article

<p>When I saw Alain Coudert from Clos de la Roilette&rsquo;s calling my phone last Saturday morning, I didn&rsquo;t pick up. It&rsquo;s abnormal for a vigneron to call over the weekend in regards to business, but I figured he wanted to talk about an upcoming pickup, a label registration or something of the sort. I was also rammed in a car full of childhood friends road-tripping for the holiday weekend; I let the call go to voicemail, deciding to give Alain a ring when we got to our destination. Then came a text from my mother asking me to call her: that meant bad news. Four days later and I&rsquo;m still shell-shocked over Julie&rsquo;s passing. Having been at her house less than a month ago, Julie had exuded so much LIFE over the course of that evening that her disappearance still feels impossible.</p> <p>Where do I start with Julie? The beginning? She started making wines under her own name in 2009, but had entered our collective orbit a few years prior. Her name was on everyone&rsquo;s lips circa 2007 as the new talent to look out for. So Joe and Denyse decided they had to meet her, visiting Julie while she still ran the cellar at Terres des Chardons in the Costi&egrave;res de Nimes. An instant connection was made and it was agreed Louis/Dressner would import the wines. The following summer, Denyse remembers seeing Julie in the Beaujolais with Yvon M&eacute;tras: she had visited the land that would become her Fleurie parcels <strong>(1)&nbsp;</strong>but nothing was finalized.</p> <p>After securing the land in the Beaujolais and working it less than a full year, Louis/Dressner imported Julie&rsquo;s first eponymous wines despite what felt like astronomical pricing at the time coupled with the complicated -now increasingly common- full-bodied nature of the solar 2009 vintage. I remember the first cuv&eacute;es of 2009 &quot;En Remont&quot;<strong>(2)</strong> and &ldquo;Vieilles Vignes&rdquo; gathering dust on the shelf at Arlequin Wine Merchant where I worked in San Francisco.&nbsp;Beaujolais was having a moment around then, but that moment was intricately linked to cheaper pricing and the distinctly crystalline, semi-carbonic &ldquo;light&rdquo; style the region was known for.&nbsp;Actually, critics loved the 2009 vintage, they felt it was an achievement to have produced such ripe, big wines. We felt it was a pity that a wine we loved for its lightness and freshness was evaluated through the wrong criteria: it was not a vintage of our liking.</p> <p>LDM pressed on with the fantastic 2010&rsquo;s, and by 2011 -the first of many vintages Julie felt obliged to blend her cuv&eacute;es into a one-off wine, in this case &ldquo;Carioca&rdquo;<strong>(3)</strong>- a fanaticism of sorts was building around her. Julie&rsquo;s star would continue to rise, and by the mid 2010&rsquo;s she had earned her rank as a cult producer amongst a small but dedicated subset of drinkers. Usually I don&#39;t care about this type of thing much, but with Julie&#39;s wines I began to notice something different. It seemed like savvy drinkers understood and valued her efforts and vision,&nbsp;could&nbsp;TASTE it.&nbsp;</p> <p>As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, Julie was instrumental&nbsp;in fomenting a paradigm shift in how natural wine is approached. Producers like Julie forced companies like ours to re-align our values on, well, value. Louis/Dressner has always been about the underdog: independent vignerons from small or unknown regions making real, honest wine. For most of the company&rsquo;s existence, that usually meant &nbsp;a &ldquo;bang for your buck&rdquo; due to the producer and/or region&rsquo;s lack of notoriety. But vigneronnes like Julie Balagny changed the tide: value didn&rsquo;t have to be economically tied to a famous region or a famous vigneron anymore, but to the VALUE of hard work, of vision, passion and qualities bordering on artistic expression. More often than not, these producers were outsiders to the region they made wine in: second-career &ldquo;neo-vignerons/vigneronnes&rdquo; working hyper-artisanally (in Julie&rsquo;s case with zero mechanization) with no employees, requiring countless hours more work in the vines and cellar.&nbsp;</p> <p>There were of course precursors to Julie. But her arrival on the scene at the dawn of the information era, a time when consumers could meticulously&nbsp;geek out on&nbsp;every aspect of a vigneron&rsquo;s work, was serendipitous and integral in getting a lot of people hooked on seeking out similar wines.</p> <p>I guess what I&rsquo;m trying to say is that a lot of what we do now, or at least the way I interpret what we do, goes back to representing a human&rsquo;s passion and humanity through their wine. Is this something we can actually succeed in as a company? Knowing Julie so well, I could taste the good, the bad, the chaos, the laughs, the bare-bones EVERYTHING, the pseudo-commune that was her house, even her crazy dogs, chickens and sheep running around the yard and vineyards... Are these things someone who&#39;s never met her can taste? I don&#39;t know, but I&#39;d posit that this type of <em>je ne sais quoi</em> is what drew so many to seek out her cuv&eacute;es in the first place. Julie made me look for these qualities in other producers, seek them out even.</p> <p>Ok, I&rsquo;ve been going on for a while now and barely broached Julie as a person. What can I say, Julie Balagny was one of a kind, always marching to the beat of her own polyrhythmic&nbsp;drum. Born in an aristocratic, well off Parisian family, she eschewed modern life and luxury for peasantry, the country-side, farm work. She lived a bare-bones, rustic and quasi-off the grid lifestyle. She was constantly brimming with restless energy and ideas. She lived in total chaos, and more then once the hectic energy she emitted and surrounded herself with made me feel like the mark of a prank tv-show or like I was making a cameo in a bizarro episode of the Beaujolais Real World <strong>(4)</strong>.&nbsp;</p> <p>The wackiness really ramped up&nbsp;when Julie moved to Roman&egrave;che-Thorins in 2015. Prior to living there, our visits with her tended to be one-on-one, more classic: a meet and greet, a tour of the vines, tasting wines in the cellar then a dinner somewhere. But, with the exception of summer 2015 when we visited her newly acquired Beaujolais and Moulin-&agrave;-Vent plots <strong>(5)</strong>, all visits to the Roman&egrave;che house meant being SUCKED INTO THE VORTEX. There were of course the aforementioned dogs, chickens and sheep freely roaming the yard, often driving my mother&#39;s dog Zaggy completely bonkers <strong>(6)</strong>. More memorable were the ever-revolving cast of employees, seasonal workers, friends, weirdos and&nbsp;wasteoids&nbsp;that became the de-facto accompaniment to our visits. If you&rsquo;d entered that courtyard&nbsp;enough times <strong>(7)</strong>, you knew you were going to be talking to chain-smoking randos knocking back glass after glass of Gamay <strong>(8)</strong>.</p> <p>And of course there was always Julie, presiding over the chaos like nothing could be more normal. Cheeks red, hair blonde, eyes blazing blue and smiling at you like the lost long friend she hasn&#39;t seen in ages. Within minutes, you&rsquo;d be deep in a conversation that would go on for hours,&nbsp;constantly re-enforced&nbsp;with another bottle, countless rolled cigarettes and, only after I insisted and because time had gotten away from her, a haphazard, improvised meal thrown together hours later than it should have been <strong>(9)</strong>.</p> <p>There was always a lot to talk about. The usual vigneron blah blah (the weather, the vintage...) was only a formality with Julie, a quick box to check off so we could get to the good stuff. Sometimes it was hard to focus on her because a sheep was bumping its head into your leg. Or a very intoxicated shirtless man, badly scraped and bruised from drunkenly crashing his scooter hours earlier was berating you for not wearing a face-mask when bicycling in New York City (he&#39;d never been and this was pre-pandemic). Or an equally intoxicated sommelier rolling in the dirt telling a sheep he loved them. Or an even more intoxicated sommelier drunkenly cutting up cucumbers and tomatoes, putting them in his glass, pouring and drinking a Balagny wine in it before I confiscated it (ok, that was the same sommelier telling the sheep he loved it, here is his picture).</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/8e/c6/8ec6df573478a63c1948ee247ee8f24f.jpg" /></p> <p>Julie&#39;s house could sometimes feel like a haven for lost souls. Yet just as often you&rsquo;d feel a raw energy, an incubator for a new generation of rural youth forging their own path. In both cases, it came from a place of utmost generosity and open-mindedness on Julie&rsquo;s part. Most of the people I met at her table found inspiration working with her,&nbsp;whether&nbsp;there for seasonal work or deciding they wanted to become a vigneron in their early 50&#39;s and randomly&nbsp;apprenticing&nbsp;with her knowing nothing about natural wine. For the full-time crew, itself a rag-tag group of misfits, there was a feeling of belonging, a leftist, ecologically militant oasis in an&nbsp;increasingly far-right and&nbsp;angry rural France.&nbsp;</p> <p>The most recurrent character in the last few years, one whom I&rsquo;ve&nbsp;grown to&nbsp;adore, is Sylvain Chanudet,&nbsp;an ex-vigneron&nbsp;and the personified quintessence of a&nbsp;Beaujolois. After a very complicated period in his life, Julie had let Sylvain stay with her for a bit. He never left, becoming a permanent house-mate, adviser, pro-bono employee and even selling Julie some of the grapes he continues to meticulously farm despite not making wine anymore. Over the last few years, a visit with Julie meant a visit with Sylvain, always a treat for me. Their bond and friendship was so clear, so deep and powerful. I can&rsquo;t imagine how much pain he must be in right now.</p> <p>My last visit with Julie was less than a month ago, on Thursday June 8th. I got to the house around 6pm: after accidentally startling Julie who hadn&rsquo;t heard me come in, a group of three young men arrived and quickly hunkered around the outdoor table to smoke cigarettes and drink Gamay. These were Julie&rsquo;s employees, including Brice aka Docteur Bri&ccedil;ou (you may recognize that name from the Moulin-&agrave;-Vent cuv&eacute;e <strong>(10)</strong>) and two other guys whose name I didn&rsquo;t catch. They were looking at how to manually fix a part of a 1970&rsquo;s chariot the team use to till the vines; replacement parts haven&rsquo;t been available to purchase for roughly 45 years. At some point a young woman&nbsp;swung&nbsp;by for no perceptible reason (though I have a hunch), had a few glasses and cigarettes and left.</p> <p>Julie and I then tasted a recently bottled 2022 called &quot;Fran&ccedil;ois&quot;, of which she gave me the back story. In 2020, she&rsquo;d made a one-off wine called &ldquo;Fran&ccedil;oise&rdquo; <strong>(11)</strong> from a plot of Beaujolais fruit her friend ended up still having when a contract didn&rsquo;t go through at the last minute. In 2022, a young vigneron had committed suicide just before the harvest and his family was looking to sell the grapes. Julie felt it would have been wrong to call them herself (she didn&rsquo;t want to take advantage of a terrible situation), but when it was them who reached out she decided to buy some. Julie named the cuv&eacute;e &quot;Fran&ccedil;ois&quot; <strong>(12)</strong> and asked her label artist Delphine to make a man bringing flowers to his Fran&ccedil;oise. Two one-offs loaded with symbolism.</p> <p>We then tried various 2022&rsquo;s&nbsp;from barrels, some of which had tangible amounts of sugar that still needed to ferment, others that were to be bottled soon (I am unaware if this occurred in the time between my visit and her passing). When we re-emerged from the cellar, Sylvain Chanudet and Tristesse, an older shirtless man who seemed very&nbsp;smily&nbsp;for having the nickname &ldquo;sadness&rdquo; (probably the point) had joined the other employees for some smokes and wine before they all headed off to get more work done in the vines.</p> <p>That left Julie and I. Incredibly, this was destined to be&nbsp;our one and only <em>t&ecirc;te &agrave; t&ecirc;te</em> conversation in over a decade of friendship. Without the clique, we talked undistracted for hours-over a few bottles of course. She brought me up to speed with the craziness of dealing with her father&rsquo;s inheritance and what it meant for the future of the estate. How she was planning on expanding her n&eacute;gociant line with grapes from Sylvain to help her have some earlier releases and keep things&nbsp;financially afloat. How she loved my &ldquo;Sons of Winearchy&rdquo; t-shirt <strong>(13)</strong> and wanted me get her one. We dove into her utopian vision of work and what she still hoped to accomplish: a true symbiosis of nature, beast and man coexisting and taking care of one another. I didn&rsquo;t take very many notes but here are two quotes from that conversation:</p> <p><em>&quot;I work on a human scale with human beings.&quot;</em></p> <p><em>&quot;We&#39;re not business people, we&#39;re ecologists.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>She talked about giving her employees a chance to make their own wines while still having the security of employment with her, to encourage them to work well and to know they have a support system. In fact, her long-term goal was to create a cave cooperative with her employees, Sylvain Chanudet and a few other vignerons: sharing equipment, helping each other with manual labor, building a communal cellar so smaller upstarts&nbsp;wouldn&#39;t have&nbsp;to take on the financial pressure of building their own cellars&hellip; Going back to older pieces I&rsquo;d written about her, Julie was saying much of the same over a decade ago in January 2012:</p> <p><em>&ldquo;I think it will&nbsp;remain as is in&nbsp;size. As I mentioned earlier, the real evolution I hope to achieve will come from working with livestock and the woods. If there were to be an expansion, I&#39;d rather do it to help a young&nbsp;vigneron&nbsp;get started. There would be room to assist each other, to share tools, know-how and manual labor.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>From this conversation, it finally clicked as to why Julie constantly surrounded herself with all these people, why she was so zen with her open door policy. Anyone and everyone was welcome. This wasn&rsquo;t because of boredom or loneliness, this was a vision, a way to live&hellip; A true cooperative space where anyone was welcome!&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Finally, we talked about how she was feeling great overall, how she was really embracing and enjoying life in her 40&rsquo;s and that it was something I should look forward to. Putain&hellip;</p> <p>As the sun was setting, some of the guys came back, including Sylvain with a bunch of goat cheese from Tristesse&rsquo;s friend. The other guys left; Sylvain had eaten already but kept us company while Julie prepared a quick meal: salad and cherries from her garden, potted<em> Poulet en Cr&egrave;me</em> and Tristesse&rsquo;s goat cheese. On the cheese, Sylvain had this to say:</p> <p><em>&ldquo;All I need is some of this, a piece of saucisson and a glass of Gamay in the morning. I&rsquo;m good to go&rdquo;.</em></p> <p>The three of us talked for many more hours: about the state of the world, about the Beaujolais, about a bunch of shit that would be too long to transcribe here. Julie started putting on music, which led us listening to Supr&ecirc;me N.T.M (a french rap crew) (<strong>14)</strong>&nbsp;and N.W.A , leading a philosophical discussion of how rap lyrics gave a&nbsp;voice to the&nbsp;oppressed, a way to speak truth to the injustices inflicted upon them. Sylvain admitted it&nbsp;wasn&#39;t really&nbsp;his thing sonically; he preferred Toto <strong>(15)</strong>, whom he&rsquo;d seen live in the 80&rsquo;s and who he felt were very talented musicians. At some point a Mozart sonata came on. Chaos!</p> <p>Before leaving, Julie gave me a picnic basket full of breakfast&nbsp;goodies&nbsp;and an unlabeled magnum for Kewin Descombes&rsquo; 10 year anniversary party <strong>(16)</strong>, which I drank with Jules M&eacute;tras, Elisa Guerrin, Laura Lardy and a young woman from California apprenticing at Domaine Chapel who was hoping to visit Julie at some point. As I was about to drive off, Julie called for me in the night, running towards the car to hand me the notebook I&rsquo;d forgotten at the table. It was the last time I&rsquo;d see her.</p> <p>That night, I felt like we were on the verge of something. Like any truly amazing conversation, it can feel like you&rsquo;ve figured everything out, that your ideas can change the world. Julie was radiant with joy and energy, smiling, laughing, cheering us on. We did the same. At one point I felt the presence of my usual Beaujolais companion Denyse (aka my mom) and my deceased father at the table with us, smiling fondly on these three individuals from wildly different backgrounds united over good wine and good people. I got emotional. I told myself: &ldquo;this is why we fucking do what we do.&rdquo; It was by far the best visit I&rsquo;d ever had with Julie; she seemed at the apex of what she was doing, ready to push things to a whole other level. On my end, I left invigorated and re-inspired for the future: my own, my company&rsquo;s, Julie&rsquo;s. The visit felt like a gift, a sign of great things to come. Yet just a few weeks later I find myself forced to re-interpret those feelings.</p> <p>The magic of Julie Balagny can never be emulated or recreated. She was amongst a small group of vignerons/vigneronnes I truly idolize for their eclecticism, irreverence, passion, energy, &nbsp;idiosyncrasy and conviction. Julie forged a community around her, one we&rsquo;re all so much better off for having been a part of. I won&rsquo;t try to find a replacement for Julie; instead I&rsquo;ll look out for those same qualities in those I choose to surround myself with.</p> <p>Because people like her CAN change the world.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/1c/e5/1ce5d40d2b1f69433fb7c03221633931.jpg" /></p> <p>***********</p> <p><strong>(1): Julie in her Fleurie vines with Trevor Kellogg in 2019.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/87/14/871416eddbc32128f5ed30da2cac7aaa.jpg" /></p> <p>(<b>2</b>)<strong>: a scan of the &quot;En Remont&quot; 2009 label.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/cf/58/cf58eb735fa2bceea84e46833c44595f.jpg" />.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>(3) The Carioca 2011 label.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/6c/40/6c40c82cf495d88f05063a105db9cb96.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(4): Christmas in summer at Julie Balagny&#39;s. Notice all the bottles on the table.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/9a/58/9a58088edfe6f5fac1fa214bd3232251.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(5): Julie in her Moulin-&agrave;-Vent vines, 2015.</strong><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/c1/73/c173f3d97b362623a75f6a231cb029f7.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(6) Dogs and sheep&nbsp;driving Zag bonkers.</strong></p> <p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="560" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7C4QOVQ2dks" title="Balagny Zag Bark" width="320"></iframe></p> <p><strong>(7): The front yard in Roman&egrave;che-Thorins</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/e0/d0/e0d014f15aabf250d1b86412201e1b4d.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(8): Rolling tobacco and Gamay, staples at Julie&#39;s table. Notice the Che Guevara tobacco pouch.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/1e/db/1edb7763a9f917a12d76da3c712e669f.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(9): My last haphazard meal with Julie, 2023.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/20/d7/20d762a2ac0347613d1e6d108c1172a2.jpg" /></p> <p>(10) The Docteur Bri&ccedil;ou label&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/b0/07/b007025bc9088e34ef5833280b09f502.jpg" />(11) &quot;Fran&ccedil;oise&quot;, a one-off cuv&eacute;e made in 2020 from purchased fruit.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/9b/6d/9b6d36f784775bcb986899d2a01620ec.jpg" /></p> <p>(12) &quot;Fran&ccedil;ois&quot; a one-off cuv&eacute;e and the only 2022 bottled at the time of my visit. the spiritual succesor to &quot;Fran&ccedil;oise&quot;.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/6d/21/6d2112da190af1ff5fd61d32653ec948.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(13): The Sons of Winearchy designed for our 2015 trade tasting t-shirts.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/3b/c1/3bc1ec3bfd7f3d59fd583334ff82d13b.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(14): The music video for Supr&ecirc;me N.T.M&#39;s &quot;Laisse Pas Trainer Ton Fils&quot;, the song we listened to and one of the best songs in the history of French hip-hop.</strong></p> <p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="404" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/biYdUZXfz9I" title="Suprême NTM - Laisse pas traîner ton fils (Clip officiel)" width="546"></iframe></p> <p><strong>(15) Toto: they saw&nbsp;the rain down in Africa. Here is a nine minute remix I&#39;ve been using as a secret weapon in DJ sets for years:</strong></p> <p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="404" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mDwI0DTqD_A" title="Late Nite Tuff Guy - Bless The Rains (LNTG Epic Journey)" width="539"></iframe></p> <p><strong>(16): Beaujolais Breakfast.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/84/25/8425295ea61595f6f3017b707cd27e64.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(MISC): A pair of Converse gifted to Julie in 2021. It became a running gag that we secured our annual allocation of her wines by bringing her a pair, as they are much cheaper in the United States.&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/f7/77/f777072acf89af35aa27cd350b5337ef.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(MISC): Julie driving us to her Fleurie parcels in 2019.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/5e/7a/5e7a6c1be9eb1d6c8bdc84357266b45f.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(MISC): a whirlwind of dogs and sheep encircling Denyse Louis in 2015.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/86/d1/86d10a3749622348cb281090e51ebc08.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(MISC): The label for the 2017 one-off &quot;Docteur Buchaille Pr&eacute;sente Ordinaire&quot;. That vintage, Julie&#39;s microscopic yields forced her to blend her Moulin-&agrave;-Vent grapes with her Beaujolais grapes. Inspired by her amazing time in California following her invite to Brumaire in Oakland, she decided to immortalize this mashup by naming the cuv&eacute;e after the Oakland wine bar Ordinaire (the joke being that it is anything but ordinary). She also included the whale tattoo Ordinaire owner Bradford Taylor has and Keven Clancy, our partner and friend at Farm Wine Imports, front and center of the label (that&#39;s him with the glasses).&nbsp;</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/1b/be/1bbe24b29bd36dbd2d3a24436ca87d1e.jpg" /></p> <p><strong>(MISC): Le label for &quot;Bella Ciao&quot;, the other 2017 cuv&eacute;e in which Julie blended all of her Fleurie fruit into one wine.</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>From wikipedia:&nbsp;&quot;Bella ciao&quot; is an&nbsp;Italian&nbsp;protest&nbsp;folk song&nbsp;from the late 19th century, originally sung by the&nbsp;mondina&nbsp;workers in protest against the harsh working conditions in the&nbsp;paddy fields&nbsp;of&nbsp;Northern Italy.</strong></p> <p><strong>It is widely assumed that the mondina song was modified and adopted as an anthem of the&nbsp;Italian resistance movement&nbsp;by the partisans who opposed&nbsp;Nazism&nbsp;and&nbsp;fascism, and fought against the occupying forces of&nbsp;Nazi Germany, who were allied with the fascist and collaborationist&nbsp;Italian Social Republic&nbsp;between 1943 and 1945 during the&nbsp;Italian Civil War. However, historians argue that there is little to no evidence that Italian partisans actually sang the song.</strong></p> <p><strong>Versions of &quot;Bella ciao&quot; continue to be sung worldwide as a&nbsp;hymn&nbsp;of freedom and resistance.</strong></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//736/d6/28/d6280abe88edbb0492172e6e20e9c50e.jpg" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>(MISC): a video I recorded of Julie grabbing a salad in her backyard for our last dinner. I posted it on social media, to which she responded: <em>Ainsi va la Vie!</em>&quot; (&quot;such is life!&quot;)</strong></p> <p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="560" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N9KZIbKr1XI" title="Julie in her backyard" width="320"></iframe></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

producers visit

<p><em><strong>Words and photos by Jules Dressner.&nbsp;</strong></em></p> <p>This winter, we were able to visit Thomas Puechavy for the first time. After greeting us at his home in Nazelles-N&eacute;gron, we took the 17 minute car ride to the village of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vouvray" title="1121">Vouvray&nbsp;</glossary></span></span>to visit his vines. I sat up front with Thomas, who I&#39;d only met minutes prior, along with his two friends Raf and Martin. It was a fun ride; Thomas is like me, Franco/American, but grew up his entire life in Paris. Raf is French but lives in London and Martin is German. Both were in France to help Thomas <glossary term="Pruning" title="834">prune</glossary> before spending the weekend at the various wine fairs around <glossary term="Saumur" title="919">Saumur</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Angers" title="104">Angers</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p>Everyone spoke English, and we discussed the VERY REAL connection between musicians/music lovers&nbsp;who are also really into wine.&nbsp;You see, Thomas&#39; first life was largely spent making music and touring with the band Moriarty.&nbsp;It was&nbsp;during extensive bouts on the road&nbsp;that he caught the wine bug. Raf and Martin originally met him through music, and they too are now completely enamored with wine through Thomas.</p> <p><em>&quot;Both reward an obsessive nature.&quot;</em></p> <p>After a beautiful drive, we&#39;d arrived to the village of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vouvray" title="1121">Vouvray</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> From a small dirt path, we walked onto an open field that quickly gave way to a large plateau&nbsp;of vineyards.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/24/3b/243bfddfbd2feb0066a06035bbab18f8.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/1f/f7/1ff7d1ee44fea92a7b40476c12cc0494.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/f1/9d/f19d29bb11e00e95b9c86670aa2b5ed8.jpg" /></p> <p>Thomas explained that this plateau is shared with Huet and Foreau. Some neighbors! The soils are <glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but this particular area is very light in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> making for exceptional drainage and imparting tons of&nbsp;<glossary term="Minerality" title="662">minerality</glossary> to the wines. Puechavy&#39;s vines are spread amongst many&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the youngest 25 and the oldest in their 80&#39;s. All in all,&nbsp;Thomas farms 3.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> spread over multiple <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plots</glossary> and two&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Lieu-Dit" title="594">lieu-dits</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> all within the same plateau.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/2d/27/2d27739fe37966ea08df58e8f3fff800.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/09/59/09595cb681f924ef3bef9c020c8aa173.jpg" /></p> <p>The vines had been worked <glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331">conventionally</glossary> prior to Thomas&#39; arrival in 2018 and are currently in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Conversion" title="332">organic conversion</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> So far he&#39;s been very careful with the soil, working it only superficially and very lightly at that.</p> <p><em>&quot;I worry there are still some roots at the superficial level after years of intensive </em><glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331"><em>conventional viticulture</em></glossary><em>.&quot;</em></p> <p>Thomas is also looking into <glossary term="Cover Crop" title="1255">cover-crops</glossary> and various herbal sprays to bring vigor back to the soils.&nbsp;</p> <p><em>&quot;I&#39;m pretty lucky. Huet and Foreau work </em><glossary term="Biodynamic" title="160"><em>biodynamically</em></glossary><em> and </em><glossary term="Organic" title="746"><em>organically</em></glossary><em> and are my only big neighbors. We&#39;re even in a counsel together to promote </em><glossary term="Biodiversity" title="1162"><em>biodiversity</em></glossary><em> in </em><glossary term="Vouvray" title="1121"><em>Vouvray</em></glossary><em>.&quot;&nbsp;</em></p> <p>One major project at the moment is to replant an indigenous tulip that all but disappeared in the area with the rise of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331">chemical agriculture</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Huet has always been able to maintain them on their land and is now giving them to other growers in the counsel to propagate in their own vineyards.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/f6/ec/f6ec86864bc33c29e6c0a01f7717c8d2.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/db/7a/db7a2dc44114263dd7f39a0a3294d245.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/23/bc/23bcabd49f5dba952c97c2879550c3a0.jpg" /></p> <p>While walking through the vines, Thomas also explained how he originally had no intention to work in the <glossary term="Loire Valley" title="602">Loire</glossary> or even to start his own&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><em>&quot;After finishing my studies, my plan was to go work for someone else, probably somewhere in the south like the </em><glossary term="Languedoc" title="579"><em>Languedoc</em></glossary><em>, and eventually find a little </em><glossary term="Plot" title="1133"><em>plot</em></glossary><em> to make some wine on the side. During an apprenticeship in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Loire Valley" title="602"><em>Loire</em></glossary><span>,</span></span></span> my boss at the time introduced me to a retiring </em><glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089"><em>vigneron</em></glossary><em> who had 10 </em><glossary term="Hectare" title="523"><em>hectares</em></glossary><em> in </em><glossary term="Vouvray" title="1121"><em>Vouvray</em></glossary><em>. His big stipulation was that he DID NOT want his land worked by someone already established in the area. He had some great <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary> but wanted me to take on all 10 </em><glossary term="Hectare" title="523"><em>hectares</em></glossary><em>. That wasn&#39;t possible, but I did happen to know two other guys who wanted to start small </em><glossary term="Estate" title="427"><em>estates</em></glossary><em> of their own. We agreed to split the land, and here I am today.&quot;</em></p> <p>From the vines, we headed back to Nazelles-N&eacute;gron to taste some wines in Thomas&#39; beautiful <glossary term="Tuffeau" title="1053">tuffeau</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/b1/23/b123715932bebed8a0b13c5ee6f41f18.jpg" /></p> <p>We began in the <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> room, tasting the soon to be <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottled</glossary> &quot;Rayon Blanc&quot; 2021 and &quot;Les&nbsp;Doyennes&quot; 2020.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/e3/80/e38078ac677273551dc2ebac113bce90.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/55/69/556997b9a1830c3df89c95634b019315.jpg" /></p> <p>Both wines are made in a very straightforward fashion: <glossary term="Direct Press" title="392">direct-pressed</glossary> then <glossary term="Racking/Soutirage" title="843">racked</glossary> to <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> to <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">ferment</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Aging" title="74">age</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> &quot;Rayon Blanc&quot; comes from the <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary>&#39;s&nbsp;younger vines and is <glossary term="Aging" title="74">aged</glossary> 14 to 16 months before&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottling</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> &quot;Les Doyennes&quot; comes from the old vines (60 to 80 years old) and <glossary term="Aging" title="74">ages</glossary>&nbsp;26 to 28 months before&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottling</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p>A third wine, a <glossary term="Pétillant Naturel" title="778">pet-nat</glossary> called &quot;Les Turbulants&quot;, begins its <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">fermentation</glossary> in <glossary term="Fiberglass" title="445">fiberglass</glossary> before finishing&nbsp;in bottle.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/d5/e1/d5e1385670ede41d44ba34ce1136b60e.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/b7/c7/b7c7c9d858b9accbfb6ad6fec6497893.jpg" /></p> <p>We ended the tasting with an <glossary term="Off-Dry" title="736">off-dry</glossary> 2022 from a tiny&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vat/Tank" title="1140">vat</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Thomas wasn&#39;t sure what he was going to do with it during the visit, but has since decided to <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottle</glossary> it without <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">sulfites</glossary> with a&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Crown Cap" title="359">crown cap</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> expecting a &quot;perlant&quot; style to develop in the bottle.</p> <p>After all that hard work, it was lunch time and we&nbsp;finally got to eat at&nbsp;Herv&eacute; and Patricia Chardonneau&#39;s Le Berlot in <glossary term="Montlouis" title="684">Montlouis</glossary> for the first time!&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/46/a4/46a4ecce12c76f48251490f9a27bef23.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//977/de/d1/ded1c1727412022ab60a0c4ade88a66a.jpg" /></p>

producers visit

<p><em><strong>Words and photos by Jules Dressner.</strong></em></p> <p>We&#39;ve known Joachim Roque for quite a few years now, but this was our first time visiting&nbsp;his&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Fueled by croissants, coffee and a nice view of the Mediterranean, we were ready to go!&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/5b/25/5b25d76464e006db818797e78c8bd725.jpg" /></p> <p>Joachim told us he wanted to start the visit in the vines of Saint-Andr&eacute;, the village where he lives. Not realizing it was a solid 20 minute drive, we had some time to chat about this sector I&#39;d never visited&nbsp;before.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/77/df/77dfe658f31d33d482174eb415048b46.jpg" /></p> <p>Saint-Andr&eacute; is not only where&nbsp;Joachim lives but where he has the majority of his vines. The <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary> here are part of the very broad <glossary term="Côtes du Roussillon" title="376">C&ocirc;tes du Roussillon</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Appellation" title="113">appellation</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p>The big project of the moment&nbsp;is to build a <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> minutes from his house for the 2023&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><em>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s much closer to </em><glossary term="Collioure" title="319"><em>Collioure</em></glossary><em> and all the Saint-Andr&eacute; vines are right there. From my village, there is only one road to </em><glossary term="Banyuls" title="135"><em>Banyuls</em></glossary><em> and the 9 Caves where&nbsp;I have my </em><glossary term="Cellar" title="254"><em>cellar</em></glossary><em>. We&rsquo;re </em><glossary term="Harvest" title="521"><em>harvesting</em></glossary><em> in August, it&rsquo;s peak tourist season. Sometimes it takes me an hour and half to get to the 9 Caves. It&rsquo;s a huge waste of time and energy.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>The first sector we visited is Joachim&#39;s single largest <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> of land.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/7a/84/7a84a583c9770f8971803bfc351cc830.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/e8/13/e813a479cfde9bfbb5fcfc5f3fc1c3d3.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/04/d2/04d278591814eced1fe9b1779bdc8ac8.jpg" /></p> <p>The main plantings are 12 year old <glossary term="Muscat" title="698">Muscat</glossary> that go&nbsp;into &quot;Esperanza Blanc&quot;,&nbsp;along with the <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> and <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache Noir</glossary> Joachim uses to make his&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> In 2022, he will plant some <glossary term="Xarel lo" title="1302">Xarel-lo</glossary> in hopes of making a sparkling wine. The <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> will also be by these vines, to the right of the building in the picture above.&nbsp;</p> <p>The soils here&nbsp;are very&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sand" title="909">sandy</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> so&nbsp;<glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary>&nbsp;can get up to very respectable&nbsp;4<span class="zalup"><span>0<glossary term="hl/ha" title="528">hl/h</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/0c/fb/0cfbf9c5991e1db49909d90aa8fdefb7.jpg" /></p> <p>Some of the younger vines have been struggling, so Joachim planted&nbsp;mustard seeds between the rows to help with vigor.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/b4/11/b411c632ed4b9f478eaad60b75aedc42.jpg" /></p> <p>The second <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> we visited is what Joachim&nbsp;uses the for&nbsp;his &quot;Brutal&quot;.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/cf/fd/cffd5c742cb259a738e3b40e5513b281.jpg" /></p> <p>The <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> consists of&nbsp;<glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> <glossary term="Co-plantation" title="309">co-planted</glossary> with <glossary term="Muscat d'Alexandrie" title="687">Muscat d&rsquo;Alexandrie</glossary> (hey, that&#39;s the same <glossary term="Blend" title="168">blend</glossary> as Tom Lubbe&#39;s Brutal!) The vines are about&nbsp;25 years old and planted on rockier&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sand" title="909">sands</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> They are off an off-road with little else but little patches of vines.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/54/83/5483f0fa3048d2bfba87e0806d70fa2a.jpg" /></p> <p>That&#39;s the <glossary term="Pyrenees Mountains" title="1195">Pyrenees</glossary> in the above&nbsp;background on the left. You could see them at any point of the visit.&nbsp;</p> <p>The third Saint-Andr&eacute; <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> we drove to is planted in 1.2<glossary term="Hectare" title="523">h</glossary> of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache Noir</glossary> and 1.2<glossary term="Hectare" title="523">h</glossary> of <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> for reds, along with&nbsp;40 <glossary term="Are" title="1208">ares</glossary> of <glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary> and <glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary> for white.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/54/f0/54f09807b519167f46e8c348fffb0e9e.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/84/09/84098fd07b6f2e74317b6574266e4403.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/84/e4/84e46f4a64ba900fc6c4ec771197f9e7.jpg" /></p> <p>There are plans to plant 35 <glossary term="Are" title="1208">ares</glossary> of <glossary term="Grenache Blanc" title="509">Grenache Blanc</glossary> here in 2022.</p> <p>We didn&#39;t stop and see all 12.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> in Saint-Andr&eacute;e, though we did drive past a few <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary>&nbsp;that go into the Tutti Frutti Ananas project. From this land, Joachim currently produces&nbsp;the Carterole &quot;Esperanza&quot; cuv&eacute;es&nbsp;(white, ros&eacute;, red) and roughly 80% of the Tutti Frutti Ananas production.&nbsp;</p> <p>We&nbsp;then headed to the <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Joachim&#39;s main <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> is on the other&nbsp;side of the mountain&nbsp;from Saint-Andr&eacute;. There were&nbsp;some stunning views on the drive over.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/29/17/2917a5a01ee2afaa0bfcd988223fe84c.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/f6/e4/f6e4b9005f6625ef41023b1055b458f7.jpg" /></p> <p>Fun fact: that rock on the top of the picture above&nbsp;is famous for mountain climbing and actually where special police and fire fighters&nbsp;train.&nbsp;</p> <p>After settling down a windy road, Joachim gave us the the lay of the land. His&nbsp;main <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> parcel has been dubbed Estafette because of the abandoned Renault truck of the same name living in the vineyard.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/95/c4/95c4764a964be283c8cdcc8244bfca29.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&quot;I have no idea how it got here. But it&#39;s useful to hide in when it rains or it&#39;s cold!&quot;</em></p> <p>Hey, at least this is one <glossary term="Lieu-Dit" title="594">lieu-dit</glossary> where we actually know the name&#39;s origin! If you pay attention, you&#39;ll also notice the truck on all of Joachim&#39;s labels along with some&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> a fisherman and <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary>&#39;s famous church Notre Dame des Anges.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/14/7b/147be6451c4bf2a2d6972a829b4e6774.png" /></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><em>&quot;If you&#39;re driving in the area, you&nbsp;can see the truck&nbsp;from pretty far away. We&#39;ve thought of painting it with our name&nbsp;and having tastings in it. Maybe one day.&quot;&nbsp;</em></p> <p>From this&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> an&nbsp;&quot;Esta F&ecirc;te&quot; white and red are produced.&nbsp;Grape wise, it&rsquo;s a traditional <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary>&nbsp;planted with the three colors of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary> along with some&nbsp;<glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary> and a tiny bit of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Roussanne" title="878">Roussanne</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/74/ab/74abdea4b90bda92113c5d0b035b553b.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/d6/45/d645b458f9fc901af39108debb63fba4.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/25/65/2565c72ca2b29eaf597a31da3afbf58f.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/5a/40/5a400833ad816e7f313e2962a2eb1cea.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/cf/52/cf527e5f5a6556b1a19a052911cfbe1a.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/c6/69/c669428e47d62d2a906c6cbb92260e39.jpg" /></p> <p>The view is not too bad either:</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/39/23/392362bc727801e73d8fe588acef57b3.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/ee/15/ee150d60dcf1778da684600911007215.jpg" /></p> <p>Directly above Joachim&#39;s vines, Manuel from Vinyer de la Ruca has one of his biggest vineyards. I covered it&nbsp;extensively in my 2019 Vinyer de la Ruca visit and recommend you read about&nbsp;if there.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/21/fc/21fc5fe187a73b80d0e9df32c7c21bd2.jpg" /></p> <p>If you look closely in the photo above, you&#39;ll notice sheep. They thought we&nbsp;were there to feed them and were&nbsp;very disappointed.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/91/d2/91d23ccc9e9d66a7b902add9e991be95.jpg" /></p> <p>One thing I hadn&#39;t caught back in 2019 was that a large proportion of the grapes in Manuel&#39;s <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> go into the <glossary term="Blend" title="168">blend</glossary> for &quot;Morango&quot;, a <glossary term="Cuvée" title="363">cuv&eacute;e</glossary> from&nbsp;Tutti Frutti Ananas.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/61/b7/61b7cd1622e36536e33d2ff4066084d8.jpg" /></p> <p>With the sheep still booing (behhhing?) us, we got back in the car,&nbsp;driving&nbsp;closer to <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> itself to visit a second sector.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/70/79/7079905bb7bcf264d276cc51cbefdfac.jpg" /></p> <p>Here the <glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary> are much more spaced out and at a lower&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Elevation" title="419">elevation</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> The three <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenaches</glossary> are planted&nbsp;with&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but Joachim&nbsp;is planting other varieties for fun because it is one of the only sectors in <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary>&nbsp;that is&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Mechanization" title="645">mechanizable</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> These are also the only vines Joachim owns.</p> <p>It was lunch time, so we headed back to town for a lovely meal accompanied by Joachim&#39;s 2021&#39;s.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/f1/a1/f1a15a58ffc0ac115f605046db044a06.jpg" /></p> <p>The wines were all showing quite well despite it being a very complicated <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> with long <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">fermentations</glossary> and a particularly worrisome spike of <glossary term="Volatile Acidity" title="1116">volatile acidity</glossary> that forced Joachim to add a gram of <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">sulfur</glossary> to the wines before&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottling</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> This is the first time Joachim has used <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">S02</glossary> in his own production. He feels it&#39;s a concession but&nbsp;does not regret the decision.&nbsp;</p> <p>After lunch, we got to be tourists for 10 minutes since the restaurant was right next to&nbsp;Notre Dame des Anges (which was unfortunately under repair scaffolding.)</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/03/78/03784ac9f7446127ccb9990e19bc6476.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/64/f6/64f6e022a7446d1bb1bbdaae67231cee.jpg" /></p> <p>On the way back to&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> we stopped by Joachim&#39;s third sector in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/5f/ea/5fea7210163714b013e5075d2f70bef5.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/63/21/6321df73001129619c316c3a27c214f5.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/53/55/5355e12d168cf4fb67b8907f3df4fdca.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/e9/3a/e93a918ba5daa2764757f8042eb1164e.jpg" /></p> <p>As you can see, these vines are directly above&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;Along with the traditional <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenaches</glossary> and <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> Joachim has&nbsp;planted&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Roussanne" title="878">Roussanne</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino&nbsp;</glossary>and <glossary term="Mourvèdre" title="692">Mourv&egrave;dre</glossary> in this area along with more <glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Blanc" title="509">Grenache Blanc</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;A huge and unprecedented storm destroyed a lot of the vines here in 2014, so it was an opportunity to start fresh with these less traditional&nbsp;grapes. It&nbsp;was also a&nbsp;ton of work as they had to rebuild the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Before linking with Manuel from Vinyer de la Ruca, we stopped by the Carterole <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> to taste a last wine Joachim had forgotten at lunch.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/2d/ad/2dad287bfe791f18b7dd727d5288d708.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//937/c7/40/c7401652e6006efb390d26119632e952.jpg" /></p> <p>As with all the producers working out of the 9 Caves, the spaces are tiny and everything fits where it can. These&nbsp;bare bones <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellars</glossary> really afirm that the quality of these wines is coming from the <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroir</glossary> first and foremost.</p>

interview

<p><strong>You&rsquo;re originally from the region and from a viticultural family right?</strong></p> <p>I&rsquo;m from the region but not exactly from a <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticultural</glossary> family. I was born and raised in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> my grandfather was the last fisherman of the village. Back then, it was traditional for fisherman to own vines as a second occupation; the winter season was much slower for fish so it was something else to do. So I&rsquo;ve always been around vines, doing <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvests</glossary> every year. Pretty much everyone worked for the <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary> of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> at the time all the grapes went into making the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vin Doux" title="1095">vin doux</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><strong>How much land did your grandfather have?</strong></p> <p>Back then every family had two or three&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it was a complementary activity and not seen as a full time job. When my grandfather got older, it was his brother-in-law who started taking care of the vines. He had about eight&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and those <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvests</glossary> are my earliest memories in the vines. My grandmother had eight children and it was a big weekend activity: the whole family would <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> and she&rsquo;d cook for everyone.</p> <p><strong>So you inherited land?</strong></p> <p>I did not. No one from my family kept my great uncle&rsquo;s vines. As you know, the popularity of <glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary> and <glossary term="Vin Doux" title="1095">vin doux</glossary> has been in free fall for quite a while. So he&rsquo;d sold off most of his land and kept very little.</p> <p>I went through high school but flunked out of university, it was not my thing. So I needed to start working. I ended up working for a <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vigneron</glossary> who sold to the <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary> but worked&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> I&rsquo;ve always been an athletic person, so I took a liking to the the physical aspect and being outside. That was in 2008.</p> <p><strong>How long did you work with this vigneron and what led to your own project?</strong></p> <p>I worked with him for about a year. He was the only one working in <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organics</glossary> for the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> so he knew all the &ldquo;crazy&rdquo; independent <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> working in the same way: Alain Castex, Bruno Duch&ecirc;ne, Manuel di Vecchi Staraz&hellip; and he was also selling them a bit of his crop for a little extra income. So that was my introduction to that microcosm.</p> <p>Working <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary> felt natural to me and meeting these small independent <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> coming from other regions was inspiring. In 2010, I decided I wanted to start my own project. So I followed a <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticultural</glossary> program in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span> <glossary term="Rivesaltes" title="863">Rivesaltes</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> mainly so I&nbsp;could touch subventions from the government. It was the first year they were offering an <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organic</glossary> curriculum, so that meant my internship would de facto be with someone who was&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic Certification" title="260">certified</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Being from&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it didn&rsquo;t make sense to me to go somewhere flat and learn tractor work; I needed someone in <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary>/<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Fortunately for me, there weren&rsquo;t a ton of choices and I ended up with Alain Castex. He taught me everything about <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organic</glossary> <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary> in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> which I will sum up&nbsp;as: the <glossary term="Xadic" title="1465">xadic</glossary> and the <glossary term="Xadic" title="1465">xadic</glossary> and the <glossary term="Xadic" title="1465">xadic</glossary> (laughs). But my time there did not coincide with the <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinifications</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> so I was not able to learn anything from him in that respect.</p> <p>Being from the area, it wasn&rsquo;t that hard finding land. These were more or less abandoned by <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cooperative</glossary> farmers because they were not very productive. But honestly it was good for me, I learned a lot from the hard work and low&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> So I started with a few <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> and was bringing my grapes to the cooperative. 2011 was my first <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> and in 2012 I started finding more land. I was still bringing everything to the <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary> but working most <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Talking to Alain and Bruno Duch&ecirc;ne, they said they might be interested in my grapes and that&rsquo;s how I started selling some to Bruno.</p> <p>By 2013, Bruno and I had become close. He was in the early stages of the 9 Caves project, and told me: &ldquo;You&rsquo;re 25, you&rsquo;re from the area. You don&rsquo;t want to make your own wine here?&rdquo; I told him I had no idea how to make wine, that Alain hadn&rsquo;t been able to show me. This was around <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> time, so he told me that if I wanted, I could come by after the day&rsquo;s work picking and help him out in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> see how it works and ask questions. So my first lessons in winemaking were with Bruno.</p> <p>It was great because Bruno is someone who&rsquo;d been in other regions, had experience past the <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary> of <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> So I got to absorb his techniques for his wines, but also ask how it was done elsewhere. If I have one regret, it&rsquo;s that I started so young in my native land and didn&rsquo;t spend any time seeing how it&rsquo;s done in other parts of France and the world.</p> <p><strong>So this was the spark.</strong></p> <p>Yes. From this experience I decided to make my own wine. But I started with very little independent production and continued to sell to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> This assured revenue that I could re-invest into my own&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> My first <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> with Domaine Carterole was 2014.</p> <p><strong>How has Domaine Carterole evolved since that first vintage?</strong></p> <p>From 2014 to 2017, I&rsquo;d say about 80% of my production was still going to the <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative&nbsp;</glossary>and a little bit to Bruno. I had managed to rent 14 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines at that point, all in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> But I realized it was going to be impossible to working all of&nbsp;these&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> at least economically. So from 2017 to 2020, I let go of a lot of the <glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary> and searched&nbsp;for flatter land that was at least partly&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Mechanization" title="645">mechanizable</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> These ended up being in the sector of Saint-Andr&eacute;, the village where I live. It was too much land for my own production, so that was also the impetus&nbsp;for Tutti Frutti Ananas. This was 2017.</p> <p>So 2017 was a turning point. The years prior I was making between 1500 and 3000 bottles, it was nothing. From 2017 to 2020 I made between 4000 and 7500 bottles. And 2021 another milestone, because I acquired more vines in Saint-Andr&eacute; but also decided to completely stop with the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> One of the biggest reasons I was so conservative in the early years was that I worried I wouldn&rsquo;t be able to sell my production. But now I&rsquo;m confident I can do it and aim to make about 15 000 bottles a year.</p> <p><strong>14 hectares sounds like a huge amount of land for the area. How much of it was&nbsp;on terraces? How much on flatter land?</strong></p> <p>It&rsquo;s true being from the area helped, a lot of people remembered by grandfather. Then my neighbors would see me working the soils with my little caterpillar,&nbsp;they felt compelled talking to the crazy young guy busting his hump. I told them this was my vision for the work in the vines, and a bunch of them actually said that if I wanted, they had land I could rent.</p> <p>Today I have 8.5 hectares in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> five of those on the traditional <glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary> where <glossary term="Mechanization" title="645">mechanization</glossary> is impossible. Then I have 12 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> in Saint-Andr&eacute;e where I live. <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> is a magnificent&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroir</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but economically it&rsquo;s very hard to make a living, especially if you work&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> I&rsquo;d have to sell the wines super expensive or do some <glossary term="Négociant" title="729">n&eacute;goce</glossary> on the side. In Saint-Andr&eacute; I can get 4<span class="zalup"><span>0<glossary term="hl/ha" title="528">hl/h</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> with <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> like that I can have something to offer quantity-wise&nbsp;at a more reasonable price.</p> <p><strong>Even eight hectares still sounds like a lot for Collioure.</strong></p> <p>Some guys have a lot more but it&rsquo;s worked&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331">conventionally</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> But yes, I suppose I have a relatively large amount of land, especially for working&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><strong>What goes into Domaine Carterole versus Tutti Frutti Ananas?</strong></p> <p>I&rsquo;d say I <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinify</glossary> about 40% of my production, then the rest goes to Tutti Frutti and to Bruno. Roughly 80% of the grapes that produce Tutti Frutti come from my land.</p> <p><strong>What does Carterole mean?</strong></p> <p>It was my grandfather&rsquo;s nickname. A carterole is the little barrel like the ones&nbsp;Saint Bernards wear around their necks. Back in the day, fishermen would fill theirs up with wine for the day&rsquo;s work on the boat. The wines were much lighter back then, and grandpa&nbsp;had a reputation for drinking a lot of it. So that&rsquo;s where the nickname came from.</p> <p><strong>What grapes are you growing?</strong></p> <p>In <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> the biggest <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> I have is a flat <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> It&rsquo;s not very traditional, here we always had the three <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span>(<glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Noir</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Gris</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Grenache Blanc" title="509">Blanc</glossary>) and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> When they introduced the <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> <glossary term="Appellation" title="113">appellation</glossary> in 1971, those wines are meant to be dry so they started permitting other grapes.&nbsp;Now 15 are allowed;&nbsp;that includes <glossary term="Mourvèdre" title="692">Mourv&egrave;dre</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Counoise" title="351">Counoise</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the latter being very rare. The only guy I knew who still has&nbsp;a lot is Alain Castex. Besides the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> in <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> I have&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache Noir</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary> and <glossary term="Mourvèdre" title="692">Mourv&egrave;dre</glossary> for red. In white I have&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Blanc" title="509">Grenache Blanc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary> and some&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Roussanne" title="878">Roussanne</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>In Saint-Andr&eacute; I have&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache Noir</glossary> and a bit of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Muscat" title="698">Muscat</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> All of this was already there, and two years ago I planted some more <glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> And this year I&rsquo;ll plant more of those along with <glossary term="Grenache Blanc" title="509">Grenache Blanc</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Xarel lo" title="1302">Xarello</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><strong>Being the only local in what you call this microcosm of small vignerons puts you in a fairly unique position. You&rsquo;re from the region but learned from outsiders; how does that resonate with you personally and for the region as a whole?</strong></p> <p>Before I met any of these&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> I&rsquo;d of course heard of them. Locals considered them eccentric oddballs. They thought they were crazy for working this land manually for tiny&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> I&rsquo;ll admit that locally people are quite judgmental and wary of outsiders. I know Bruno befriended an old man who taught him how to&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grafting" title="500">graft</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> but personalities like that are rare around here.&nbsp;</p> <p>But I also think there was resentment and jealousy. Think about it: 90% of the <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> are selling to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and here come these outsiders with their independent&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Estate" title="427">estates</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> selling the entirety of their production at high prices. Fortunetly I got to know these people and they are extraordinary: they are humble, generous and&nbsp;smart. Bruno gave me the opportunity to have my own&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Knowing I&rsquo;d be around Bruno and&nbsp;Manuel with Alain just next door, it&rsquo;s what motivated me to do this. Without their influence, I don&rsquo;t know where I&rsquo;d have ended up.</p> <p>I&rsquo;m very lucky, they&rsquo;ve always had my back: tasting my wines, giving me advice, reassuring me, always giving me the time of day. They also introduced me to all their customers! A conventional winemaker, even if he has his own&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> he&rsquo;s not going to share his customers with a neighbor, he sees them as a competitor. Bruno and Manuel, they&rsquo;ve taken me to all the fairs, introduced me to people like you, made sure I was around at the right times.</p> <p>A lot of locals scratch there heads at what we do; this is an area that has lost all of its popularity yet here is this small group of people selling their production. We are happy in what we do, we get along, we share our energy and party together. It&rsquo;s great.</p>

producers visit

<p><em><strong>This visit took place in March 2022. Words and photos by Jules Dressner.</strong></em></p> <p>Ah, <glossary term="Provence" title="831">Provence</glossary>&hellip; Lavender! Celebrity wineries! Kermit Lynch! I gotta say, I don&rsquo;t spend a tremendous amount of time in this region but I get why people dig&nbsp;it. And I also get why we don&#39;t visit often:&nbsp;outside of the established classic <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estates</glossary>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bandol" title="134">Bandol</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it&rsquo;s mostly a a lot of&hellip;&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">Ros&eacute;</glossary> from celebrities, <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary> in stupidly shaped bottles, <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary> with grapefruit extract&hellip;&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ROS&Eacute;</glossary><span>!</span></span></span> So why the hell were we in Lambesc, a small village 30 minutes North-West of Aix-en-Provence? To visit Jean Benoit and B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Comor and their <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">neo-vigneron</glossary> operation at Domaine la Providence!</p> <p>Our introduction to their work was through Julien Pineau, who&rsquo;d worked in <glossary term="Provence" title="831">Provence</glossary> before eventually settling in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Touraine" title="1036">Touraine</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Over a splendid vegetarian dinner in summer 2021, he <glossary term="Blind Tasting" title="170">blinded</glossary> us on a bottle we all loved. After the reveal, it was clear Julien was <glossary term="schnook" title="1448">schnooking</glossary> us on his friend&rsquo;s wine: &ldquo;He made 2000 bottles and it costs this much!&rdquo; After some communications with Jean Benoit, we agreed to import this single wine, &ldquo;La Providence&rdquo;, and to visit as soon as we could.</p> <p>So here we were. The property, a dilapidated farm house and 18 sprawling <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines, was acquired by the Comor in late 2016. It used to be called La Pomme (&ldquo;the apple&rdquo;), which instantly felt off&nbsp;since none were grown there. A new name was inevitable but many of their original choices were taken (more on that later). Eventually they settled on Domaine la Providence; no it&rsquo;s not named after&nbsp;the city in Rhode Island or religious undertones but for the lesser common use of the word: a person or event that arrives at the right time to save a situation or constitutes an opportunity, an exceptional help.</p> <p>We began the visit right outside the main entrance, with three <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary> and 0.5h&nbsp;of Caladoc, a <glossary term="Hybrid" title="532">hybrid</glossary> of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Malbec" title="366">C&ocirc;t</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/ff/11/ff11c1662198c44db87092dc1f54c584.jpg" /></p> <p>For the &ldquo;coup de coeur&rdquo; <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> (<glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> they feel are truly qualitative, they like working and currently <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinify</glossary> themselves), JB&nbsp;is superficially working every other row of soil while leaving <glossary term="Cover Crop" title="1255">cover-crop</glossary> in the other to rest for a year. They are also replanting old vines on the sites they like. Before Jean-Benoit and Ben&eacute;dicte took over, the vines were worked ultra<span class="zalup"><span><span>-</span><glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331">conventionally&nbsp;</glossary></span></span>and 95% of the production was destined to <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary>&#39;s&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;Everyone around them thinks they are crazy for having <glossary term="Conversion" title="332">converted</glossary> to&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organics</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> especially since the first five crops all went to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Because <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> and production were so important to the previous owner, over-plantation was rampant. Very quickly, the Comor ripped out all vines planted on richer soils on the sides of most vineyards, letting them rest or planting fruit and olive trees. JB is planning to rip out an additional five <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> in the main sector of vines by the house, mostly&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cabernet Sauvignon" title="217">Cabernet Sauvignon</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> The long term goal is to rebuild the landscape to something less&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Monoculture" title="671">monocultural</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the way they imagine it would have been in the 1970&rsquo;s. Tearing out these vines would also permit the Comor to build a new <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> and, more ambitiously, create <glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary> in this sector.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/1f/b5/1fb5045df08f717937d1b753364a725e.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&ldquo;If you look, you can actually see that with years of </em><glossary term="Chemicals" title="279"><em>chemicals</em></glossary><em>, </em><glossary term="Erosion" title="1153"><em>erosion</em></glossary><em>, tractors and </em><glossary term="Machine Harvesting" title="611"><em>harvest machines</em></glossary><em>, the soil levels dip drastically from the top to the middle of the row. To properly work these soils, you actually can&rsquo;t use the same tractor. You have to switch mid-way to a caterpillar or by hand.&rdquo;</em></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/a1/9b/a19bb87bc6a3171cf161cc109d078445.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/a7/37/a7378109ca04581893fad3c4572db22f.jpg" /></p> <p>Currently, a large part of the grapes are still destined to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> For these, they do not work the soils, choosing to clean up the edges of the rows with a disc blade. There tend to be more <glossary term="Esca" title="425">esca</glossary> problems in these <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> and they are not so sure if they want to replant. They are also still <glossary term="Machine Harvesting" title="611">machine-harvesting</glossary> these as the grapes go to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Some sectors Jean-Beno&icirc;t has been preparing for new plantations by letting the soils rest three years after the uprooting. The only thing he&rsquo;s doing is planting fava beans to bring nutrients and air to the soil. On the white <glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> and <glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary> soils, Jean-Benoit has decided to focus exclusively on white grapes, already having planted&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Terret" title="1025">Terret</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Trebbiano/Ugni Blanc" title="1043">Ugni Blanc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sauvignon Blanc" title="927">Sauvignon Blanc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sémillon" title="1003">Semillon</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bourboulenc" title="1253">Bourboulenc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="-Select term-" title="">Marsanne</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Clairette" title="297">Clairette Rose</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Here is a picture of the biggest new plantation:</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/85/52/8552df6b4f523d8c490cdeeff4e012ab.jpg" /></p> <p>He is purchasing from three separate <glossary term="Pépiniériste" title="773">p&eacute;pini&eacute;ristes</glossary> to get as much <glossary term="Clones" title="304">clonal</glossary> diversity as possible. Many of these <glossary term="Varietal" title="1071">varieties</glossary>&nbsp;are not permitted in the <glossary term="Appellation" title="113">appellation</glossary> but since the plan is to make everything in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vin de France" title="1092">VDF</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the constraints are limited.</p> <p>One of the major <glossary term="Plateau" title="809">plateaux</glossary> close to the farm is all <glossary term="Gravel" title="504">gravel</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Here there is mostly <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> planted in 1993. The big project in this <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> is to add <glossary term="Palissage" title="757">palissage</glossary> so he can control the vines better. They&rsquo;ve also been replanting like crazy here, in total 2200 vines with 1100 more on the way in 2022.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/a2/db/a2db722573034970ad33814685730aa4.jpg" /></p> <p>As you can see in the picture above,&nbsp;<glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> with&nbsp;young vines have <glossary term="Irrigation" title="549">irrigation</glossary> tubes and need to be watered the first three years of their life, it&#39;s&nbsp;just too dry otherwise. The <glossary term="Provence" title="831">Provence</glossary> region is actually very involved in this: they provide access to the <glossary term="Irrigation" title="549">irrigation</glossary> but also control the levels of water you are allowed to use by analyzing the stress levels of vines. As far as I know, no other region is this involved in the process. JB estimates that a young plant doesn&rsquo;t need to be <glossary term="Irrigation" title="549">irrigated</glossary> after three or so years.</p> <p>We then saw&nbsp;another young plantation of white grapes:&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Marsanne" title="634">Marsanne</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Carignan Blanc" title="1306">Carignan Blanc</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/2b/aa/2baadc08294c564501bfa79c68d89bef.jpg" /></p> <p>In the area, white mustard grows on <glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary> and is indicative of healthy soils. Good news: we spotted&nbsp;it everywhere!</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/b7/fb/b7fbcd016375b01acedf901250526f2b.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/20/4e/204eaf7f6639e54f841be7c712f4c751.jpg" /></p> <p>We then hopped into the car to see the <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> further from the house. The first stop was a <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> of <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary> planted in 1985. The soils here are <glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Jean-Benoit likes it because it&rsquo;s well protected from the wind.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/e4/78/e478989a0c29e32c33da9fd2e85211de.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/7d/05/7d052dfdda00026e49798c3f976dfbe3.jpg" /></p> <p>Around this point in the visit, I turned to my colleague Carl and said something&nbsp;equivalent to &ldquo;this is a shit ton of work.&rdquo;&nbsp;What was already and currently being done, plus all the future plans: what a tremendous undertaking! I asked Jean Benoit if he anticipated or planned on such an intense project.</p> <p><em>&ldquo;I had no idea. We visited in summer, the vegetation was gorgeous and we instantly fell in love with the property. But we were also reasoning for our family. With six children at home, it was good to be close to things: schools, extracurricular activities... Even going out on a date to have dinner or see a movie in Aix-en-Provence! We also have relatives close by. I&rsquo;ve had eight different jobs before settling down here, I was always moving around. Here I feel what I am doing matters. But I didn&rsquo;t know how to drive a tractor in 2017!&rdquo;</em></p> <p>The next <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> we visited was mostly <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> and <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary> planted in 1966 on pure&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sand" title="909">sand</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Here they&nbsp;are working the soils&nbsp;as they like the sector, with the ultimate goal of only mowing over&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cover Crop" title="1255">cover-crops</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> There was also another young plantation of white grapes, this time&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bourboulenc" title="1253">Bourboulenc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Clairette" title="297">Clairette Rose</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/03/f0/03f0d4e8ec1310dc342e4ea7f9ae69d7.jpg" /></p> <p>After an extensive tour of the vines, we headed to the <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> to taste some 2021&rsquo;s. Nothing had been <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottled</glossary> save a juicy <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary>/<glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> called &quot;Chemin Faisant.&quot; This loosely translates to &ldquo;the path being created in real time.&rdquo;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/21/c2/21c243f5e4ec3c1494c9ba24a1ebc5a5.jpg" /></p> <p>While there are <glossary term="Fiberglass" title="445">fiberglass</glossary> and <glossary term="Stainless Steel" title="986">stainless steel</glossary> <glossary term="Vat/Tank" title="1140">tanks</glossary> in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the majority of what was <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinified</glossary> in 2021 was sitting in 500L <glossary term="Burgundian" title="210">Burgundian</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Those saw <glossary term="Battonage" title="147">b&acirc;tonnage</glossary><glossary term="Battonage" title="147"></glossary> twice day and were <glossary term="Racking/Soutirage" title="843">racked</glossary> after&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Malolactic Fermentation" title="622">malo</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Fun aside: whenever a <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> was&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Racking/Soutirage" title="843">racked</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> Jean-Benoit chose to write a current event he&rsquo;d heard on the news that day in chalk.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/7c/b7/7cb71bb8aa89f99cc348c3566bce74be.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/02/a2/02a2ae8ac1f6adbd9fb8e34fa8aeff33.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/48/46/4846569b411f003c4fa6166b2d474885.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/7e/fe/7efe0c894ec61c6a4037bce57a75eea3.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun for the kids and helps me remember what happened on what day.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>This being the first &ldquo;real&rdquo;&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it wasn&rsquo;t decided what <glossary term="Blend" title="168">blends</glossary> or <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottlings</glossary> would come from what we&rsquo;d tasted. 2021 was an atypical&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage&nbsp;</glossary></span></span>with a lot of rain that slowed <glossary term="Maturation" title="639">maturation</glossary> and limited&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Concentration" title="324">concentration</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Over dinner, we found out that the Comor have been together since college and dreamed of starting an <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> for the last 20 years. They seriously started pursuing the idea in the 2010&#39;s and almost settled in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Beaujolais" title="151">Beaujolais</glossary><span>, where they</span></span></span>&nbsp;met and befriended many locals who could have easily helped them find land. But Jean Benoit&rsquo;s determination to also make <glossary term="Saint-Véran" title="900">Saint-V&eacute;ran</glossary> and <glossary term="Pouilly-Fuissé" title="820">Pouilly-Fuiss&eacute;</glossary> at the same time proved too complicated. There was also an opportunity in <glossary term="Limoux" title="597">Limoux</glossary> that fell through.</p> <p>Perhaps the funniest detail we unearthed was that they&rsquo;d originally wanted to call the <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> Domaine du Possible but, as some of you may already know, it was already taken! We just so happened to have bottles from our visit with Lo&iuml;c Roure, so we opened some up since they&rsquo;d never tried them.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/54/15/5415a4862a471fdd7b872b150f96afef.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&ldquo;We wanted to call it Domaine du Possible because for 20 years we were always getting shut down. But Providence works.&rdquo;</em></p>