she has to train the canes of the Cinsault with the aim to get two branches for a cordon de Royat. In summer here it's very cold and in 2021 when she got the parcel it had been already pruned and thus after a minus 9 C (15,8 F) in early april the Merlot had frozen. So to avoid frost damage she only prunes in two steps, a first time in january/february to get rid of everything she doesn't want to keep, and the 2nd time end of march when it's about 21 weeks from the last frosts, she prunes everything at deux yeux. On her other place there's no frost but here it's kind of a deep valley with less air or breeze.
Asked if she hasn't too much eated bunches with the wildlife around in the woods, she says it's all fenced around the vines, and she has put an electric fence on the most sensitive sides, from where the wild boars and roe dears are likely to come from. The roe deers alas can jump above the fence, which is mostly designed for wild boars, but they usually only eat bunches from rows close to their escape route... Birds also tend to get the fruit close to the woods they come from.
Speaking of her production at this stage, Gwennaëlle makes 5 cuvées. She began with 3 cuvées; a white Vermentino [Rolle] and a Merlot, plus a rosé with mostly Merlot but also a bit of Vermentino. Now she makes a cuvée of Cinsault in red, plus a cuvée with purchased grapes, using grapes purchased in the Luberon (a neighbor from Les Maoù), a grower to whom she had already bought some grapes to try herself at making wine. He sells mostly to the coop and he has old Carignans which she goes pick by hand with her team (it's one hour and a half from here by car).
She doesn't plan to keep making négoce wine but it helped at the beginning as she started with a very small surface. With the frost and hail damages she postponed the end of these purchases and there'll be another such cuvée this year. This year she'll buy from closer to friends who are nearing retirement and will sell their grapes on the vines this year. There are also an increasing number of growers who quit selling to the coop and sell instead to négoçiants, but the down side is with the increasing number of organic producers, the buyers (négoçiants) tend to put the pressure on growers to accept the same price as non-organic grapes...
__ Premier Rolle, Vermentino, Vin de Pays du Var 2023. The only Vin de France she makes is the négoce wine, other wise the IGP [vin de pays appellation) is ok for her, she likes to keep the geographical origin mentioned, especially that there's still some freedom in the vinification choices. For IGP there's no systematic agreement tasting by a panel of peers, she just has to provide bottles in case they wish to taste the wine.
Here it's a direct press of Rolle/Vermentino with one night for settling of the lees. Year after year these grapes are picked last, so the cellar is already active with yeast ambiance and the fermentation starts swiftly and spontaneously after débourbage, she gets the temperature higher though in order to not let the juice too long at 12 C [53,6 F] but short of reaching 23 C [73,4 F] because it could go astray. After lees settling she put the wine in a demi-muids barrel, the rest in stainless (75 %). The élevage is done wholly on the lees until blending of the two, in spring. She controls the temp in the stainless steel. After the malolactic she racks it to clear the wine in this part of the future blend and keep more freshness, the barrel having at the end something like more richness. No sulfites added on the incoming grapes or in the vinification, no additives of course. Unfiltered white wine, unfined. 1,5 gram/hectoliter at bottling. Very nice, thirst quenching white, and only 11,5 % alcohol, such a good alternative to rosé...
Asked about the vinification practices in the region, she says that when she setlled here she met growers who make only bulk wine in order to sell full tanks to négoçiants who in turn will put their own label once bottled, it's quite widespread modus operandi in the Var these days. These growers offered her to get a copy of the vinification protocol they got either from the oenolist or from the wine broker a "recipe" that is usually asked by the négoçiant for the end wine they wish, and it's usually something like night harvest (combne), so2 adding on the gondola, cold storage (4 C - 39,2 F) for 14 days, then enzymes in the press (especially for the Cinsault which is more difficult to have its juice extracted), the use of such or such type of lab yeast, nitrogen nutrients with a precise nitrogen level and so on... then you usually have a color for the rosé (which is the majority of the wines made by mainstream domaines here) and that means other things, like bentonite fining and PVPP additives to adjust the color to the one favored by supermarket sales. Even the ICV where you get your lab tests done they give you the position of your rosé in a chart, like closer to Bandol type or Côtes de Provence. The mainstream rosé production is like that, you have to check the right boxes and have the wine ready in time.
__ Vaudeville, Vin de Pays du Var 2023. 12,5 %. Quite aromatic, very fruity. Unfiltered as well. Nice vividness, you feel a good acidity. 2/3 Merlot and 1/3 of Cinsault, the latter being the overgrafts. Merlot is the first things she picks, here that was around september 10 (the last was the Rolle/vermentino, around end of september), direct press, she made a pied-de-cuve for this first batch because there was no yeast ambiance yet in the chai, she uses small fermenters, checkin,g that there are only saccharomyces yeasts in there and after the débourbage of the rosé she'll start the fermentations with it. She says (related to the acidity which I noticed) that the parcel is cool at night. The harvest is offset, late here and thanks to that, even with the heat wave that at some point blocked for a while the maturity, the cycle could kick on afterwards, allowing a timely (for the maturity) harvest on september 25. Speaking of the production volume, in 2023 she made 9000 bottles total, the largest volume being for the Rolle, almost a third of the total. for a normal year without accident she'd like to get 16 000 bottles.
__ Entr Acte, Vin de France 2023. 11 % alcohol. It's from her vineyard but she bottled this cuvée as Vin de France because she thought it wouldn't pass the agreement commission. Exciting nose. It's made with whole-cluster Cinsault, 3-day maceration, no pigeage, just a small remontage (pumping over), the idea being, with the nice yields on the overgraft, to make a wine without looking for extraction. the wine is not dark with a visually milky look, you feel it's unfiltered. In the mouth, obviously a rouge de soif, a thirst-quenching red, with some bitterness and light tannins that add their touch. easy drink. She says it's certainly good to wait it another month or two so that the tannin get in place (it was bottled a month and a half before this visit took place.
__Et Le Jeu, Vin de France 2023, négoce cuvée made from 80 % old Carignan (70 to 80 years old) bought in the Luberon and 20 % Grenache bought in La Verdière north from here. The label was done by Anaïs Michel. An other of the labels was made by her aunt. The wine has a small red fruit nose. Very enjoyable now even if it'll be better enjoyed a year from now. 13 % alcohol. Tannin feel also. She says it to the buyers but she knows by experience that people drink it earlier than ideal.
__ In Media Res , Vin de Pays du Var 2022. 13%. Whole-cluster Merlot with a longer maceration (18 days), remontage every 3 days, aiming a wine with good substance with the idea to bottle it as late as possible, like before the following harvest and keep it as bottle élevage at least a year, which is now the right delay for a 2022. She begins to sell it thus only now. With the other cuvées that sell well she can afford this wait and that's what she'd like to do for more of the other cuvées.
When the bunches come in she stomps a bit some of them to get a bit of juice and then the rest remains untouched, with a first big remontage with air to active the yeast, the further ones being done without air just to humidify the cap, preserve the unity of the ongoing fermentation. In 2022 she didn't have to use cooling foils but she did in 2023 to prevent the temperature to get too high. Speaking of cooling, it reminds me of Pfifferling who cools grape boxes a night in a refrigerated truck trailer and Gwennaëlle says that when she worked at Lori Haon (Le Petit Oratoire) it's 5 km from Tavel and they had met with a group including Les Frères Soulier, Nicolas Renaud and they all used this modus operandi.
In the mouth, doesn't feel like 13 %, a good level of acidity is why. Some astringency from the tannin. Right now Gwennaëlle makes half her production in red, keeping in mind that in Provence the rule is 90 % of rosé (she's making 20 % in rosé only and doesn't intend to make more). I think she could be part of this group of resisting vignerons, Rouge Provence, who are active keeping making a lot of nice reds for which Provence should be known and not fall to this commercial opportunism with mass production of rosé.
This visit took place in the 3rd week of july
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