Quite simply, to make good wine

Posted on | June 29, 2005

My comparison between the «creative anxieties» of winegrowers and those of a painter has triggered off a passionate debate on LPV (la Planète-Vin), one of the cybernauts wonders – and I wonder – what would I do with a parcel of Aramon on a terroir suitable for artichokes/asparagus. If you don’t have the time to read it, the debate has, in effect, changed the subject and focussed on the importance of terroir and the rôle of the winegrower in the success of the wine.

This fascinating question makes me want to explain my vision of wine. For me, there are no wines greater than others, there are only «right» wines.

«Right» in their concentration if one is in the category of concentrated wines, «right» in their fruit, if one wants «fruity», «right» in their finesse, if one looks for finesse. «Right» wines spring from «right» times for their consumption. `For me, a perfect Beaujolais merits an 18 out of 20 as much as a Pingus 2003, the densest most stupifying of wines tasted at Vinexpo this week.  Even more, a Bienvenue-Bâtard-Montrachet de Leflaive, tasted with a thrill the day before yesterday is at least the same level of success as a delicious Sauvignon de Saint-Bris drunk in Paris two months ago. Both, according to my personal pantheon, merit 5 stars. Simply, they don’t stem from the same world.

My brain is so formed (or deformed, as certain hasten to say ) that I distinguish certain parallel worlds from which wines develop. There is the world of «magic» wines, that of «great» wines, that of «good» wines, that of wines that «quench your thirst» and even that of  «technological» wines and that of «marginal» wines. But be careful, there is also a world of wines without character, wines without concept, skimpy wines, industrial wines, etc. without forgetting just plain bad wines. You follow me?

Thus explained, you have now understood, that I would be very happy to vinify a parcel of Aramon. I would plough it, prune it according to the rules of my art and clean it of all diseases. Ah, I would also make up its deficiencies with a little Alicante or Syrah. After two or three years of loving care and attention, I would harvest it ripe but not more, I would attempt to work at low temperatures during fermentation, perhaps with some yeast, if that brings a bit of fruit, something I rarely practise. Without doubt I would rack off quite early, I would process in a reductive environment in cement vats then I would bottle it before Easter to have, before the beginning of the summer, a kind of fruit bomb, to be drunk from a large glass in the local beach restaurants. Without doubt this would make around 60 to 80 hl/ha (Aramon is generous) and if all goes well and if the parcel is not too big, I ought to have none left by the 14 July because on leaving the restaurant or before going there, people would inevitably pass by and buy at the domain. It wouldn’t cost much, because it doesn’t cost much to make. There would be a pleasing label, modern, bright, just like those that flower in the Languedoc at the moment.

Above all  above all, I would not try to make a «Clos Du Fèes». The work of the winegrower, is to «reveal» the terroir, to set an objective which he can hold to, not to attempt, twisting this way and that, to prove anything, nor, that one is right.

Hervè Bizeul

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