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Les Vignes de Babass Producer Profile

Les Vignes de Babass Produer Profile

Les Vignes de Babass Producer Profile

Les Vignes de Babass Produer Profile

Les Vignes de Babass Producer Profile

Les Vignes de Babass Produer Profile

Champagne Flancourt from Quentin Richard

Flancourt is a micro Champagne “maison” founded by Quentin Richard in 2025. Quentin, alongside his father Matthieu and mother Delphine Boulard, dutifully tend to Champagne Francis Boulard et Fille's 3.5 hectares of biodynamically farmed vineyards, from which they produce some of the Marne's finest grower Champagne. Firmly committed to his family's legacy and planning on inheriting Boulard et Fille, Quentin's youthful ambition and connection to the champagne house world through his fiancé, whom he lives with full-time in Reims, nonetheless led him to form an alternative, parallel project. We've worked with Quentin’s grandfather Francis and mother Delphine for over 15 years and adore them. Quentin is much a newer addition, but in our times together we’ve come to discover a smart, enthusiastic young man excited to tackle the world, fortunately with humility and open-mindedness. So when he reached out to us about this new project, we were intrigued but a little intimidated. Not by Quentin, mind you, but the idea of working with a “maison de Champagne” versus a “vigneron independent”. How exactly does this whole thing work?  We naturally had a lot of questions about scale, sourcing, motivation for starting the project, etc… Rather than paraphrase, here are Quentin’s verbatim answers: "The project was born out of a deeply personal desire: to create a brand complementary to that of the family estate—one with a distinct identity, yet consistent with my own background and vision of wine. My parents remain actively involved at Francis Boulard et Fille today, and I felt a desire to develop my own distinct creative expression alongside them. The wines from my family estate are highly precise and distinctly gastronomic—a result of our commitment to organic and biodynamic farming practices. With this project, however, I sought to explore something slightly different: wines that are more immediate and approachable in style, while still maintaining the utmost rigor in our selection of terroirs and the quality of our winemaking. Thus, this venture represents a natural continuation of my work with Boulard—an estate I also look forward to taking the helm of in the future. I currently work with three different partner winegrowers, from whom I purchase grapes exclusively. I chose them, above all, for the quality and consistency of their work in the vineyards. The terroirs hail primarily from the Massif de Saint-Thierry and the Marne Valley, as well as from the Château-Thierry sector for a portion of the blends. This diversity allows me to craft wines that possess a balance of tension, fruit, and equilibrium. The vineyards have an average age of 30 years. Regarding viticulture, even if the vineyards are not certified organic, it is of utmost importance to me to work exclusively with partners who adopt a responsible approach that respects the soil. No herbicides or systemic products are used in the vineyard plots with which I work. The soils are either mechanically tilled or kept under grass cover, depending on specific needs. My partner winegrowers do not produce Champagne themselves; instead, they sell their grapes to various Champagne houses or cooperatives within the region. While this practice is quite common in Champagne, the specific plots selected for my wines are subject to dedicated monitoring and precise quality criteria. In the cellar, fermentations are carried out using indigenous yeasts. I strive for winemaking methods that are as natural and non-interventionist as possible, while maintaining precision and stability. Generally, the wines are neither fined nor heavily filtered. Depending on the specific cuvée and vintage, a light filtration may be performed prior to bottling to ensure the wines' stability during transport and export. We average around 30 g/L of sulfites, but this can vary depending on the cuvée, the sector, the vintage, and the grape varieties. It is never an exact figure. We add sulfites at press and a second time at racking.” For Flancourt’s initial offerings, Quentin has released three Champagnes, all 2022’s disgorged and released in late 2025. The “Chronique Brut” is the house calling card, a classic Marne blend of 90% Pinot Meunier and 10% Pinot Noir. A “Chronique Blanc de Blancs” 2022 and “Chronique Blanc de Noirs” 2022 from Pinot Noir round out the line-up, all with a three gram dosage. To get his feet off the ground, Quentin did buy some finished wine for Chronique 2022 that he blended, aged, dosed and disgorged. Beginning with the 2023 vintage, which is aging sur-lattes and to be released in 2027 at the very earliest, the wines will all be vinified, aged and disgorged by Quentin in his cellar. While we certainly work with many négociant wines, most of these result from a shifting landscape forced upon our producers from a decade of short crops throughout the 2010's and 2020's. In rare cases like Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme and the late Olivier Lemasson, some were solely négociants before acquiring their own land and shifting more into the full-fledged vignerons they'd eventually become. We bring this up only to assure you that our choice to import Flancourt is not a cynical, market-driven one: these are qualitative Champagnes intentionally made in a more immediate, approachable style. Ultimately, what cemented our confidence in the project is Quentin’s connection to his family legacy at Boulard: the pedigree and quality is already there, and given this is only the very beginning, we have no doubt the wines will only continue to evolve in complexity and quality.

A Deeper Dive Into Yannick's Work Philosophies

A deeper dive into Yannick's work philosophies

On working with oxygen in the cellar: Before starting to vinify Riesling by direct-pressing it, I took the time to taste many wines made on this type of terroir: that is to say hard soils such as granite, schist or gneiss. These geological formations, created millions of years ago by extremely high temperatures, were literally "cooked": the minerals and soils hardened at more than 1,000° at the bottom of the oceans, in the center of the Earth or during volcanic episodes. What happens at such temperatures? Minerals of the same family group together: mica with mica, feldspar with feldspar. Let's imagine clay, a particularly chaotic soil found only on the Earth's surface. Why this exclusive location? Simply because clay represents minerals and organic matter decomposed by water and air, elements belonging to the living realm. It is teeming with bacteria and yeasts that can only decompose on the surface, precisely where water and air are found. It's comparable to our intestine: a living environment, fermenting and constantly decomposing. Now let's take this clay and place it under pressure and heat equivalent to 1,000 tons per cm² and 1,000° temperatures like at the center of the Earth. What happens? It hardens to become schist. With even more pressure and heat, it evolves into mica-schist, and then finally into transparent garnet, just as limestone becomes marble. It then becomes hydrophobic and devoid of oxygen. What should we understand from all of this? These hard soil compositions are associated with the non-living, such as space or the Earth's center and surface. They belong to the cosmos, like a solar summer in a cloudless July, under high pressure, diffusing its heat. The opposite of this non-living world constitutes our habitat: the intestine, the planetary surface between 20 km above and 20 km below, where oxygen and water coexist. The terrestrial, the living, the water, the low pressure... This is why vines were historically planted on hillsides: there is clay for the link to the living (growth, fermentation) and hard soil for the non-living (flower, fruit, aromatic, tannins, bitterness). Is oxidation linked to oxygen and therefore to living things, to decomposition? A wine grown on clay oxidizes much more easily than a wine from hard soils, ones without affinities to oxygen. Moreover, a wine with volatile acidity, a "hardening" in a non-living process, can neither oxidize nor age well. In the past, when fermentations progressed more favorably thanks to less sunny climatic conditions – with grapes tending towards noble gray rot rather than bacterial acid rot – these wines, having grown in a living environment, continued to evolve in the bottle, with oxygen beneficially continuing this evolution. Another observation: even vines growing in clay soils tend towards horizontality by thickening, unlike vines planted in hard soils such as schist, which elongate more. With climate change, wines are becoming too influenced by pressure and heat, adopting solar notes and exuberant aromatics, as opposed to humic and fungal characteristics. So, quite simply, I practice oxidative aging in foudre for my white wines from hard soils: to extract them from their verticality due to their hydrophobic and oxygen-deprived soils, in order to open them up to life and fluidity. The soil guides winemaking as much as climate: everything is linked. A rainy year will evoke clay through its connection to life, while an overly sunny year will evoke hard soil. The idea is to bring the opposite to create balance. In Burgundy, soils composed of clay and porous limestone require avoiding excess oxygen due to the risk of oxidation. In the Jura, the blue marls are reductive, hydrophobic, and devoid of oxygen: oxidative aging is therefore used. Grape juice, undergoing organic fermentation, transcribes the climate and the soil, thus becoming their revealer. As you know: the page is the soil, the grape the ink. On his affinity for volatile acidity: Volatile acidity brings umami and is also a way for me to break out of the ever-perfectionist straitjacket imposed by the appellation and the social pressure of those who uphold good taste. Breaking out of it to bring charm, imagination and poetry, to thumb my nose at the wine that fits into the boxes. Specifically with Gewürztraminer, I like to induce acetate during the maceration by filling the tank to the brim: the yeasts will react with the bacteria and the oxygen to develop the acetate, which will give a candy-like quality and a sensation of sweetness to the wine, characteristics that are perfectly suited to Gewürztraminer. On pigeages:  The idea behind pigeage is to feed the dominant indigenous yeasts to develop day by day and overpower the bacteria. Temperatures rise naturally because of the energy created, and then I open the vat to release the excess carbonic aromas. Also, the rising temperature helps eliminate the tannin-protein association through flocculation. On blending vintages together: Every wine is defined by terrestrial and the cosmos. I define terrestrial as what the wine gets from the vine and the soil: minerality, acidity, drinkability. In constrast, I define the cosmos as qualities linked to solar energy: aromatics, color, depth, structure. Vinegar is based on bacteria and botrytis on fungus. In such, vinegar implies death and fungus implies life: decomposition in contrast to fermentation. 20 years ago, there was no vinegar in the vines, only botrytis, and this is entirely linked to climate change. Pinot Noir, which I esteem is no longer adapted to Alsace and Burgundy, continues to turn to vinegar in the vines in solar years.  I've increasingly started to blend vintages a lot in order to regain the balance that we've lost with climate change. What I mean is that years that combine a rainy spring with a sunny summer are becoming rarer. So I've decided to blend a rainy year with a warm year to restore the lost balance of a season that was normal. This way, we find the depth, tannins, color, and aromas of a warm year, combined with the fluidity and minerality of a rainy year. On his one of a kind pruning technique: This pruning method comes to us from Marceau Bourdarias, a specialist in plant physiology. Many of his concepts are inspired by the work of Olivier Husson, an expert in oxidation and reduction. The fundamental idea is based on this principle: when a plant suffers a pathogen attack, it oxidizes and loses its electrons, causing a decrease in reduction and, consequently, increased oxidation. This phenomenon is observed during the treatment season with diseases such as downy mildew or powdery mildew, but also during the winter period with esca, which penetrates the plant. This is why my interventions aim to reduce this oxidation by strengthening the reduction processes. For my treatments, I use bacterial fermentations enriched with zeolite that feed the leaf and plant with electrons, thus maintaining their reduction. This approach is similar to the probiotics that a patient absorbs to counteract the oxidation induced by cancer and chemotherapy. The longest-lived populations consume large quantities of fermented foods teeming with life, unlike pasteurized products which, having undergone pressure and heat, are devoid of vitality. Applied to pruning, the principle remains the same. The vine can only heal on the cane of a one-year-old wood: in reality, it simply covers the wound using its tannins. On older pruned wood – two, three, or four years old – it is unable to close the wound, which remains gaping and vulnerable to attack. I therefore manage to constantly maintain the same pruning line and only cut on the wood from the previous year. This technique causes the plant to gradually lengthen and compartmentalize its reserves, giving the vine a sensation of growth, like a liana trying to reach the canopy.

A Remembrance of Sebastiano De Bartoli

A Remembrance of Sebastiano De Bartoli

After a long and valiant battle against cancer, Sebastiano De Bartoli passed last week…I’ve a heavy heart. The middle child and second son of the real-life legend Marco de Bartoli, Sebio is the reason we’ve worked with the fascinating and quite often sensational wines of the two estates – the historic Marsala cellar in Contrade Samperi and the Arabic-influenced Bukkuram farm on the island of Pantelleria. While both cellars were founded by his visionary father, Sebastiano along with his brother and sister, Renato and Giuseppina, brought the wineries into the new century with equal commitment to quality and tradition. A maverick about preserving the tradition of pre-British Marsala wine -- unfortified with perpetual aging in barrels at a naturally high alcohol level – Marco ran up against the law and put fear in the heart of the large and lucrative commercial Marsala producers. As a result, the fraud authorities unjustly shut down the winery for a few years. Finally, he was found to have done nothing wrong, but the closure had taken its toll and the moment arose when for his kids to move forward and for him to step back.  Sebastiano became responsible for the farm on Pantelleria of 6HA (dividing his time between Marsala and Pantelleria) and Renato and Gipi were in Marsala – Renato perfecting the classic method sparkling wine and fighting the authorities to finally accept their Vecchio Samperi as a legitimate regional wine with long history (though they could not label it as Marsala) and Gipi in charge of affairs. But Sebastiano also lobbied his siblings to create a new line of wines that also represented a regional tradition in both Marsala and Pantelleria – skin-contact dry white wines from Grillo (Marsala) and Zibibbo (Pantelleria) – these are the Integer line of wines. Sebastiano realized that they were heading in a direction that required a change to their distribution – finding partners that were focused on and understood the importance of their work and legacy. A few of the growers with whom we were working at the time also enjoyed a deep friendship and mutual respect with Marco, and, I‘m guessing here, our name came up. Sebio contacted me and we met up at either one of the trade shows like Vini di Vignaioli or maybe it was Vinitaly itself or maybe both. That was the beginning of a rapport that I’ve always treasured and have missed terribly in recent years. It was somewhere around 2010, I think, that I showed up in Marsala and (am forever grateful) to have had some time with Marco himself and the rest of the family….in the following years Sebastiano and I spent quite a bit of time together. Sebastiano was not only a vignaiolo, a thinker, a sculptor, a painter, an innovator, a bit of an infamous lothario, a collector of gorgeous vintage Italian cars, oh, and, damn, a really good cook! But also, finally, a son, brother, husband, father. And like his dad a fiercely proud, enthusiastic Sicilian. One time, for instance, he made our group stop for, what he considered, the best cannoli in a dusty, very hot and tiny town about 30 minutes before Marsala on the route from Palermo. He wasn’t wrong. Sebastiano’s many visits to the US whether with our growers on tour, with his sister on her first voyage to the US or in the company of then-fiancé, now-wife, Eleonora or as a part of the team of young “turks” - Arianna, Sa&scaron;a and Luca Roagna - are cherished memories for all of us. I send all my best condolences to the entire De Bartoli family and especially to Elenora and the children. Ci brindiamo tutti quanti con tanto affetto e tutto del mio cuore nostro carissimo collego nella battaglia per i vini di tradizione e anima. Addio, caro Sebastiano.

Yannick Meckert Producer Profile

Yannick Meckert Producer Profile

Sometimes you just feel it: energy, connection, a point of view, singularity. From our very first exchange with Yannick Meckert, the way he communicated -open, thoughtful, detailed, attentive, philosophical- emitted a special energy. The rapport was immediate, first through emails, then a handful of hour-plus phone calls and finally a visit in the summer of 2024. By the end of that tour of the cellar and vines, it was clear that we would work together. I mean, how often do you spend over half an hour discussing the memetic illusion of expressing individuality through the consumption of instagram-approved agricultural products in urban centers? Or dissecting the philosophical merit of intentionally incorporating volatile acidity into your wines to create an “umami bomb”? Or, our personal favorite, spending the entire visit debating potential names for Yannick’s soon to be born daughter (it needed to be Alsatian, Denyse Louis proposed Liselle, which stuck. Liselle Meckert was born in November 2024.) What a trip! Yannick Meckert was born in a viticultural Alsatian family. An avid consumer of philosophy, his scholarly ambitions were initially stifled by the usual pressures and expectations of the countryside: helping out at the farm, taking over the estate… Reluctant, he eventually agreed to enroll in viticultural/enology school instead of pursuing a degree in philosophy. Yet within six months of returning to work with his father, he’d become totally disenfranchised with the chemical, artificial work in the vines. Unable to find meaning in this life and heritage, Meckert chose to pack his bag and leave Alsace. Setting out to create his own meaning and understanding of this métier, Meckert embarked in what would become a years-long pilgrimage, learning the ins and outs of every aspect of the wine industry, including restaurant and wine bar stints in Copenhagen and Tokyo. Of course the vines/wines were always calling, leading to many apprenticeships including Pax Cellars in California, Le Coste in Lazio, Phillipe Pacalet in Burgundy, Bruno Schueller and Patrick Meyer in Alsace amongst many others. From these experiences -Yannick scrupulously references specific examples that have directly influenced his viticultural and vinification philosophy- he produced his first independent vintage in 2019. Well sort of, because he was so unhappy with the wines that he decided to sell the finished bottles to a négociant who rebranded them with her own label. 2020, on the other hand, was magnificent! Knowing that rejoining the family estate was not possible, Yannick sourced three hectares of vines to rent as well as an unused cellar in the village of Rosheim. Working these vines and buying the equivalent of a hectare’s worth of fruit through the 2024 vintage, he’s produced various expressions of Riesling, Auxerrois, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. In 2024, Meckert purchased 2.5 hectares of Riesling and Pinot Noir on steep coteaux he considers amongst the very best in Alsace. Two wines were produced from this land that same year, to be released “at some point”. From the 2025 vintage onwards, Meckert plans to forego his rented vines and make only two wines, a Riesling and a Pinot, for the remainder of his career. Before going any further, it’s important to note that Meckert comes from the “sentient terroir” school, entailing that man and his ideas are as much part of a wine’s composition as the soil, climate and vintage conditions (it’s also important to note that I just made that term up.) Keep this in mind because we are about to list a lot of left-field techniques you’ve likely never heard of anyone else practicing. Let’s start with cellar work, which is detail-oriented and intentional. From the beginning, Yannick made the choice to not use stainless steel as they trap electrons. Instead, he uses fiberglass tanks of various sizes -some tiny, some huge- for macerations and fermentations. Along with a few tronconic vats, Burgundian barrels, barriques and sandstone amphoras, he principally uses old, second-hand foudres purchased from Bruno Schueller and Claus Preisinger -some over 100 years old- for his elevages. For wines coming from schist soils, Yannick believes in “hyper-oxygenation”, letting his old foudres exposed to oxygen for three months at a time. In some cases, he will not perform ouillages either (ed note: for more insight on this technique and many of those described below, we highly recommend reading our separate article where Yannick elaborates on his techniques in great detail.) In balancing the terrestrial -what he defines as the vine and the earth’s production of minerality and acidity- to the cosmos: solar energy that will bring fruit, flower and aromatics, blending vintages has increasingly become a core tenet of Yannick’s philosophy. By blending colder, wet vintages with hotter ones, he hopes to "regain the balance that we've lost with climate change”. Likely the most polarizing tenet of Meckert’s cellar philosophy is the inclusion of acetic juices to intentionally bring volatile acidity into many of his wines. Dubbed his “umami bomb” or “imperfection as salt to beauty”, this can mean setting 5% the juices aside and blending into a larger vat when it begins to turn. Or adding unfermented juice during a partial fermentation. Or even letting the whole cuvée intentionally become volatile by overfilling it before racking it to old foudre. These techniques are applied by instinct and only in certain cases, except with Gewürztraminer where it is always used as it helps “tame the opulence” of the ultra-aromatic, often sweet wines resulting from this grape. White grapes are directly pressed or macerated depending on the vintage conditions. For reds, Meckert is partial to short “Jules Chauvet” whole-cluster macerations. Pigeages, usually one a day for whites and two a day for reds during a six to eight day period, are also the norm. Again, all of this is done by instinct and changes year to year, resulting in cuvées that vary in their grape composition, vinification, label art and cuvée name each vintage. In the vines, Meckert’s confluence of influences (confluinfluence?) is equally singular. The soil work, or lack thereof, is two-fold. On clay soils, “everything grows”, since these terroirs are “related to life”. Looking like a mystical forest, these parcels are never plowed and the grass never cut (nor are the vines, which grow high and rambunctious). But on stone soils such as schist, Yannick applies cover-crops in every row in order to “bring life where there is none”. In regards to vineyard maintenance, Yannick does not replace dead vines but rather extends thriving ones by only pruning one-year old woods in the same direction. “Vines are lianas. That’s what they want to be. Most viticulture prevents vines from being what they naturally are.” As Denyse Louis put it during our first visit, it’s a type of elevated marcottage, resulting in one very long vine producing fruit. According to Yannick, it also forces the roots of the vine to go deeper to feed themselves, leading to increased minerality. In our decades of visiting vineyards, this is the first time we’ve seen this type of system implemented. For treatments, Meckert has impressively managed to not use copper or sulfur at all in the vines certain vintages but will treat if he has to. Rather than sticking purely to the traditional copper and sulfur, he prefers using salt water and molasses to combat odium, and also likes to spray clay zeolites to bring electrons and “reduction” to the vines. No fertilizers are ever applied as the vines are very vigorous. Finally, we must discuss the choices in packaging. With often-poetic cuvée names related to human emotions or, in a couple cases, references to books and films that have moved him over the years, the labels vary from austere to pop-art pastiche, always with a self-referential sense of humor and sense of permeating mischief. In an act of rebellion, Meckert forgoes using the traditional slim and long Alsatian bottle shape in favor of Burgundian bottles and intentionally declassifies himself from the Alsace appellation, selling his entire production as Vin de France. While this may not feel particularly radical anymore in certain parts of France, in the context of Alsace it is all but unheard of: a true critique of the limits imposed by such a storied but inflexible viticultural region. Other, funner examples: -The estate’s logo, itself an ode to the pop art of Andy Warhol, is a reinterpretation of the Gauloises cigarettes logo with a grape bunch instead of a Gaul helmet. -The “label” of his first Riesling in 2020 was printed on scotch tape so that fancy restaurants would feel uncomfortable serving it. -Naming a wine “A L’Ombre des Jeunes Vignes en Fleurs”, knowing it would annoy sommeliers typing out their lists and surely look awkward on the page. -A recent run of cryptic labels looking exactly like Gallimard book covers (one of France’s biggest publishing houses): read me like a book! -“With French law recently adopting a new restriction forcing producers to add a QR code listing all ingredients on the label, I have decided to include another QR code next to it connecting to my website with a reference list of my anarchist ideas inspired by thoughtful researchers such as Proudhon or Bruno Latour. It's sort of a response to the state's obligations.” If this profile seems long-winded, it’s because we are very excited to be representing this estate. Yannick Meckert is the type of vigneron you only meet a handful of times in our line of work: one who reminds us, despite all of the hype and glam and bullshit that has occurred in the rise of natural wine over the last decade, that what we do in this little world is still very much alive and worth fighting for. Like Gianfranco Manca of Panevino, Tom Lubbe of Matassa or the late Julie Balagny, Meckert’s work challenges and questions conventions, ultimately seeking the answers necessary to forge a singular, deeply personal path. Philosophy as wine.  And look, we understand that may not be for everybody. But if the following text adorning each back-label even remotely piques your interests, we just might think you’ll dig it: “Imperfection is salt to beauty. I try to capture the energy, the elevation, the will of a place. To capture its essence for easy reading, to approach the yin and the yang, the terrestrial and the cosmic, the soul of a wine. To describe this wine through reason would extinguish it instead of feeling and drawing from its electrons.”

Domaine Chamonard Producer Profile

Domaine Chamonard Producer Profile

Jean-Christophe Garnier Producer Profile

Jean-Christophe Garnier Producer Profile

For years now, Jean-Christophe Garnier’s complex <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin Blancs</glossary> and easy drinking reds are wines we have loved and admired from afar. From first discovering them at The Ten Bells in the late aughts (the cash only days!), ordering bottles whenever in Paris or the obligatory <glossary term="Magnum" title="617">magnum</glossary> following post-<glossary term="Dive Bouteille" title="395">Dive Bouteille </glossary>romps at le Cercle Rouge in <glossary term="Angers" title="104">Angers</glossary>, Garnier’s work is something we’ve long admired as fans. And based on the immediate excitement of our customers bringing the wines back to the US market after a six year hiatus, it would seem many of you feel the same way! With no family ties to <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary> or winemaking, Garnier found his passion for wine as a <glossary term="Sommelier" title="969">sommelier</glossary> in his home region of <glossary term="Brittany" title="197">Brittany</glossary>. In the late 1990’s, he took a year off to go study <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary> in hopes to deepen his knowledge before opening a wine bar with a friend. Due to its proximity to <glossary term="Brittany" title="197">Brittany</glossary>, he enrolled in a school close to the <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticultural</glossary> region of <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary>, where he was placed in an apprenticeship working with Mark Angeli of the legendary Ferme de la Sansonièrre. Typical of Angeli, Mark immediately encouraged JC to start a new life by creating his own <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary>. After completing his curriculum, Garnier went back to restaurants for a couple of years but ultimately returned to <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> after Angeli found him a couple of <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> to start his own <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> in 2002. Far from the hotbed of forward-thinking producers that currently populate the area, <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> was at the time a struggling region known mostly for its sweet <glossary term="Bonnezeaux" title="177">Bonnezeaux</glossary> and <glossary term="Coteaux-du-Layon" title="349">Coteaux du Layon</glossary> <glossary term="Appellation" title="113">appellation</glossary> wines, with generic <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> whites mostly produced as cloyingly sweet, <glossary term="Filtration" title="447">sterile-filtered</glossary> copycats of the aforementioned <glossary term="AOC" title="108">AOC</glossary>’s. The wines made with red grapes weren’t faring so well either: <glossary term="Tannin" title="1010">tannic</glossary>, rustic <glossary term="Grolleau" title="513">Grolleau</glossary> and <glossary term="Cabernet Franc" title="216">Cabernet Franc</glossary>/<glossary term="Cabernet Sauvignon" title="217">Cabernet Sauvignon</glossary> <glossary term="Blend" title="168">blends</glossary> or Rosé d'Anjou, another cloyingly sweet, <glossary term="Filtration" title="447">sterile-filtered</glossary> beverage that had become increasingly difficult to sell by the turn of the millennium. Garnier, along with a small group of now legendary trailblazers- Mark Angeli, Richard Leroy, Patrick Baudoin and Agnès and René Mosse to name a few- took advantage of the region’s identity crisis, gaining access to cheap, readily available land from the mid 1990’s through the mid 2000’s. Decades ahead of their time, these outsiders saw the potential to break away from sweet wine production, particularly by producing dry or off-dry whites highlighting the incredibly varied types of <glossary term="Schist" title="933">schist</glossary> <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary>, <glossary term="Microclimate" title="656">micro-climates</glossary>, <glossary term="Exposition" title="430">expositions</glossary> and <glossary term="Elevation" title="419">elevations</glossary> the region has to offer. Starting with 2.3 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> in 2002, from the beginning Garnier’s production has consisted of <glossary term="Single Vineyard Bottling" title="959">single vineyard expressions</glossary> of <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin Blanc</glossary>: starting with les Dreuillés (no longer in production), over the years this has come to include Bézigon, la Roche, Rouchefert and the recently acquired Les Justices and 13 Vents, with each wine named after their respective <glossary term="Lieu-Dit" title="594">lieu-dit</glossary>. The <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin</glossary> grapes are <glossary term="Direct Press" title="392">direct-pressed</glossary> and, while <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinified</glossary> and <glossary term="Aging" title="74">aged</glossary> in various vessels, the intent is always to express <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroir</glossary> through wines approachable in youth but ultimately meant to <glossary term="Cellaring" title="255">cellar</glossary> and <glossary term="Aging" title="74">age</glossary>. Reds came only in 2010, with <glossary term="Pineau d'Aunis" title="799">Pineau d’Aunis</glossary>, <glossary term="Grolleau" title="513">Grolleau</glossary>, <glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary>, <glossary term="Cabernet Franc" title="216">Cabernet Franc</glossary> and <glossary term="Cabernet Sauvignon" title="217">Cabernet Sauvignon</glossary> rounding out the lineup. In contrast to the more serious nature of the whites, JC opts for short, <glossary term="Infusion" title="1378">infusion</glossary> style <glossary term="Whole-Cluster" title="1124">whole-cluster</glossary> <glossary term="Maceration" title="610">macerations</glossary> for his reds, resulting in a more <glossary term="Vin de Soif" title="1094">vin-de-soif</glossary> style. Most of his reds are <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottled</glossary> very early -some as early as November of the same year- and meant to drink relatively young. The one exception is "Les Tailles", a <glossary term="Lieu-Dit" title="594">lieu-dit</glossary> planted in <glossary term="Cabernet Franc" title="216">Cabernet Franc</glossary> that sees a 12 day, <glossary term="Whole-Cluster" title="1124">whole-cluster</glossary> <glossary term="Infusion" title="1378">infusion</glossary> <glossary term="Maceration" title="610">maceration</glossary> then <glossary term="Fermentation" title="441">ferments</glossary> and <glossary term="Aging" title="74">ages</glossary> 12 months in <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> before release. The estate has been <glossary term="Organic Certification" title="260">certified</glossary> <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organic</glossary> since its inception. Garnier currently farms 10 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines, though a significant amount of that land consists of new plantations, of which only some of the <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> are just starting to produce fruit. Four distinct and seperate sectors are farmed, three surrounding the village of <glossary term="Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay" title="983">Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay</glossary> and one in the village of Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné. Creating competition for the vines so they can sink their roots further into the <glossary term="Mother Rock" title="690">mother rock</glossary>, he likes to plant at a much higher density than what is tradtional in the region, 6500 to 7000 vines per hectare versus the typical 5000 to 5500.  In addition to his own production, for the last few years Garnier has purchased the equivalent of two <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organically</glossary> farmed fruit from a nearby <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vigneron</glossary> with soils quasi-indentical to those he farms. Including the single <glossary term="Négociant" title="729">négociant</glossary> <glossary term="Cuvée" title="363">cuvée</glossary> "Les Nouettes", production is split roughly 50/50 between white and red wines. In the <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary>, Garnier began omitting <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">S02</glossary> from his wines in the 2006 <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary>, the same year he intentionally <glossary term="Declassification" title="383">declassified</glossary> his wines from <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> to <glossary term="Table Wine" title="1006">Vin de Table</glossary> (a now common occurence that was all but unheard of at the time). Many <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintages</glossary> were <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinified</glossary> entirely without added <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">sulfites</glossary> between 2006 and 2016, though in two vintages Garnier felt obliged to use very small amounts at <glossary term="Pressing" title="827">press</glossary>. However, with time and experience he has come to believe those <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">sulfur</glossary> additions did nothing to alter the identity or course of those wines, leading him to stick to a stricly zero <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">S02</glossary> policy from the the 2016 <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> onwards. From our experience, this decision comes less from dogma and more from JC's cerebral, attentive nature and conviction that <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinifying</glossary> this way best expresses his <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary>. For more in depth information, please read our interview with Jean-Christophe.

Jean-Christophe Garnier Interview

Jean-Christophe Garnier Interview

This interview with Jean-Christophe Garnier took place over Zoom in September 2024. What were you doing before becoming a vigneron? I’m from <glossary term="Brittany" title="197">Brittany</glossary> and first got into wine working as a <glossary term="Sommelier" title="969">sommelier</glossary>. It was my career for about a decade. I eventually decided to open a wine bar with a friend, but before doing so I told him I wanted to take a year off to learn more about working in the vines. All of my wine education up until that point had come from books, so I wanted to experience things first-hand. In 1998, I enrolled in a <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticultural</glossary> school not too far from <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> and was lucky enough to find myself apprenticing with Mark Angeli at Ferme de la Sansonièrre. From the start, he was very supportive and insistant that I start my own <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> in <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary>. After finishing my program, I went back to restaurants for a bit but ultimately decided to come back here to start making wine myself. That was in 2002. Mark helped me find 2.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> to launch my project. I then found a house in the village of <glossary term="Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay" title="983">Saint-Lambert-du-Lattay</glossary> for my family with an adjoining <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> for my wines. And from the strong <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticultural</glossary> community in the village, I was able to grow and develop the <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> to what it is today. Today, Anjou is arguably the most dynamic region in the Loire for newer producers just starting out. When you started it was a very different climate. What made you want to make wine in Anjou? First and foremost, <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> is relatively close to <glossary term="Brittany" title="197">Brittany</glossary>! And I’d been selling <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> wines for quite a few years as a <glossary term="Sommelier" title="969">sommelier</glossary>. There was also the strong support from Mark Angeli and what I suppose has become the first wave of forward-thinking <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> from that time (Mosse, Leroy, Baudoin…) There were also lots of cheap vines to recuperate and room to build out <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellars</glossary> as well. Working with <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin</glossary> -a grape with incredible versatility- was also an exciting prospect. <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary> is also a region where you have access to lots of different grapes, both red and white, as well as a fascinating variety of <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary>. And it’s close to <glossary term="Brittany" title="197">Brittany</glossary>! Did you make appellation wines in the beginning? Yes I did. At the time it was very rare for <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> to intentionally <glossary term="Declassification" title="383">de-classify</glossary> their wines. And what were those early wines? I started with 2.3 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary>: 80 <glossary term="Are" title="1208">ares</glossary> of <glossary term="Grolleau" title="513">Grolleau Gris</glossary>, the rest in <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin Blanc</glossary>. From the beginning I made dry whites, but in a different style than today. At the time everyone picked in “<glossary term="pouri plein" title="1493">pourri-plein</glossary>”, where we’d intentionally seek some over-maturity in the grapes. This picking style makes for very interesting <glossary term="Aromatic" title="120">aromatics</glossary> in a wine’s youth, but is also prone to heavy <glossary term="Oxidation" title="754">oxydation</glossary> and not very beneficial for <glossary term="Aging" title="74">aging</glossary>. This technique for <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin Blanc</glossary> is a style really pioneered by Mark Angeli around 1995. 2005 was the nail in the coffin for picking this way, as the years were getting violently solar and it was impossible to make stable wine with slightly <glossary term="Botrytis/Noble Rot" title="181">botrytised</glossary> grapes without using <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">sulfites</glossary>. I’ve never understood why people feel the need to systematically add <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">sulfur</glossary> to wine, so I started picking at optimal ripeness instead. Today, I’d even posit I look to pick at a slight under-maturity as to keep <glossary term="Acidity" title="71">acidity</glossary>. But recently I’ve decided I want to go back to a slightly riper style. It means a bit more alcohol, but you get more complexity. I suppose it’s being in the middle of both extremes I’ve worked with in the past. You just brought up sulfites. Where does your conviction to not use S02 come from? As I mentioned earlier, all of my wine knowledge originally came from books. It was all about regions, grapes, <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroirs</glossary>, etc… I had zero notions on how to actually make wine until I started doing it myself. <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">Sulfur</glossary> seemed to be this very important and necessary additive in winemaking, and I never really understood why. So very quickly, I started not using any. So you weren’t already a proselytizer of sans souffre wines while working as a sommelier? I sold some but there were very few readily available when I worked in restaurants. I recall some <glossary term="Côtes du Rhône" title="372">Côtes du Rhône</glossary> producers… For us the focus was more on <glossary term="Artisinal" title="122">artisanal</glossary> production from small, independent <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary>. What were your first “aha” moments with wine? I worked in <glossary term="Banyuls" title="135">Banyuls</glossary> and <glossary term="Collioure" title="319">Collioure</glossary> for a little while. While there, I met some of the local <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> and also travelled in other parts of the <glossary term="Roussillon" title="880">Roussillon</glossary> and <glossary term="Languedoc" title="579">Languedoc</glossary>. The <glossary term="Languedoc" title="579">Languedoc</glossary> in particular was going through a pretty exciting revolutionary period in the 1990’s. It was during that period that I really began to understand that good wine came from well farmed vines first and foremost. And this feeling was amplified when I did my apprenticeship in <glossary term="Anjou" title="105">Anjou</glossary>. So yeah I’d say the <glossary term="Languedoc" title="579">Languedoc</glossary> and then the <glossary term="Loire Valley" title="602">Loire</glossary>. We touched on your beginnings in Anjou. Can you run us through the evolution of the estate over the years? I started in 2002 with 2.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary>. In 2006 I got to 4.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> which grew to five <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> by 2008. Then in 2010, I met a young man who was ready to invest in vines but didn’t want to start as full-time <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vigneron</glossary> for a few years, so he needed someone to farm it in the interim. It was a <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> of <glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary>, <glossary term="Pineau d'Aunis" title="799">Pineau d’Aunis</glossary> and <glossary term="Cabernet Franc" title="216">Cabernet Franc</glossary>. Up until then, I basically made all white wine, with the <glossary term="Grolleau" title="513">Grolleau</glossary> destined for sweet <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">rosé</glossary>. Fellow <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> told me that making red wine was a good opportunity; at the time in France, you’d sell three bottles of red for every bottle of white. But I still wasn’t convinced about making red wine: in fact it strayed from my original vision. In the end I rather enjoyed the experience, particularly with <glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary> and <glossary term="Pineau d'Aunis" title="799">Pineau d’Aunis</glossary>. I worked those vines from 2010 to 2020. The guy eventually decided not to become a <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vigneron</glossary> and sold the vines to a young upstart for the 2021 <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary>. Since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to use those vines anymore and had built a reputation for my reds, I’d been actively seeking out new <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> to buy. I was able to find a good amount of land, some bare, some where I had to rip out and replant. I’ve planted or replanted mostly <glossary term="Pineau d'Aunis" title="799">Pineau d’Aunis,</glossary> but also more <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin</glossary> in certain sectors. In 2017, I jumped to nine <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary>, then in 2021 I bought another <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectare</glossary> and currently find myself farming 10. But much of surface consists of very young vines as I had to rip out and replant a lot. Some are just really starting to produce. It’s been a huge amount of work. Are you certified organic? I’ve been <glossary term="Organic Certification" title="260">certified</glossary> <glossary term="Organic" title="746">organic</glossary> since the very beginning. Can you give us a breakdown of the grapes you farm? I farm six <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin Blanc</glossary>, with an additional <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectare</glossary> of <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin</glossary> planted in vines too young to produce. Then there is one <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectare</glossary> of <glossary term="Cabernet Franc" title="216">Cabernet Franc</glossary> with a tiny bit of <glossary term="Cabernet Sauvignon" title="217">Cabernet Sauvignon</glossary> (which I plan to rip out and replant at some point). There is 0.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Grolleau" title="513">Grolleau Gris</glossary>, 0.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Savagnin" title="922">Savagnin</glossary>, 1.5 <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Pineau d'Aunis" title="799">Pineau d’Aunis</glossary>. <glossary term="Grolleau" title="513">Grolleau</glossary> and <glossary term="Gamay" title="478">Gamay</glossary> are about two <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary>. Then there is the <glossary term="Négociant" title="729">négociant</glossary> project which comes from a nearby two <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of red grapes planted on <glossary term="Loam" title="1291">loamy</glossary>-<glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> soils. What about the evolution of the cuvées? Was the focus always on single vineyard wines? I’ve been doing <glossary term="Single Vineyard Bottling" title="959">single-parcel</glossary> wines from the beginning. For me it was pretty important. But over the years and when faced with difficult <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintages</glossary>, I’ve sometimes felt obliged to combine <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> together (ex: La Roche-Bézigon). In 2005, I started making Bézigon. Then La Roche, then Les Tailles, which is the name of the <glossary term="Lieu-Dit" title="594">lieu-dit</glossary> where the <glossary term="Cabernet Franc" title="216">Cabernet</glossary> is planted. Then Rouchefert, and finally Justices and 13 Vents, the latter two planted in the neighboring village of Saint-Aubin-de-Luigné. Who were your first customers? Parisians! I participated in some of the very first <glossary term="Dive Bouteille" title="395">Dive Bouteilles</glossary>, and that’s where I created my network of Paris <glossary term="Caviste" title="253">cavistes</glossary> and restaurants. There was already a lot of bistros serving these types of wines at the time. My first importer was Japan. No surprise there! What inspired your labels? The snake is the Ouroboros, a famous symbol, one of the first symbols of civilization. It’s similar to the ying and the yang, the cycle of the seasons repeating themselves. When did you decide to stop making appellation wine? In 2006. I made <glossary term="Appellation" title="113">appellation</glossary> wines through 2005, but found it increasingly difficult having to justify my work to the the panels. Here I am attempting to express the most transparent expression of a grape from this specific place, but was getting challenged for too much alcohol, too much color, that I refused to <glossary term="Chaptalisation" title="270">chaptalize</glossary>… It felt so out of touch. 2006 was also the first year I’d gone 100% with no <glossary term="Sulfites" title="993">S02</glossary>, and based on past experience I knew there was absolutely no point presenting my wines. Honestly, I am still vexed that the <glossary term="AOC" title="108">AOC</glossary> cares so little about people like me who prioritize farming and expressing <glossary term="Terroir" title="1026">terroir</glossary> to the best of their ability. Having been part of those early Dive Bouteilles, how do you feel about the state of our little world of wine in 2024? Overall I think we’ve seen some truly great progress in the last 20 or so years. I do however feel that the bubble has burst. What represented something new (of course nothing is ever truly new), an alternative path to <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary> and winemaking 20 years ago ended up not being just a little ripple, but a tidal wave in moving things forward. Think about all the <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cooperators</glossary> who broke away and started producing their own wines. The children of <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">vignerons</glossary> who took a complete 180 from past generations. The young people coming from totally unrelated fields to start wineries. It’s incredible!  But this boom cycle had to end at some point. The sheer amount of events taking place around the <glossary term="Dive Bouteille" title="395">Dive Bouteille</glossary> this year proves to me that being visible and commercially viable is becoming increasingly difficult. It’s true. Five years ago, I felt there was this almost infinite, utopia-like energy going around. That consumers were so welcoming and excited for this type of philosophy, and that there was infinite room for things to keep evolving positively. It was beautiful and inspiring. I agree. But as we see now, it was relatively naif and there were some major missteps along the way. Many completely stopped caring about the quality of the wines themselves. In my early days, I made a lot of mistakes and learned from those; it was a given that there were certain things you just couldn’t bottle and sell. And that helped me get better. In the past few years, you could really taste the lack of experience in some of these newer wineries. And of course that created tensions, as no one was really checking these producers. A lot of these wines weren’t sold on much merit other than being <glossary term="Natural WIne" title="708">natural</glossary>. But again, I think we come out of this richer. Because we explored and pushed those boundaries. So yes, the bubble has burst. But we’ve gained experience. Overall, more good wine is being made, and people are always going to want to drink good wine. It may just be impossible to taste or drink and sell them all!