Wine
Ô GALARNEAU! 2010
The 2010 Ô Galarneau! (or "the OG" for short) comes from the fruit grown in the La Noue Blanchard vineyard. Old, sturdy cabernet franc vines planted selection massale, with their deep root systems, stand squarely in the heavy, clay soil. The decade of organic viticulture and working of the soil before we acquired the parcel established the health of this vineyard.
However, like La Grande Pièce, we found the vines in quasi-abandonment, and 2010 saw us in the field daily, hand-hoeing the stubborn clods of grass and weeds.
Alas, our crop in '10 was small, but we'll never forget the incredible flavour of the grapes. Harvested at a potential alcohol of 13%, the tannins were super ripe and tasting like roasted chestnuts. We also find this flavour in the wine.
The grapes were hand-destemmed and fermented in an open tank for three weeks, with hand pigiage daily for the first 14 days. A cool autumn meant the ferment lagged towards the end, whereby we closed the tank and let the maceration continue. The wine was then pressed and transfered to (a) barrel where it sat for a year. Bottling was done directly from the barrel with no racking. The wine is unfined and unfiltered (20 ppm total SO2).
On top of the chestnut tannins, this wine is an unusual example of Anjou cabernet for its unique, lifted aromas over a solid but not heavy structure. It is most certainly a result of the old vines growing in a generous soil, low yield, and high maturity.
Some dissolved CO2 can be detected, a result of the minimal handling. The wine is best decanted, or, we find it evolves well over several days after opening.
CHALAN POLAN 2010
600 bottles
The idea of making bubble by way of the rustic, hands-off style méthode ancestrale first grabbed our attention when Kenji was on a wine making internship at Coco Farm in Japan. There is brilliance in its simplicity: pressed juice ferments spontaneously (as it ought to), bottled just before it's dry, and the continuing ferment in bottle creates a sparkling wine. Simple? We lost more sleep making this wine than all the other cuvées combined.
Chenin blanc grown on shale soils of the Layon river was harvested late-September, at a potential alcohol of 12.7%. The grapes were pressed over several hours and fermentation started in tank a few days later. After a slow ferment largely due to the cool autumn temperature, the wine was bottled at a specific gravity of 1004, and closed with crown caps. The bottles rested sur latte for eight months. We degorged the lees by hand, à la volée. A little more romantic-sounding than "on the fly". The bottles were topped up with no dosage.
Here's the rub: grapes for méthode ancestrale are harvested riper than for méthode traditionelle or champenoise. There's no secondary yeast or sugar addition, that is, everything that's in our final wine had to come from the vineyard. It's more, as the French might say, rock and roll. There's no fine-tuning. On the other hand, the result is a fuller flavour perfect for drinking early, and drinking often.
LA GRANDE PIECE 2010
300 bottles
Grolleau noir is the forgotten variety of Anjou. Relegated to appellation anonymity, its only utterance a blending tool or a bit-part in the local rosé scene.
However, arriving in the region, we stumbled upon an underground wealth of grolleau being celebrated for its grolleau-ness. Its fans are stalwart. They wouldn't trade it for pinot, any day.
La Grande Pièce, as the name suggests, is a tiny vineyard of humble grolleau vines. We took it over in a semi-abandoned state, its weak branches barely waist-high. After countless hours of working the soil, drastic pruning measures, and adherence to the lunar cycle, the vines are now more vigorous.
The grapes were harvested late-September, destemmed by hand, and the fermentation started quickly. The maceration lasted ten days, with hand pigeage twice a day. It was pressed through our basket press into an older oak barrel and a bunch of carboys. The wine spent 12 months in barrel, was racked twice, and bottled (on a descending moon) by hand without fining or filtration. 16 ppm of SO2 was added at bottling.
