Organic wine; their stories

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles

2008-07-04T04:12:00.002-07:00

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles
Alain Castex et Ghislaine Magnier
17, avenue de Puig del Mas
Banyuls-sur-Mer

No computer
Last year I received, in the mail, an envelope from Alain Castex containing information on his Domaine and his wines, a brochure on the Association of Natural Wines and a little note from him explaining that he doesn't have a computer. An independent winemaker who doesn't have a computer? Yes, and that's the kind of thing you don't forget. So when we decided to take a trip around the Perpignan area we made an appointment to see him and his companion Ghislaine Magnier.

Banyuls-sur-Mer
We reach Perpignan and then take the D914 to Argèles-sur-Mer and Port-Vendres and then suddenly we see the terraces of vines on the steep hills. It's not pretty, it's a mess, it's bizarre. I really have the impression that a bomb has hit Banyuls-sur-Mer. The soil is almost black and devoid of vegetation. In this black sea only the naked stems of vines show their heads. We carry on and then you can see the real sea which, thanks to some strong winds, is a magnificent green. We go back to Banyuls-sur-Mer and take a stroll around the village which is full of wine cellars. That sums up Banyuls-sur-Mer – wine. Later on we head for Spain. All the way to the border I can see the results of the bomb – the vine stems in a sea of black. As soon as we cross into Spain we can see a difference. There are still hills and terraces but the black sea is replaced by grass, brush and trees. Why? We find the answers at 'Mas Estela'. Nuria Dalmau, the winegrower of this Domaine explained that some time ago there were vineyards all over the hillsides, just as in France. Tourism managed to get rid of them. People prefer working as a waiter in a bar or restaurant to labouring on the terraces with pick in hand. So, no agricultural workers, no vines. Contrary to the Spanish, the winegrowers of Banyuls-sur-Mer have never stopped caring for their vines although events may turn 'Spanish'. Let me explain.
The climate in the region is special. It's the wind that is surprising. According to the French weather service reports of Jacques Kessler and André Chambraud, the number of days per year with violent winds is 127 (in Perpignan). That's a lot when you compare it with Strasbourg for example with its 15 days. On the other hand the number of days per year when the temperature exceeds 30 degrees is 96 (Perpignan) versus 6 in Brest. It's the same story for the number of hours of sunshine per year: 2603 hours (Perpignan) versus 1702 hours for a town like Reims. Finally the level of rain per year: 63 centimetres (Perpignan) versus 147 centimetres for Biarritz. So, it's a region with a climate that tends towards drought conditions. That's not all. This region, as the community explains on its website, is home to 6000 km of terrasses and low walls on the hills, covered in vines. These hills are steep. So steep that a tractor, an indispensible tool of the winegrower, can't handle it. To tackle the weeds that compete with the vines and which harbour pests, the first line of defense is to pull them out by hand. The alternative solution is to use chemical herbicides. Because I can't see a single strand of weed I assume that the local winegrowers have chosen herbicides. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the National Institute of 'Appellations d'Origine Contrôlée' (AOC) express the same opinion in the study " AOC and the landscape " they write about Banyuls " This vineyard is currently chemically weeded and coverplanting between the vines does not seem to be possible without a change in this conduct. " The combination of this climate and the use of herbicides makes for a Spanish future.

A Spanish Future
Alain Castex has a critical view of the future of Banyuls-sur-Mer. Global warming manifests itself here through desertification. "The desert is winning. The ground no longer has the capacity to hold water. And since the use of fertilizers in the vineyards is superficial as soon as the heat arrives and a little drought, the vines go into low moisture stress. They can't make the hurdle. There's an impediment in ripening and the grapes are limp, they're spongy." The results are serious, the plants die. Alain talks of vine losses of 30%. And himself. He works the soil with a pick, he doesn't use herbicides and he only uses organic fertilizers. Basically he practices bio cultivation and that better resists the drought conditions. The proof is that he himself has limited losses.

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles: at work

The desertification isn't the only blow that hurts. Alain Castex believes that at some time herbicides will be banned. " There's another problem. The water table is polluted with herbicides and there's too much collateral damage. I don't know how they're going to resolve these problems. If they ban herbicides we'll have an economic problem. Vines are important to Banyuls-sur-Mer. " Alain is right. The INAO counted 1288 winegrowers in 2005 on this brown shale balcony. Out of this total there are 5 bio winegrowers. So the solution is simple 1283 winegrowers should start the conversion to bio cultivation. 1283 winegrowers should follow the steps of Alain. Alain bursts out laughing when I propose this solution. " Them? No, they look at us and they say we're crazy. It's just not done to do what we do, tend the vines like 40 years ago, to pick, work by hand. Moreover it's not profitable that's for sure because with bio you have to sell the wine at a high price but the consumer isn't prepared to pay the price that's worth it. No 80% of the vineyards will disappear. " And Alain? After Ghislaine's tale of their journey I'm guessing that he's not moving anywhere.

The Journey
"Alain, originally from Toulouse, didn't work hard in school you could say.

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles: Alain Castex

At the SNCF (French Railways) he worked as a mechanic and later he started his own workshop. He always spent his holidays in the Ariège at the home of a family member who had a farm with some vines, three cows, some fruit trees etc. It was there that Alain got a taste for the country and eventually he decided that he wanted to live in the country. So he set himself up as an agricultural mechanic in the Aude. It was difficult. One day a winegrower asked Alain to replace a worker who had retired to Maisons, a little village in the Aude. He said yes. When he saw all the work needed in a year year to produce good grapes that ended up in the tubs with rotten grapes for the cooperative cellar he decided to start up on his own. He took a winegrowing course and started in 1981 in a small property in Davejean in the Corbières, Domaine Des Amouries. He started up like everyone else using chemicals. Little by little he became bio because he had had enough of putting junk in the soil. So it was a slow evolution. "

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles: Ghislaine Magnier

" That's where I enter the story. I'm the daughter of a farmer in Picardy, I know wheat, beetroot and potatoes. I spent 15 years in Paris in the field of sports nutrition. I'd had enough of it and I came back to the country. I sold everything in Paris and then I looked for a place to settle in the south without knowing exactly where. One day I saw an advert in a paper: something for sale in the Corbières. I didn't even know where the Corbières were. So I came down and looked at this house and didn't like it at all. But I got stuck in the mud at the end of the road. I knocked at the first door – Alain Castex's, to help me out. He got me unstuck with his tractor and that's how we met. Later I settled at Davejean and I started in the vines next to Alain. "
" We tried to stay in the village but it was very difficult. I was a stranger and he had all of his family there, his friends. So we decided to leave Davejean and we were thinking about Andalusia, because down there you can make a really good wine. We set out for our holidays in Andalusia. We stopped in Banyuls, we tasted a wine, we met the winegrower, we talked for hours and as we were leaving Alain asked if there were any vines for sale here. The winegrower said 'maybe – call me in three weeks.' So we did and he said 'come right away – it's now or never.' We went, fell in love and straight away we bought 4 hectares of vines. That was in November 1994 and in December we started to prune. It was a bit complicated with two domaines. What's more it was difficult to find a cellar. Just before the first harvest in 1995 we found an old Citroen garage to use as a cellar. "
Now they have 3.7 hectares in Banyuls with a yield of 10 hectolitres per hectare. For three years they have also owned a 1.7 hectare vineyard in Trouillas. There there are no terraces. The yield is also better: 30 hectolitres per hectare. All of it is worked by Alain, a hired hand, Ghislaine half-time and sometimes some volunteers and friends.

Cashflow
Cash flow at Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles isn't easy. Costs are high and revenues are low. Costs are high because they work as in the past: they work the soil with a pick and they reconstruct the terraces with their hands. There's even a terrace with just one single vine.

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles: the vines

No surprises with the harvest, that's also done by hand. Moreover they don't just harvest anything. "We sort at the vine. Every grape is sorted. We cut the bunch, look at it and if it's good we put it in the bucket. If some of the grapes are too dry or damaged we remove them – we're very careful. It's necessary. Because we don't add sulphites the grapes have to be perfect." Because they do everything by hand productivity is low (2.5 people for the 5.1 hectares) and as a result the costs are high.
And the yield? If the yield were higher that could compensate for the high costs. The yield for France as a whole is 68 hectolitres (INAO, 2005) per hectare. In Banyuls the basic yield is 30 hectolitres per hectare (the yield in 2005 was 20 hectolitres per hectare; source INAO) and Alain Castex achieves 10 hectolitres per hectare. So the yield can never compensate for the high costs. The calculation is simple, high costs and a low yield – you have to ask a high price from the consumer. Doing it isn't easy for Ghislaine. Since a high price needs marketing and communication - " It's not our profession; we don't know how to communicate. It needs people who can communicate for us and as we can't pay them, nothing happens. "
It's clear that marketing isn't the strong point at Casot des Mailloles. There's no web site, not even an email address. What's more the brochures aren't that great either. It makes me somewhat sad to see the seven little pieces of paper. So, net result – no marketing, no high price. They count on their friends.

Friends
At Alain and Ghislaine's , there are customers who have become friends and friends who have become volunteers. For example, Claude, a physiotherapist from Cannes, friend and volunteer. I met them on the terraces of Casit des Mailloles. There the vine is pretty. There is no black sea but there is vegetation everywhere. Claude, with pick in hand, tells me how he loves to spend his holidays among the vines here. He explains why.

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles: Claude

" When you harvest, the smells enfold you; grapes of all kinds, ripe ones, unripe ones, the machinery and all that kind of thing. It's the same story when I work the soil. I smell the roots and all the aromas of the earth. Later I re experience all that in the wine, the nose and the taste. It's extraordinary, it's magic."
Claude isn't the only one. "Most of our customers are our friends and it's they who come and harvest. Last year we had 36 people who came to harvest."
The wines of Casot des Mailloles engender strong emotions in people. I even have the impression that Casot des Mailloles has become a community.

Domaine Le Casot des Mailloles: the wines

Domaine des Coteaux d'Engravies

2008-07-04T04:12:00.001-07:00

Philippe Babin
Domaine des Coteaux d'Engravies
09120 Vira

Farm hostel of Corniche
Last year we spent a week in the Pyrenees. We walked, and ate, and walked some more. Walking there is easy. I would guess there are about 100,000 km of walking trails. On the other hand eating is difficult. At an altitude of 1000m where we were, the number of restaurants is quite limited. So the small hostel at Axiat (35 inhabitants) which we came across during our walk was a real surprise for us. The next day we knocked at the door and it was like an article on an unknown hostel in a travel magazine – the proprietor who greets you like an old friend, the home-made aperitif, the fois gras made from their own ducks as well as the succulent duck breast. And that's not all; there was the wine. She recommended the Coteaux d'Engravies: " A good wine and an Ariège wine at that. "
" Oh you're joking. "
" No, I'm not joking. We have some good wines here in the Ariège. " She was right. It was a good wine.
This year we met the winemaker himself at a bio-wine fair (Bio-Vintage 2008) in Perpignan. We talked, we tasted and we laughed. Philippe Babin has a gift for talking.

Domaine des Coteaux d'Engravies: Philippe Babin

For example, visitors ask him where he comes from and when he says " I come from the Ariège " they say " Oh yes I know the Ardeche well. " And Philippe replies, " No, I said Ariège. " And he explains for the nth time to people that the Ariège is a department in France where they make wine.

Ariège
If you're French you know the Ariège. On the other hand, for foreigners the Ariège is often a bit of an unknown. To help you out, the Ariège is easy to locate: the north of the department is about 40 km south of Toulouse and the south of the department touches Spain. The most well known towns are Pamiers, Foix, Saint-Girons, Lavelanet and Mirepoix. The Ariège has only 140,000 inhabitants. On the list of 100 French departments the Ariège ranks 95 in terms of population. In terms of population density it occupies the 93rd spot.
So of course it's not surprising that the Ariège is somewhat unknown among foreigners. As for the French, do they really know the Ariège? Do they know that on the list of percentage of Bio winegrowers to total winegrowers it occupies the top spot? Do they know that the percentage is 25%? In other word one in four winegrowers is bio. Yes indeed, and this particular winegrower is called Philippe Babin.
It's no surprise that wines of the Ariège seem to be almost non-existent. In 960 pages of « Petit Larousse des vins » you can find a chapter on Pyrenean wines but even after a detailed search – nothing on Ariège wines. Sherlock Holmes would be able to find a reference to an Ariège wine in " Le guide Hachette des vins 2006 . " Where? After 1163 pages dedicated to Bordeaux, Burgundy and other regions you'll find a chapter entitled "Vin de Pays". In this chapter there's a paragraph on the "Pays de Garonne" and there, a single Ariège wine is mentioned: Coteaux d'Engravies, the wine of Philippe Babin.
So the wines of the Ariège are ignored since the number of vineyards is minimal and production is very low. The figures from the French Customs department on the harvest of 2005 indicate 76 hectolitres, which is a far cry from the overall production across France of 53,314,150 hectolitres. It's also a far cry from production of old. At the end of the 19th century the Ariège was producing 250,000 hectolitres.

The Ariège of the past
Claire Babin knows the history of Ariège wine making well and she's happy to share her knowledge with us. She also lends us a work of Michel Casteran, " Wine making in the lower Ariège since the revolution." It all makes for a sad historical picture.
At the end of the 18th century Ariège counts 6,896 hectares of vines and many landowners. For example the 398 hectares in Saverdun is owned by 510 proprietors. The yields are low, up to 5 hectolitres/hectare in the Mirepoix region. The quality is terrible. A classification in 1840 for the whole of France shows in class 1 Romanée, Chambertin, Sauterne et Rivesaltes; in class 2 Pomard, Jurançon, Frontignac et Arbois, in class 3, in class 4 Burgundy, a large number in class 5 and in class 6, the lowest classification, the wines of the Ariège.
In the middle of the 19th century, a blow for the wine growers. The vines are attacked by powdery mildew, snout moth, coulure (shatter) and rougeau. Suddenly there's a need to protect against such diseases and it's Monsieur Mares who finds the solution. He introduces sulphurization and the winegrowers are encouraged to use 70 to 80 kg of sulphur per hectare. It works, and a study undertaken by the Society if Agriculture shows that sulphur saves 70 to 85% of the crop. Untreated vines account for on 25 to 30% of the harvest.
In spite of the diseases the 19th century sees a considerable boom. The total surface under cultivation almost triples in the Ariège. For Vira, the village where we now find Domaine de Coteaux d'Engravies, it's practically a monoculture: 334 hectares of vines on a total of 527 hectares. In this era we also see the emergence of the farm-school. In the Ariège it's Domaine Royat with the objective of showing winegrowers of the Ariège how to improve the quality and yield of their crops. It's not a luxury and the price of Ariège wine is low – between 12 and 18 Francs (19th century) per hectare. They don't succeed in re-educating the Ariegois. Since that time the name Royat continues to be in existence as in "Le Cordon de Royat".

Domaine des Coteaux d'Engravies: Taille Royat

This refers to a size of vine on one or two horizontal arms which was developed by the domaine Royat. It's not the only invention. Bordeaux winemaking, by gravity, is also a signature method of domaine Royat.
Phylloxera arrives in Franc in 1865 and, 13 years later, it shows up for the first time in the Ariège. Vira is introduced to phylloxera in 1882 and by the end of the century all of the Ariège is affected. The effect is disastrous, a sharp drop in the winmaking area – down to 5,950 hectares in 1903. The following century the figures continue to drop: 4000 hectares in 1940, 2000 hectares in 1979, and in 1990 you can count just 81 winemakers among who only one is cultivating a vineyard in excess of 1 hectare. The life of winemaking is practically dead in the Ariège, " practically " because Philippe Babin is going to intervene.

Drug Addicts
"We arrived in 1977. In the beginning, as a social goal to occupy the drug addicts and with two other couples, we opened an aftercare centre. Philippe and I took care of the agricultural part of the community which allowed the young people to work. Philippe always dreamed of being a full-time farmer. In 1983, when there was some 8 hectares of land for sale by the river he said, 'we have to buy it, now.' I wanted to stay at the centre but after a couple of weeks of reflection I said, yes. We bought it and we arrived here, at Vira. Little by little we bought more land and at eventually we had a real agricultural seed operation."
But why abandon seeds in favour of vines? "We weren't particularly happy with our seeds and we knew that water was a crucial problem for our future so we searched for something else to replace the seeds. Secondly, it was a bit of a dream but, according to the stories of an old gentleman, we knew that there had been vines on this hillside in the past. He was really old because he had been in the first world war and he came back from Turkey on foot when he was demobbed. That took him several years. When he finally arrived here he saw sick vines and he said 'we're done for.' This old man always talked to us about the old vines with such love that at some point Philippe said, 'That's what we have to do. Vines.' But it didn't seem feasible at first."
"Later we met Jean-Louis Vigneau and we became friends. We discussed our project a lot with him. He was the president of the APAJH association and director of services at the regional council, he knew lots of people and he helped and supported us. He always said we'll get there. But it remained stuck because of the laws."
Yes, a winemaker has to deal with the "plantation laws". Vinifhlor (a fusion of ONIVINS and ONIFLOR) explains. "Within the European Union it's not possible to plant a vine capable of producing grapes for wine production unless you have specific rights to do so. Winemakers can have two types of rights to plant. The rights that were granted to them following the pulling up of vines (or the right to replant) and the rights that come from the destruction of an equivalent acreage of vines elsewhere (the right to plant new vines.) Since vines had long-since disappeared from the Ariège, obtaining plan rights was a long nightmare. It took years and years but eventually the commission gave the green light to replant vines in the Ariège. Philippe and three other winemakers started up operations.
"Since that time Philippe was 100% vines, but not me. It's not good for a couple to always work together. Above all I wasn't gifted for agriculture – it's not my thing. I have always taken care of all of the personnel issues – we had a lot people working for us in the seed business. Nevertheless we have had catastrophic years and we had taken on a huge level of debt. Anyway I had a degree in political science which I dragged out and dusted off and after taking and passing an exam I qualified as a teacher. I found a job in Saint-Girons teaching English."

Biological Agriculture
Philippe started on land that had never been cultivated, virgin land, land that had never been treated with fertilizers or chemicals. It was easy to become bio on these soils. Additionally the state gave him a hand with a CTE (a smallholding subsidy contract). " I converted the vines into bio and immediately qualified for a subsidy of 10,000 euros for 5 years. There was really a willingness to help, right up until the arrival of Jean-Pierre Raffarin in the government. From one day to the next he stopped the CTE, because bio had really exploded thanks to the CTE." Philippe gives another example of biological agriculture in France. " At the Bio Vintage Fair we met a young woman who had completed a diploma in winegrowing. She told me that when she did her training in Perpignan they had to go to see a bio domaine - it was the domaine de Cazes. They talked about bio-agriculture, biodynamics etc. As they departed she said to her professor that it was really different from what they had learned. He told her that it was compulsory to go and see a biological domaine but to forget everything she had seen because it was a waste of time."

Sales
"Until two years ago it was easy, the wine sold itself, because we had a small quantity. We had perhaps 12,000 bottles. Now it's 20,000 bottles it's not the same. What's more the early enthusiasm for an Ariège wine has petered out. We knew that one day it would be more difficult to sell, and that day has arrived. We sell at fairs, salons, in the Gamm Vert stores and to restaurants, lots of restaurants. We love the small fairs, but it's not serious. Now we've started to realize that selling is something else, another skill and that scares us, we're not like that. Several times the Hachette Guide has selected our wines, a real top pick, and the guy said 'you'll see, you'll see' but I haven't seen anything." Conclusion" It's difficult to sell an Ariège wine.

Domaine des Coteaux d'Engravies: des vins

Domaine Saint Julien

2008-07-04T04:10:00.002-07:00

Stéphanie Minder/Ernest Aeschlimann
Domaine Saint Julien
Le Zaparel
11700 Azille

The Beginning
They talk about him. His name is Ernest Aeschlimann, and if the subject is wine and biodynamics then his name is powerful. He is the driving force behind the association 'Biodynamics in the Pays d’Oc.' By chance I tasted his wine the other day. I was at a party in Villelongue d'Aude and it was there that I tried a glass of Rosé. It was quite a remarkable taste and so I studied the label carefully and I read: ' a wine for you pleasure and well-being. The vine has given its best for this noble product that we grow with love and with the knowledge of craftsmen.' The name of the wine was Le Zaparel, from the Domaine Saint Julien. One week later I park my car at Domaine Saint Julien. We have a rendezvous with Stéphanie Minder and Ernest Aeschlimann the winegrowers of the domaine.

The Journey
Stéphanie starts. "Twenty six years ago we left Switzerland. Before meeting Ernest I was already thinking of leaving Switzerland. I wanted to go to Provence. Ernest also wanted to leave Switzerland but he had more of a desire to go to Italy. He refused to go to Provence – too many nuclear power stations and too many tourists. The compromise was here and our first house was in Paraza. That's where we started.

Domaine Saint Julien: Stéphanie Minder/Ernest Aeschlimann

We bought vines and we became tenant farmers on allotments of the co-operative cellar. However, we really wanted to go off and make our own wines - but the director of the co-operative said ' No. Stay with us. You can make your own wines at the co-operative and you can market and sell them yourselves.' That was very good for us – we didn't need to invest and everything went really well with Michel, the director. But after a while he left the co-operative and the new director proved hell for us. He couldn't stand someone working independently within the co-operative. He even changed the locks to prevent us from getting in. Anyway, we knew we had to get out of the situation fast. We had the opportunity to buy a wine cellar in Paraza. I was well installed as a young farmer and we were ready to buy. At the last minute the owner of the cellar went bankrupt and that was the end of that. So the big question was 'what to do?'
Ernest's brother, who lives in New York, had bought a house on the banks of the canal du Midi several years before. It was a house with a small wine cellar, which hadn't been used in 40 years. He said 'OK, for a few years you can use the house.' We ended up staying for 5 years. After that we bought the property here in Azille (le Zaparel). In the beginning it was difficult. We missed village life and here it was in a sad and sorry state. But we worked hard and the soils have really changed. Now the soil is wonderful and the wildlife has become much more abundant. We're very happy.

Biodynamics
Bio cultivation means no chemical products in principal. You treat with non-chemical products like copper (Bordeaux mixture) and sulphur, which are less dangerous for the soil. But at Stephanie and Ernest's it's biodynamics, which reigns. What does that mean?
" Well we don't use sulfur or copper on the vines. We don't use phytosanitary products. We don’t buy that kind of stuff. We only treat with biodynamic preparations, which we make here with a group. They're the people of an Association who harvest plants and dry them. Working together with them creates a good dynamic."
The results are remarkable both in terms of disease and yield. "We have less powdery mildew but then also less yield than our neighbours. We get between 15 and 35 hectolitres per hectare. It depends mostly on the vines. We have some very old vines such as the Carignan, which are centenarians. They're very pretty but they don't give more than 15 hectolitres per hectare. On the other hand if you use a lot of fertilizers you can get as much as 300 hectolitres per hectare out of the Carignan. But it's not worth it – plus you get all the diseases.

Domaine Saint Julien: the horse

Sales
" Sales pose a real problem for us. We're farmers - our goal is to work the soil. We don't have a commercial mindset and without that mindset it's tough to sell a product. It's just not our job and it doesn't interest us. That's a fundamental problem. Selling is particularly difficult around here because the people aren't very receptive. So we set up a network in Switzerland which sells our wine. We also sell in Denmark, Japan and Belgium through bio fairs where we can sell direct and there are some bio-stores that sell our wine as well. We really enjoy the bio fairs because it's the end consumers that come to taste and buy. It's great to have direct contact with the people who actually drink our wine."
We have problems with wholesalers. Our wines are a bit special and certainly atypical. Wholesalers are looking for a typical wine, something that sells easily. Ours are luxury wines for tasting. They don't sell like a standard wine with the taste of grape squash. Very simply our wines are different.

Domaine Saint Julien: the winecellar

Our wines are different
It's difficult for me to understand why the wines of Domaine Saint Julien are different so I keep asking why?
Ernest replies, " I have a Swiss client who told me that when he's not feeling well he goes home and has a glass of our Merlot. It warms him and makes him feel better. For him it's his medicine. There are other customers who say it's a wine from the old days. Well they're right. Wines today are quite different. Everything is treated with insecticides, herbicides and fungicides - the usual things. Because of that the soil is like concrete. There's no life in it. It's nothing more than a support mechanism for the vines and it's almost like hydroponic cultivation where you artificially provide everything the vine needs like fertilizer and water.
Then when the grapes are ripe it's time for the harvesting machines which pull off the bunches and deliver a kind of soup to the cellars which is already oxidized. It's a soup with nothing in it except a very simple grape base that needs a little something adding to it. They pour it into big vats and then add Actimax." Stéphanie and Ernest burst into laughter and they explain that some time ago a grape picker of theirs told them that he had worked for a co-operative cellar where his job was to add the Actimax to the soup to start the fermentation.
"Actimax is all. You also have to add yeasts, sulphites, enzymes etc. So it's hardly a homemade wine – it's an industrial wine. We don't add anything and that's why our wines are different.

Winegrowing today
What they say is very serious. Do they exaggerate? I don't think so. Why? Because I'm in the middle of reading 'Winemaking today' by A. Crespy and what he says agrees perfectly with Stéphanie and Ernest.
Crespy talks of 'the needs of vines'. If you want to plant vines he recommends a general initial procedure per hectare" 40 to 80 tonnes of manure, 400 units of superphosphates (a unit varies according to the type of fertilizer, for example 5, 10 or 20 kg), 800 to 1200 units of potash in chloride or sulphate form, 3 tonnes of quicklime and, if necessary, 2 to 6 tonnes of magnesium sulphate. During the build-up phase, that is the first three years, Crespy recommends an allocation of 80 to 100 units of nitrogen. Finally during their productive life you add fertilizers to the vines every year (nitrogen, phosphates and potash. The quantities vary according to the yield, the variety and the region.
Crespy talks about weeds which compete with the vines because they also need water, mineral elements, air space for their stalks and leaves and ground space for their roots. These weeds harbour pests. These weeds are troublesome during operations in the vineyards. What can be done? Crespy offers three solutions: working the soil, complete and permanent eradication, or weeding. Complete and permanent eradication involves the use of products such as simazine, aminotriazole, diuron and glyphosate. This is not without risk: 'A significant risk exists of phytotoxicity (toxicity for the vines) and over the long haul we see the progressive invasion of herbicide-resistant plants.'
That's not all. The vine is sensitive to disease and attacks from pests. For example, esca disease, root rot, nematodes, excoriosis, powdery mildew, acarinosis, snout moth, flavescence dorée, downy mildew, rot brun, brenner, grape blister disease, tiger moth and a dozen others.
Crespy speaks of two methods; "The classical method of semi-permanent coverage which, given the performance of current chemical products, requires a treatment every two weeks during the plant growing season." but "It's an expensive method. It's contaminating and it rapidly induces resistance against the products in use." The second method is similar but less rigid: "based on the evaluation of the risks and their nature which allows a reasonable treatment when necessary and economic."

Grapevine flavescence dorée
1994 saw the arrival of the problem of grapevine flavescence dorée, a disease which is transmitted by infected grafts or by the leafhopper insect. It's a serious disease, so much so that the presence of leafhoppers is not tolerated by the Protection of Vegetation Service. All winegrowers, bio and non-bio, must treat with an insecticide according to a prefectoral decree but Stéphanie and Ernest aren't obedient. They refused and by so doing created a lot of problems.
"We didn't want to destroy all of these insects but we were threatened for a long time. It was very hard. They told us they would use helicopters and forcibly treat our crops. They really wanted to treat at any price. We received threatening letters: 'You must treat, otherwise if other winegrowers, your neighbours, get this disease you will be responsible.' In addition, at Ecocert they said that they couldn't certify the wine since we hadn't used insecticide to kill off this little insect. So for four years we weren't officially bio.
Now everything is fine with Ecocert. They come every year, check the papers, the statements and the bills. We take a little walk around and that costs about €500. That's not all because they pay the same amount again to have the Demeter logo, a brand that recognizes bio-agricultural products.

The wines
We can't leave without tasting their wines, which are all qualified as table wines. We taste George, Le Chapeau and the Merlot 2003. Our judgement is well expressed by Jean-Louis: "Here is a real winegrower's wine – a wine through which you find the taste of the earth: berries, the soil, aromatic plants. A wine that won't give you a bad head but rather will entice you to keep coming back for more.
In particular Le Chapeau, which could potentially be an AOC Minervois – potentially because the tasting committee still needs to give the green light to transform the appellation of a wine and they refused because it's atypical. It doesn't surprise me because 'Our wines are different."

Domaine Saint Julien: Le Chapeau

Domaine Pechigo

2008-07-04T04:10:00.001-07:00

Sylvain Saux
Domaine Pechigo
Avenue des Pyrénées
11300 Lauraguel

The life of a winegrower is good
For years I believed that the life of the winegrower must really be very good. In the autumn they're in the vineyards with their friends. They sing, they argue, they joke and they enjoy themselves – that's what the harvest is all about. Through the winter they keep themselves busy with the actual wine making. This isn't difficult as it's the yeasts that are doing the real work. At the same time they get together with friends, strangers and connoisseurs who want to taste their wines. In spring they wander through the vines to ascertain whether they need to replace a broken stake or a broken support wire. And finally, in summer they watch over their grapes until they are ripe – and the cycle starts again.
Later, I understood that the life of the winegrower is less romantic, much harder and sometimes even dangerous -- as was described by Le Figaro in their article of October 14 2007 "Wine growing of the Midi under the threat of violent extremists." This is an extract from the article " Not everyone has the strength. In the Aude, several winegrowers at the end of their tether have killed themselves since the beginning of this crisis. Others don't hesitate to take out their guns to show their exhaustion in front of an insistent creditor or an intransigent wholesaler."
They're not the only ones, as noted by Gérard Schivardi, mayor of Mailhac, in the newspaper "Liberation" of March 31, 2007 on the subject of winegrowers. "We've had two suicides in my canton".
Death is an exception. On the other hand money worries are typical. For example for Sylvain Saux, winegrower of Domaine Pechigo in Lauraguel; for him the blow that really hurts comes from extremely poor yields.

The yield is low
Sylvain Saux's yield for 2007 is about 13 hectolitres per hectare. That's 1733 bottles per hectare. Is that low? Yes, that's very low. Looking at the most recent figures for the Charente region, on the web at www.charente.pref.gouv.fr ; at the end of January 2008 they announced: "With an average yield of 137 hectolitres per hectare, the harvest of 2004 was 9.9 million hectolitres." Thus the cultivation of 1 hectare in the Charente yields the same amount of wine as 10 hectares for Sylvain. You don't agree? I can't compare the Charente with the Aude? OK, I'll give you the latest figures from INAO (2005) on wine production in France: a total of 53,314,150 hectolitres from a total of 777,180 hectares gives an average of 69 hectolitres per hectare.

Domaine Pechigo : Sylvain Saux

Sylvain isn't looking for a yield of 137 hectolitres or even half that, but he does want to improve what he gets: 13 hectolitres/hectare just isn't enough to live. As he explains, "The objective for a winegrower might be to produce wine in a biodynamic environment and to earn a living from doing so. For me it was different, when I started out my only objective was to produce wine biodynamically. I wasn't thinking about making money at all. By the time I figured out that there was no money in what I was doing I had to adjust my goals accordingly.
If my top priority in the first place had been to earn money I would have realized earlier that with these kind of yields it wasn't going to work. I would have done something about it before." So, what's he going to do? He's going to pull out a hectare of vines that don't produce anything and he's going to start using organic fertilizer. "This year I've bought 15 tonnes of organic fertilizer and we're going to compost it. We'll make 10 tonnes of compost and put it on 2 or 3 hectares and that will improve the yield."

Sulphites
Sylvain really doesn't like to use sulphites. He uses disinfected barrels. The inside of these barrels are disinfected by burning sulphur wicks inside them and this may introduce traces of sulphites into the wine. In addition, if he deems it necessary, Sylvain may introduce additional sulphites; up to 20 mg per litre. That's very little compared with the legal limit of between 160 and 400 mg/litre. He actually experiments quite a lot in order to get his wines ready to drink as soon as possible. Because of that there's a problem with his 'Mothe'.

The Mothe
Several weeks ago, Jean-Louis spoke to me about a white wine: La Mothe. He said, "This 2005 is well balanced, well structured, rounded and its taste lingers on the tongue. You must come and taste it. It comes from a bio-winegrower in Malras. His colleague, Delphine, sings in my choir and she brought us a few bottles."
"And who is this winegrower?"
"He has a cellar in Malras but he actually lives in Lauraguel."
It turns out that the winegrower in question was none other than our winegrower Sylvain Saux who talked to us about his star wine. He said that the 2006 wasn't quite ready yet but he'd like our opinion all the same and he produced 'La Mothe'.

Domaine Pechigo : La Mothe

We try it and Jean-Louis offers his judgement. "The 2006 is too young, too green and there's too much acidity." Later, after a choir practise he told me that according to Delphine the 2005 had the same characteristics as the 2006 at the same age and that it improved at about 8 months. Will the 2006 follow the same path? We hope so because there are no more bottles of 2005.
Still La Mothe presents a problem for Sylvain. "It takes a lot of time for the wine to improve and for the acidity to diminish. If we don't wait it's difficult to sell and if we do wait it creates financial problems for us. La Mothe is 80% of our production".
But, once his wine is ready he has no problem selling it.

Sales
"Most of the buyers are wine merchants, a few national wholesalers and a very few restaurants who buy direct - as well as some export. From time to time someone stops by but we're not looking to develop that channel. That's why there's no sign, nothing to identify us. We're more or less hidden. Why? It might look tidy now but not long ago this place was a real mess. We couldn't really receive visitors. To handle visitors you need a pleasant environment and, what's more, you need to be available.

Domaine Pechigo : Sylvain Saux with his dog

But still, from time to time, we come across someone who's interested in buying. Just the other day I came back to look for a pick-axe and I came across a guy who told me he was from Perpignan. He said he always bought my wine there but his usual supplier had run out and he wanted to buy some direct."

Why Bio?
"Agronomics is quite simply a load of lies. It's crazy. Even the guys at the chamber of agriculture know we have to pollute less but they don't have the faintest idea of the latest developments in agronomy; the works of pedology (soil science). They still think in terms of classical soil analysis and that's no good. It's the theory of substitution: weigh a crop and say there's so much nitrogen, so much phosphorus, so much potash in my crop, I need to replace the soil with the same amounts. That may work for hydropomic grown tomatoes but not with a living soil. Soil is a veritable alchemy. We've reached such a level of mortality in the soils that it's like working with an inert substrate. But it shouldn't be like that and the pedologists agree. If we were taking about a minimal amount of scientific cultivation OK, but we're not – and it's wrong. No, we carry on working as though the scientific hypotheses of 100 – 150 years ago are still valid. It's time to open our eyes that it's better to choose biological agriculture and even better still to choose biodynamics. For me, biodynamics is the most well-founded theory and the most logical. Biodynamics can really explain the phenomena that we come across."

His Journey
"At university I majored in mathematics. After mathematics I was interested in agriculture and I did a BPREA (Brevet Professionnel de Responsable d'Exploitation Agricole – a professional qualification in farm management). It's an education that allows me to have a little insight into what's happening in agriculture today and which entitles me to certain benefits. But as to the BRREA - there's plenty of bullshit in agronomy, there's no consistency. OK, there were the management studies, there was law – that was interesting. Agronomy was also interesting to some extent. I certainly learned how conventional farming works. That allowed me to understand what my neighbours were doing. In addition my father was a winegrower and during my BPREA I worked with him using conventional farming methods. "

The State Supports the Bio-Winegrower
The state supports the bio-winegrower? Yes I think so. Sylvain told me he has received state aid. "I receive an allowance every year for bio-agriculture. We get €2000 and I think next year it will be €4000. Everyone working in bio-agriculture has the right to this allowance – it's a fixed amount and it's the same for the big farmers as for the little ones. So, for me it's excellent. What's more, there's no need to fill in a mountain of paperwork.
That's not the same story for the allowance for bio-conversion. That was very complicated. There's a load of bumf to be gone through. When you move to bio you get an allowance. For three years I got an allowance and it was worth the effort. If I remember rightly they gave me 18,000 francs (€2,750) per hectare. That's, let's say, €12,000 per year for all my hectares for three years. That was a good allowance."

The State vs. The State
It's late and we have to go. I ask my last question – if he learned anything about Bio-agriculture during his years at BPREA? "No, it was all the use of herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers."
So the state teaches it's winegrowers in college to use herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers and then they encourage them to rid themselves of the same herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers.
It really would be better to start in college with bio. It certainly would be more efficient!

Domaine Thuronis

2008-07-04T04:09:00.003-07:00

Philippe Sevely
Domaine Thuronis
11240 Alaigne

Word of Mouth
"Brring brrrring". The telephone rings and I answer it. "Hi Anton, it's me, Jean-Louis. How are you doing? Listen, last night at a school meeting I ran into Philippe Sevely. He's a winegrower in Alaigne and he's converting to Bio. He wants to move to a biodynamic crop. He's a nice guy and what's more I think his is an interesting story. If you like I can arrange an interview with him." "Sure, I'd like that."
Five days later we're passing through Alaigne on our way to see him. I follow the road towards Belveze and I stop the car in front of the sign for Domaine Thuronis.

Domaine Thuronis: sign

It's a big sign that marks the begininng of an ocean of vines. You can't even see the farm. It's very impressive and you can imagine the king of vines living here. We continue up a side road and after about 500 metres I park the car in front of a large building.

His journey
The path that Philippe Sevely has followed is not typical.

Domaine Thuronis: Philippe Sevely

"I worked for a large export company. I put together distribution networks throughout South America. In 2000 I returned to France and as I had no desire to continue working in the same field I decided to retrain in viticulture. From 2000 to 2004 I followed a professional training course interspersed with practical periods spent with winegrowers. By 2005 I was ready, so my wife, Clara, and I went looking for a domaine and we came across this, Domaine Thuronis; 35 hectares of vines, 2 hectares of land, an orchard and woods."

The Goal
Our objective is a biodynamically self-sufficient farm. That's to say to home grow everything; vegetables, fruits, poultry and eventually even to generate electricity. Here we have a low water table and we're going to test the water to see if we can use it for the vegetable plot, the garden and perhaps to drink. Bio today is stylish. People talk about bio, talk about eating healthily etc. What happened to me was not a question of being stylish. It took a long period of reflection. Here bio is more a state of mind.

The size of the operation
The operation involves just Philippe, Clara and one employee. Actually they are just two and a half people (one of them works half-time) taking care of 35 hectares of vines, the vegetable garden, the poultry and the orchard. Add to that the winemaking, the sale of the wine, vegetables, eggs and fruits. That seems to me to be a whole lot of work. Philippe doesn't agree. "It's a question of organization. It seems like a lot, but we base our manpower on the principle that it takes one person to handle 15 hectares of vines. So our two and a half people can pretty much handle the vines. Until March we work predominantly in the vineyards. After that things calm down and the vines need a lot less attention so we can turn our attention to other things. We put in the vegetable garden in March and the vegetables are ready in June, July, August and September. Fruit is similar: May to October. The winemaking is easy to organize. We work through the night during the grape harvest. That way the winemaking gets done calmly during the day. Then you have two or three months of waiting while the wine rests and after that it's a question of decanting and bottling. The last phase is the sales and marketing which for us is relatively simple."

Sales and Marketing
We have two commercial networks. We work with a wholesaler in Sète who we make wine for and he takes 80% of our production. After that the remaining 20% is our personal production. We make wine for ourselves and we bottle it. It's actually a different kind of wine. For ourselves we make a " vin de coule ", that is wine from a first extraction; Sète wants a pressed wine. For ourselves we don't artificially press the grapes. We put them in a vat and they are pressed under their own weight which releases the juice. For the wholesaler we use a press to extract the juice. A quarter of our personal production goes to a handful of restaurants of « Relais & Châteaux » and three quarters is sold directly to passing clients – mostly Dutch, Belgian and English. They often buy several cases, sometimes as many as 10 cases! We don't sell to wine merchants.

Bio conversion affects the commercial operation
Philippe is in the middle of conversion from " normal " to bio cultivation or more exactly, biodynamicism. This will result in the production of bio wines in smaller quantities compared to previous years. And what does his client, the major wholesaler in Sete who takes 80% of his output, think to all this? " It's going to change two things. We're going to produce about 50% less overall, dropping from 80 hectolitres/ha to 40 or maybe 50 hectolitres/ha at a maximum. Well he's OK with that. The second thing is that the product will be bio – and he's OK with that too. " Philippe fails to mention the third thing. He hasn't talked about price. Why? " Because for them there'll be no change in price. " So, sales to the wholesaler will drop about 50%. I think that's quite a sacrifice.

The costs of cultivation
There's normal cultivation, reasoned cultivation, biological cultivation and bio-dynamic cultivation. Normal cultivation involves treating the crops with chemicals – and then, as an extra measuree, treating them a second or even third time. Reasoned cultivation sounds reasonable – all the same it involves the use of chemicals in more "reasonable" quantities. Biological cultivation, in principle, uses no toxic chemicals. Produce is treated with products such as Bordeaux mixture, which is less dangerous for the soil. Biodynamic cultivation is really " reasonable ". All cultivation activities are designed to be non-noxious for the soil and by using the phases of the moon to control efforts, they are more effective.
Philippe compares the annual costs of reasoned cultivation and biological cultivation.
" Annual costs to run a hectare of vines are about 1000 € on average for reasoned cultivation. For us it was worse. The first year we faced costs that I dread to talk about. The treatment merchants are in it for the money. They don't like to sell a 100% efficient product. You go out and treat the vines the first week of the month. Then they say, 'ah but that wasn't good enough – you risk having diseases', and because the treatments aren't 100% effective, when you go out among the vines you'll always find traces of mildew or powdery mildew. So they say you need to go over them again and again. That's their technique. Well, we were new to the area and we went along with them. I found myself with costs of €2500 per hectare. But don't worry, we did what was necessary.
Bio costs are no lower than reasoned cultivation costs. Bio treatments, such as Bordeaux mixture and sulphur, are expensive. What's more, the cost to employ them is high too. The cost of fuel is much more significant for the bio farmer. Either way you go you find yourself with about the same costs of about €1000 per hectare. That's why we're going to take the extra step to biodynamicism and to become totally self-reliant. That will be much cheaper.

SO2 harms
During the interview I mention sulphur in the wine several times. Philippe, very patiently, corrects me each time and says " sulfites ". He's right. Sulphur, the chemical element S, is a non-metal with a yellow colour. Sulphur is used in the production of sulphuric acid H2SO4 for batteries, matches and fireworks. Sulphur is also used for treating vines against diseases such as powdery mildew. But sulphur is not used in the wine. On the other hand sulphur dioxide is used in wine making to protect the wine. Sulphites do not promote health. Today it is prohibited to add too much sulphite to wine. For example for red wine the limit is 160 mg/litre while while for white wine the limit is 210 mg/litre.
What's more, the label on the bottle must state "'contains sulphites' if sulphites are added. Philippe makes great efforts to add only 80 mg of sulphites to both his reds and whites. So, he would prefer a requirement to mention the level of sulphites added - for example 'contains 80 mg of sulphites'. For the moment he has his own way of dealing with the problem. On the labels on his bottles the text 'contains sulphites' is so small as to be practically unreadable. Next year he hopes to be making wine biodynamically with no added sulphites so the need for the text on the labels will disappear altogether.
With Philippe's unceasing correction of me when I say 'sulphur', Clara decides that I need to be properly trained. She leaves and returns with a drum which contains little yellow wicks. She opens the drum and invites me to take a sniff. I do so and BAM! It's as if someone has thrust an iron rod into my bronchials. It's terrible, and the others are laughing at my expense. She explains that the drum contains a sulphurous solution and that apparently I don't like SO2.

Domaine Thuronis: Clara Sevely

Now Philippe gives me a yellow wick – a wick of sulphur. I don't smell anything in particular and I don't feel bad. He lights it and passes it under my nose. That perks me right up and I'm only just able to stand the stench of SO2. I think I've learned my lesson and I promise not to abuse the word 'sulphur' any more.

How to harvest?
What is that little sticker on the bottle? A gold medal from the ministry of agriculture? No, it's something else, it's a little logo with the accompanying text 'hand picked' From now on I'll notice it. On the other hand I've never seen a mention of 'machine picked'. Why? Is hand picking superior to machine picking? Yes, - at least there are those who say it is. For example, René Dauty, former director of the co-operative cellar who, as reported by a local paper 'La Depêche', said " Nothing, for the time being, can replace the detailed work of sorting that is done by the hand pickers. "
Philippe has his own opinions on hand picking and machine picking. " Machine picking is definitely better than manual harvesting; that is from a qualitative standpoint. It's not a bunch of grape-pickers arguing, joking and enjoying themselves. You talk, discuss, you do this and that and even if the bunch is rotting you throw it in anyway. If you find a bunch of unripe grapes it's the same story – throw it in. You pick and pick and pick. And in the evening? The grape-picker also has a right to a little wine in additional remuneration. So, in the evening he drinks a little too much and the next day he's not feeling too bright. His back aches, his head aches and he's got a cut on his finger. With a machine, unripe seeds don't fall off the vine – they stay in place. It's really quite difficult for the machine to pull them off. So, from a ripeness standpoint you've already got something better. In addition, the machine recognizes rotting grapes – they're sticky and the machine doesn't make them fall. "
That's not all. Philippe explains that a machine can harvest 6 hectares in a night. If six hectares ripen at the same time he harvests them in one go. On the other hand, 6 hectares picked by hand take several days. So either you start picking too early or you finish too late. He adds one last advantage. With a machine you can pick at night when you avoid problems of oxidation and heat.

Product of biological agriculture
All wine labeled " issu de l'agriculure biologique " must be controlled in order to obtain the certification of a licensing organization. Six such organizations are authorized to effect these controls and issue the certification " Agriculture Biologique ": Aclave, Ecocert, Ulase, Agrocert, Certipaq et Qualité-France. Philippe works with Ecocert and pays them a favourable rate for certification of his vines, fruit trees, chickens and vegetables: €470. Surprisingly it's the chickens that account for most of this amount. The vines are much cheaper, just €1 per hectare.
However, perhaps even more surprisingly Philippe also tells us, that he is authorized to use up to 20% chemicals to treat his vines in case of necessity. So under certain circumstances "organic” can end up being less organic than we may think.

A matter of organization
They are just two and a half people and they take care of 35 hectares of vines, vegetables, poultry, the orchard, making wine, selling wine and selling all the other produce they have (vegetables, eggs etc.). A bit over-ambitious? No, I don't think so. Philippe and Clara seem calm. They've taken a lot of time for us today, the cellar and workshop look organised and the vines seem well cared-for. For Philippe it's just a matter of organization.

Domaine Thuronis: the wines

Domaine Christian Marie

2008-07-04T04:02:00.000-07:00

Christian Décembre
Domaine Christian Marie
2, avenue de la Résistance
11700 Pépieux

Why choose Christian Décembre?
Having read Louis Julian's article, "A dangerous anti-oxidant for the health", I now know more about sulphur and wine. Let me explain. After the colonization of Algeria, the French started to plant vines and make wine there. It was an unmitigated disaster; the temperature being far too high to allow the yeasts to work. In fact it is so hot that the yeasts may die. In order to achieve the necessary lower temperatures they tried refrigerating the cellars. No luck. However, the addition of sulphites worked well. Sulphites slow down the fermentation and so help reduce the temperature in the vats. Thus the heat generated by the fermentation process is dissipated over a much longer period. Additionally, the sulphites act as an antiseptic - a big plus for the winemaker. At some point the use of sulphites crossed the Mediterranean and, little by little, they conquered the wine world in France. So much so that today it is rare to find a wine without sulphites. It's a pity because I don't believe that sulphites are good for the health. The ADI (acceptable daily intake) is 49mg for a man of 70 kg. That's about 3 glasses of red wine, assuming you don't eat prawns (prawns are well known for their high sulphite content). If this all sounds a little too theoretical for you, pay attention to that headache you may suffer from after drinking red wine. It's probably due, in no small measure, to the sulphites. You may decide to seek out wines without sulphites but they're not that easy to find. I don't know of any non-biological wines without sulphur. On the other hand I do know of bio-wines without sulphur. That's certainly the case for the wines of Christian Décembre. Moreover, this winegrower has a mere 1.5 hectares of vines. That's all? Yes, that's all. And how can he survive with such a small endeavour? I don't know! And that's why I went to see him.

Rapid wordfire
We enter Pépieux, the village where we find the domaine of Christian Marie. Pépieux has a real history. It has been in existence since the 9th century and the village was fortified in the 12th century. The history of domaine Christian Marie is somewhat less impressive. The domaine has only been in existence for 17 years and the buildings, in the form of a U, are very modest. So modest that I can't park in the courtyard because another car is already parked there. When I enter the building it seems small but efficient. To the left there's a terrace, a small tasting room and a storage area for bottles. To the right there's a shelter for agricultural equipment as well as the cellar. In the middle is his cramped apartment with a second apartment (gite) above. And there we find Christian Décembre. He shows us his apartment in the middle of renovation. He's doing it all himself and it's charming. His office is a former concrete wine tank. After seeing his apartment we move on to the cellar.

Domaine Christian Marie: the cellar

There Christian unleashes his true character; a rapid fire of words with no mercy for the powers that be, the agricultural institutions and the big national and international corporations. Without hesitation or deviation he lays into all the 'jokers'.

Stupid and Obedient
When Christian talks of 'chemists', he's talking about the winegrowers who treat their vines with all sorts of chemical products, herbicides and pesticides, and who spread fertilizers in the vines. He thinks the chemists are very well-behaved. " All the chemists receive notices from the distributors of phytosanitary products, who analyze and report, for example, that they have observed so many flights of butterflies and so it's time to treat with such and such a product. " The chemists dutifully follow the advice of their suppliers.
Christian is not so well-behaved. He doesn't use the chemicals and what's more, before applying any other kind of treatment he watches. " Me, I observe and I don't see butterflies in flight. I'm out amongst the vines all day long because I do everything by hand. So I don't treat and I don't have a single worm, no rot – nothing."

Sulphur
On the site www.cyberpresse.ca you can read an article written by the famous critic, Jaques Benoit, 'Why sulphites?' In this article he writes, 'Are there wines without sulphites? From all the evidence, no, even though all the good winemakers use as little of it as possible as recommended by Peynaud. " ( Émile Peynaud, oenologist and researcher who has been credited with revolutionizing wine making in the latter half of the 20th century.)
When Christian discusses with the other winegrowers they are of the same opinion as the celebrated critic. " When I tell them that I don't use sulphur they're very sceptical. They say it's not possible. 'What do you do to preserve your wine?' 'How do you do it?' They throw sulphur on everything 'just in case' . They justify their actions by saying ' By using sulphur I avoid the potential problem of oxidation, I can relax and I don't have to watch everything like a hawk every day.' That's it. "
Christian has found his holy graal. "If you're careful, you monitor the head floating in your vats and you taste regularly I say there's no reason to add sulphur. Personally I don't add anything and I don't have volatile acidity. It's difficult to believe and the guys all say 'you've got to have volatile acidity. You can't make wine without adding sulphur.' It's true that in the beginning I did add a little sulphur like everyone else. But I kept reducing and reducing the quantity and finally I realized that it just wasn't necessary. Now my nose is so sensitive that I can't stand the smell of sulphur. I won't go into a cellar where there's sulphur. I can smell it from outside. "

The tasting committee
A wine has to merit its AOC appellation. In spring the winemaker must have his wine tasted by the tasting committee which judges if the wine is 'typical'. If not, the committee rejects the wine, the winemaker can't call it AOC and the wine becomes simple table wine (vin de table). The tasting committee was in the habit of rejecting Christian's wines.
" In the beginning it was always the same problem. As soon as you stray from the well-worn path you also stray from the marketed taste. After all this taste was put in place by all of the wine merchants, all of the salespeople and all of the big marketers who form part of these tasting committees. Needless to say they created a more or less industrial taste. If you don't add yeasts; if you don't add sulphur your wine has a natural flavour which has nothing to do with this industrial taste. In the end there are two reasons why the AOC appellation can be refused. The first is if the wine has not finished its malolactic fermentation. With me, because this process is natural the malolactic fermentation happens in June, or sometimes even later. Nevertheless you have to deposit your samples for the AOC before May 31st. So, sometimes it's too early for me and I have to go with Vin de Table or I submit it as Vin de Pays because you have until December 31st for that. The AOC calendar is just not in phase with the biological calendar. So that's clearly the first problem. After that you have the tasting problem. My wines taste of grapes and don't have this industrial taste. Obviously from that moment on the tasters from the committee find you have an atypical wine. They don't say it's good. They don't say it's bad. No they say it's atypical and they refuse it. Until two years ago they judged my wines atypical. Now occasionally it gets by. The 2005 and 2006 vintages were not refused. Perhaps the tastes are evolving? "

On Biological Agriculture
Christian thinks that the big industrials are going to attack the bio market in their own way; a big, industrial way.
" We're going to see industrial-bio. I'm convinced that a few years from now big businesses with hundreds of hectares ares going to have the AB label. Once they reduce chemical usage to a minimum they're going to have the right to the label but their products aren't going to have anything to do with the small producer who basically makes a natural product.
Bio is moving. Everyone's talking about it. People no longer say that bio isn't possible. Now they say 'yes' and you find it everywhere. Large supermarkets are starting to sell more-or-less industrial-bio, vegetables without chemicals but grown without soil; animals raised in batteries fed bio-grains but which never get to wander around freely. Why? Big supermarkets want the biggest piece of the pie and that pie has started to get bigger. In France supply is less than demand. It's the country that consumes the least in Europe. Bio land represents just 2% of all agricultural land. That's nothing. So, it's urgent that rural producers mobilize in order to offer true, and naturally, bio products. "

The rosé flows in the cellar
Christian allows us a little break in order to see his cellar. Everything looks new and well organized. He holds a carafe under the tap of a barrel and voila! The 2007 rosé trickles into the carafe.

Domaine Christian Marie: Christian Décembre and his rosé

A few seconds later it's flowing into our 4 glasses. A minute later 4 mouths are saying 'yes'. This wine is likely to be much touted.

Attestation of bio-agriculture
In order to acquire the coveted AB (bio-agriculture) logo, the winegrower must have his crop verified by a certifying organization. For Christian it's Ecocert and it's not free. Christian finds it odd that he's obliged to pay in order to vouch that his wines are free from chemical products. It should be the other way around. The polluting chemists should pay for the damage done to the environment and people's health.

A vineyard of 1.5 hectares
Christian started his professional career in the electronics industry, first in Paris and later in Toulouse. He worked for a number of large companies, Dassault, 3M, Canon, Alcatel ...
In 1987, in getting closer to his parents who lived in Pépieux, he took up wine making as a hobby. Little by little the hobby grew and has ended up today as a very human scaled endeavour comprising 1.5 hectares of vines.
" With a hectare and a half of vines I get between 50 and 60 hectolitres of wines – that's 6,7,or maybe 8 thousand bottles. If you sell a bottle at €5 including tax that's €4 before tax. Out of that €4 , given the low production volume, you've got costs of about €2 for the care, harvesting and processing of the grapes plus the bottle, cork, commercial fees etc. That leaves you with a net margin of €2. With 8000 bottles that gives you an income of about €16000 a year. That's about like working for the minimum wage – assuming you don't have any finance charges. Over 20 years I've invested all my savings in my hobby with the goal of achieving the production level of 6 or 7 thousand bottles of natural wine. In a year's time, when I retire, I'll have achieved my goal and I'll be able to supplement my income nicely all the while maintaining a healthy and vigorous agricultural activity. "

An anarchist winegrower
Christian is an anarchist winegrower. He rejects all rules, all authority and all the customs of French wine growing life. He has chosen his own way of growing, harvesting, producing the wine and conducting his sales activities. His rosé proves he's made good choices.

Domaine Christian Marie: the wines

Domaine Sainte Juste

2008-07-04T04:01:00.002-07:00

Rémy MIQUEL
Domaine Sainte Juste
10 Route d'Albas
11360 Durban-Corbières

The first nose
Several years ago I tasted, for the first time, a glass of Domains Sainte Juste – thanks to my neighbour. He had arrived with a red wine in a bottle with no label. I tried it and was pleasantly surprised. It was a wine full of the flavours of berries, very unusual, but difficult to place with a meal course. It was a bulk wine but we were both of the same opinion: this wine deserved to be bottled. Later I paid a visit to Remy Miquel, the vintner, who explained to me why the wine was sold in bulk; full vats, low prices – in short a wine crisis.
Today I get into my car to pay him a second visit. After having breakfast I wasn't that keen on going. It was too early in the morning, it was too cold and I don't like fog. Nevertheless off I go and five minutes later I arrive at Jean -Louis'. This wine lover is coming too. He may not know how to get rid of fog but he does know how to brighten up the atmosphere and pretty soon the fog doesn't seem so bad. Two hours later we get to Durban-Corbières where the cheery smiles of Remy and Ulrike greet us. After half an hour of small-talk I tell Remy that I would love to hear his story and so he starts to recount his tale.

The operation
A family operation, Remy's father and grand-father before him already ran a domaine. Actually it was his grandfather who built the cellar here. So he was born and raised among the vines. When he was a child he often worked in the vineyards at weekends and really got the taste for working outside. At sixteen with his father suffering from poor health, Remy took the reins of the business. Suddenly he was a real vintner in his own right, and an ambitious one at that.

The crazy years
"I was an ambitious vintner and so I grew. I took on vines in tenancy. I bought vines from retiring vintners. I always said, 'yes, yes, I'll buy' "
How was it possible?
"My father and uncle were from the old school. They worked in the "bio" method. They really didn't know about herbicides. My generation was the chemical generation. It was new,.It was progress. It was magic. We saved time. It was easier and the vines without weeds were so pretty; a real miracle."

Domaine Sainte Juste: Remy Miquel

Thanks to the magic, he was king of expansion and an excellent client of Credit Agricole (a farmers' bank) during the nineteen eighties. During this time everything exploded around him: his acreage, his revenues, his costs - and his credit. And so it continued right until the end of the eighties and the ensuing wine crisis (there is a wine crisis about every ten years). Suddenly he had 25 hectares of worries. Although he came out of it relatively unscathed he hadn't learned his lesson.

The difficult years
In 1994, his brother suggested joining forces: "Together we were stronger."
Yes, they were stronger with their 35 hectares of vines but they were to encounter difficult years together. They borrowed a lot from the bank to construct a new cellar. But at some time banks must be paid back, moreover Remy had health difficulties. "I was sick with chronic sinus problems. Every day I was on my tractor treating the vines with chemicals." Today he knows well that herbicides and pesticides aren't good for the health of a vigneron. But at the time, with 35 hectares of vines and an impatient bank he didn't have time to think about it. " I was really depressed but I just carried on." How so? Because he preferred to turn a blind eye to the realities. But it wasn't all doom and gloom. He met a pretty German girl who wanted to play music with him. At the same time he encountered some people who introduced him to bio-cultivation. "Cultivation that doesn't use herbicides or pesticides. Now that's really magic. So I said 'STOP.'"

Serving the English
Someone knocks at the door. Remy opens it and there stand 5 people. They've come from England to taste his wines. Remy takes them to the cellarand I follow with my camera to take some pictures. For half an hour Remy looks after his guests. He lets them taste all of his wines and answers all of their questions. I understand English well and it's quite amusing to listen to the conversation between them. They find Remy very pleasant but they can't always understand what he says. They think the cellar is quite a circus - and very French.

Domaine Sainte Juste: the winecellar

They can't understand why I'm taking so many photos but in the end they decide to buy a lot of wine. Later I see them filling the trunk of their car with what looks like far too many bottles. They leave happy. Me, I return with Remy and I tell them that I'd also very much like to hear Ulrike's story.

The visitor of December 31 1999
Ulrike arrived in Durban Corbières on the evening of December 31st, 1999. She was just 19 years old and full of energy and enthusiasm for her six month stay in the village. Six months to learn French, six months in a nice house with a good meal in return for a few hours of work – a good exchange for her.

Domaine Sainte Juste: Ulrike Miquel

A couple of months later doubt crept in. She was speaking only German with her friend and so she wasn't making much progress with her French. What's more, Durban-Corbières in winter is no Paris. It's monotonous. The arrival of the postman is a real event. Ulrike missed playing the violin. Now Durban-Corbières is not so small that it doesn't house musicians and her friend quickly found one. It was Remy. Together they started to play and suddenly Durban-Corbières was transformed into a lively village. In her soul Ulrike is an ecologist and when she learned that Remy was a vintner and wanted to convert to bio-cultivation Durban-Corbières indeed became a very interesting village. In the end, the last months of her stay passed all too quickly. Saying goodbye to Remy proved difficult and after her return to Germany she found that life was dull without him. The arrival of the postman didn't change much. Quite simply, she was in love with Remy. What to do? A few weeks later she said goodbye to her parents and left, for a second time, for little Durban-Corbières but this time for more than a mere six months.

Flying Spaghetti
By now it's midday and I mention that we should look for a restaurant for lunch. Immediately Ulrike insists that we eat with them and Remy states that we haven't yet tried his wines. Of course he's right, and so we accept the invitation to stay. We sample the whites and the reds and are well pleased. Ulrike serves us spaghetti bolognaise to accompany the red and I try to teach their son,Yan, to eat spaghetti. He's two years old and from time to time he sends a strand of spaghetti flying. Already he's happy speaking both French and German.
After lunch Remy continues with his story...

I said 'STOP'
"Yes, I said 'STOP. This not my life.' I wanted to stop and change over to bio-cultivation, without all those chemical products. I felt that they were very bad for me. I could see that the chemicals were toxic for both the soil and for me as well. I wanted to make a product I could be proud of and I didn't want to deceive people. I just wanted to make a true and natural product. I was ready to start a new life – but how?"
He met people who talked to him about bio-cultivation but he had a hard time seeing how it would work considering all of the diseases that vines are prone to. And he was alone. So, he sought out bio-vintners further afield and he asked them for advice as well as what problems they had encountered. Then he took a course at the Chamber of Agriculture in Carcassonne where he met other people like himself. By this time Ulrike was with him. She supported him, helped and encouraged him, and pushed him to keep going. With her help he felt that the conversion to bio-cultivation would be possible.

A nightmare conversion
So, the conversion to bio-cultivation started in 2002 and it wasn't plain sailing. As Remy explained, a conversion takes three years. During this time the vintner must adhere to the "bio" rule book. He must work with bio methods. On the othert hand his product is not yet a bio wine, it's a wine from a domaine under conversion. He can't increase the price even though he needs more resources to work ' biologically'. But the salary and social contributions for an extra worker are very costly and if the revenues don't increase the vintner is hard pressed. In theory there are grants to help the vintner.
"For us it was a nightmare. When we started the conversion, Jacques Chirac had just frozen all the grants for conversion. No more state aid; no money for us. What's more we had invested a lot of money in a new lorry and renovations to the cellar. The same year, the latest wine crisis hit." Is it serious? Yes, it's serious. Not only are the prices not going up, they're actually going down. It's very difficult to sell the wines. Remy has worked with the wholesalers but he hasn't managed to achieve a reasonable price. In the end they offered him 50 centimes a litre for a biological AOC! So he chose not to sell and found himself with full vats, an empty till and a sense of overwhelming hopelessness. That was their nightmare conversion.

Changing trends
Little by little they 've pulled through. They've worked like crazy; their friends have supported them and sales in Germany have been a great success. Thanks to Ulrike, they've organized tastings in Germany and these "tupperware-like parties" work well. The germans appreciate having a vintner who speaks their language, who is prepared to come from miles away to let them taste their wines. And if his wines are "bio", success is almost guaranteed. The only hiccup is the administrative and fiscal hoops that have to be jumped through. The processes are complex and no-one seems to know exactly how it all should work. But they're not complaining. After everything they've been through this is a piece of cake.

Black and White Magic
Remy's father and grandfather worked in, what would now be called, the biological method. Magic potions (chemicals) propelled Remy into the status of a major winegrower. Twenty years later he came to understand that it was black magic and he said 'STOP'. Thanks to Ulrike, his friends and colleagues, he has rediscovered bio-cultivation, the cultivation method of his father and grandfather. So white magic does exist and his wines prove it. As our friend Jean-Louis says, ”Remy's wines are just like he is; unusual and generous.”

Domaine Sainte Juste: the wines