producers visit

<p><strong><em>This visit with Georges Descombes took place in June, 2012.</em></strong></p> <p><strong><em>Words by Jules Dressner, photos by Maya Pedersen.</em></strong></p> <p>In the little <glossary title="519">hamlet</glossary> of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1082">Vermont</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> if you follow this very narrow pathway, you will find yourself in George Descombes&#39; front yard.</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//c9/a1/c9a1f59655b56b5d28e8936fc298bc57.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//ac/83/ac831d0cecdba0f6c921322da67fda9a.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//a9/63/a963c2312fa45fb800ea5fde1fbd609d.jpg" /></p> <p>Right as we were pulling in, none other than&nbsp;<a href="http://louisdressner.com/producers/Coquelet/" target="_blank">Damien Coquelet</a>&nbsp;was hopping off his tractor to take a quick break before getting right back on to spread a <glossary title="328">treatment</glossary> on his vines. After greeting us, he went to go grab Georges in the house. The first question was the obvious one: how&#39;s 2012 going? It&#39;s been a challenging <glossary title="1109">vintage</glossary> around their parts: they&#39;ve suffered from <glossary title="1136">hail</glossary> and <glossary title="1135">frost</glossary> since early May, but the big fight has been with&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1137">mildew</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> With the same sunny/rainy day alternance that the&nbsp;<a href="http://louisdressner.com/date/2012/7/23/138/" target="notSet">Desvignes are experiencing</a>, they are averaging one <glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary> <glossary title="328">treatment</glossary> a week against&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1137">mildew</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> which is way above average for them. While they remain confident that it won&#39;t affect quality, it&#39;s looking like another small&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="521">harvest</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, Damien had to go get some tractor parts replaced and then hit the vines, so we barely got to see him. But we were in good hands with Georges, who gave us a thorough tour of most of his vineyard sites. We hopped into his 4x4, and drove through the <glossary title="685">Morgon</glossary> vines by the house before doing the same in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="885">R&eacute;gni&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//42/e3/42e39340916f30d9466cf29c6881a029.jpg" /><br /> <br /> The bulk of our time spent in vineyards was in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="200">Brouilly</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> where Georges owns a good amount of land. Our first stop in the <glossary title="1152">Cru</glossary> was a very old vineyard, the first piece of land Georges inherited from his grandmother. The vines are close to 100, and a lot of them are missing; they actually just got a complaint from the <glossary title="537">INAO</glossary> about it &quot;<em>not being dense enough</em>&quot;. On top of that, the <glossary title="1129">yields</glossary> are tiny, so they are seriously considering tearing them out.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> After visiting the flatter vineyards, it was time to put the 4x4 to use to check out the first ultra steep <glossary title="200">Brouilly</glossary> site.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//63/0c/630c8d1f0f6e42bcc2a9a5f49c3ddaf7.jpg" /></p> <p>But that was nothing compared to where Georges was taking us next:</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//a0/d7/a0d7d9ceae937c3d6514fe45bcb5fb20.jpg" /><br /> <br /> At 500m in altitude, George has a a quasi <glossary title="672">monopole</glossary> of this hill.</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//e5/29/e529efe07f9face3281b786d21ca2dd5.jpg" /><br /> <br /> It is STEEP!&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//7e/07/7e0785c5919bc1c82a74d7e4eb4aab48.jpg" /><br /> <br /> Here&#39;s what it looks like from the bottom:</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//d4/92/d492b9ca2df137b7c481434e2ccdf5d5.jpg" /><br /> <br /> From the top, it&#39;s a beautiful view:</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//af/fd/affd183397ab71690dfb90b792870792.jpg" /><br /> <br /> Also at the top, this mini <glossary title="760">parcel</glossary> is one of the steepest in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="151">Beaujolais</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//3a/e5/3ae517fd96b5c896ca9ee8fc2d144704.jpg" /><br /> <br /> When&nbsp;<a href="http://louisdressner.com/producers/Morantin/" target="notSet">No&euml;lla Morantin</a>&nbsp;came to visit him last year, she said that she could never work these vines because they gave her vertigo! Georges uses a tractor to spray <glossary title="328">treatments</glossary> on parts of the hill, but large portions of it, for example the bit from the above photo, cannot be worked mechanically. In fact, when Georges acquired them in 1993, he didn&#39;t own a 4x4 yet, so he&#39;d walk to the top with bags of <glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary> to do the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="328">treatments</glossary><span>!</span></span></span>&nbsp;<br /> <br /> &quot;<em>That only lasted a year though! It made buying a truck a major priority!</em>&quot;<br /> <br /> As we drove back to the house, Georges filled us in on some imminent changes, as he is planning to downsize his 18&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="523">hectares</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> He&#39;s getting rid of 1,5 <glossary title="523">ha</glossary> of <strong><glossary title="153">Beaujolais-Villages</glossary></strong>&nbsp;because the conditions are too &quot;<em>harsh to work </em><glossary title="746"><em>organically</em></glossary>&quot; (he didn&#39;t elaborate), but also giving about three <glossary title="523">hectares</glossary>&nbsp;of his <glossary title="685">Morgon</glossary> vines to his 20 year old son Kewin, who will work alongside his father for a few years before becoming completely independent like Damien.<br /> <br /> We got back to the house, where we got to taste through Damien and Georges&#39; 2011&#39;s.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//e2/6d/e26d4c356954f71d0533497ba2ce0170.jpg" /><br /> <br /> They have a really cool tasting room full of old school <glossary title="151">Beaujolais</glossary> memorabilia.</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//11/3c/113cf024c6dfe9a8a8b55f1169e49b22.jpg" /></p> <p>Notice the saussicons hanging from the rafters.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> The 2011&#39;s, some of which are already&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="185">bottled</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> others&nbsp;<glossary title="1008">tank samples</glossary> (Damien&#39;s <glossary title="740">V.V</glossary> <glossary title="363">cuv&eacute;es</glossary>), are unsurprisingly showing great. To reiterate what I&#39;ve&nbsp;been saying in previous visit recaps, 2011 <glossary title="151">Beaujolais</glossary> is da bomb. We got to rediscover Damien&#39;s &quot;<em>Fou du Beaujo</em>&quot;, something we&#39;d tasted for the first time at the <glossary title="395">Dive Bouteille</glossary> in January:</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//09/89/09897e2f9b46a608f39c6e26c51effd1.jpg" /><br /> <br /> If you ever wondered what kind of incredibly professional notes we take while on these trips, you can spot Maya &quot;Mayhem&quot; Pedersen&#39;s apt observation: &quot;<em>awesome </em><glossary title="573"><em>label</em></glossary>&quot; to the left of the bottle. In my professional opinion, it&#39;s hard to disagree.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> While tasting, a few interesting conversations ensued. The first was about &quot;<glossary title="746"><em>organic</em></glossary><em> wine</em>&quot; which officially exists now. Up until now, wine could only be made from <glossary title="746">organically</glossary> grown grapes, but new European laws have passed stating that the wine itself can be&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="746">organic</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> meaning there were no <glossary title="279">chemical additives</glossary> added. However, since <glossary title="321">preselected yeasts</glossary> and <glossary title="423">enzymes</glossary> are not&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="279">chemicals</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> they are fair game. Also, up to 150 grams of <glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary>&nbsp;per <glossary title="524">hectoliter</glossary> can be legally added in bottle (Georges typically uses less than a gram at <glossary title="185">bottling</glossary>).&nbsp;Even&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1027">thermo-vinification</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> an increasingly popular technique in the<strong>&nbsp;<glossary title="151">Beaujolais</glossary></strong>, is allowed.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> I wasn&#39;t familiar with <span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1027">thermo-vinification</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> so Georges explained: it involves heating the grapes <glossary title="1124">whole-cluster</glossary> up to 158 degrees, cooling them down, then <glossary title="827">pressing</glossary> the juice. So instead of doing the traditional&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="942">semi-carbonic maceration</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> which takes 40 days on average, you can get similar results for color in 48 hours. It is beneficial in that it saves a ton of time and space, but it also gives the wine a displeasing, cooked taste. One thing&#39;s for sure: it&#39;s doesn&#39;t involve&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="279">chemicals</glossary><span>!</span></span></span><br /> <br /> These permissive laws for winemaking strike Georges as rather strange, since the same associations are very strict about&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1103">viticulture</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> In fact, he had to leave us halfway throughout the tasting because he had an appointment with an&nbsp;<glossary title="413">Ecocert</glossary>&nbsp;official; we later found out that she made him visit EVERY SINGLE vineyard site and thoroughly investigated the <glossary title="254">cellars</glossary> for any&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="279">chemical products</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> This leads him to believe that &quot;<em><glossary title="746">organic wine</glossary></em>&quot; is little more than a misleading title to boost sales. And while I won&#39;t deny that it&#39;s a positive thing for the consumer to know that no <glossary title="279">chemicals</glossary> were used in the winemaking, it&#39;s clear that many qualitative factors were not considered when drafting these laws.&nbsp;<br /> <br /> We ended the tasting with Georges&#39; son Kewin pouring for us. He&#39;s a nice kid, and he&#39;s looking forward to his first <glossary title="">harvest</glossary> with the family this September. It was fun tasting the Descombes <glossary title="740">V.V</glossary> wines from <glossary title="142">barrel</glossary> with him, since he had no idea which was which.&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2019_Aug_02//be/4f/be4ff5c722516978877b89c2ef20d6b6.jpg" /></p> <p>&quot;<em>I think this one&#39;s </em><glossary title="685"><em>Morgon</em></glossary><em>. Or maybe </em><glossary title="200"><em>Brouilly</em></glossary><em>...</em>&quot;&nbsp;<br /> <br /> I&#39;m not sure which was which either, but they were all good.</p>