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Six New Summer 2021 Producer Visits!
A Bunch of 2021 Summer Visits From the Loire and Savoie
<p>Last summer, Jules visited almost every single Loire producer we work with along with stops in the Beaujolais, Bugey, Jura and Savoie.</p>
<p>From those visits, he's written up six recaps along with the usual pictures, stupid anectdotes and prerequisite dog pictures. Please head over to the following profiles to read up on what's been going on at:</p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/domaine%20de%20bellivi%C3%A8re">Domaine de Bellivière! </a></p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/pierre-olivier%20bonhomme">Pierre-O Bonhomme!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/philippe%20chevarin">Philippe Chevarin!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/julien%20pineau">Julien Pineau!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/a%20la%20v%C3%B4tre!%7Claurent%20lebled">Laurent and Barbara Lebled!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/camille%20et%20mathieu%20apffel">Camille and Mathieu Apffel!</a></p>
<p>And as an added bonus, here are two visits that were discreetly added to the site when in launched from 2019:</p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/matassa">Matassa!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://louisdressner.com/producers/vinyer%20de%20la%20ruca">Vinyer de La Ruca!</a></p>
<p> </p>
Article
How does The New Website Work?
This is very exciting stuff!
<p><u><strong>Desktop vs Mobile:</strong></u></p>
<p>We know it's 2020 and people use their phones a lot. So we've worked hard on ensuring the site functions well on mobile (especially compared to what it once was). Having said that, desktop is the recommended way of perusing the site.</p>
<p><u><strong>Glossary:</strong></u></p>
<p>At its core, this has always been a website written for wine professionals *attempting* to glean information on the wines we import (and hopefully see a picture of the vigneron's dog). Since the language can be so technical, we've added an <glossary term="glossary" title="1427">interactive glossary</glossary> to the text for those unfamiliar with the baffllingly complex world of wine terminology. Even if you're a seasoned pro, it will frankly teach you a thing or two. And if you'd rather read the content without the glossary, simply head to the main menu bar and turn it off. </p>
<p> <u><strong>Our Wines Section: </strong></u></p>
<p>In the new "Our Wines" section, we've offered a variety of filter categories for you to explore and discover all the cuvées we import. These filters can be combined together to narrow down results. If you hit a wall, simply erase one of the filters or clear all filters. </p>
<p><u><strong>Actual Information About the Wines:</strong></u></p>
<p>Speaking of the wines, the number one complaint we would get from customers was the lack of technical information on the wines themselves. It's not a coincidence that we spend the vast majority of our energy focusing on the people behind the wines and their dogs; it's what we dig about what we do.</p>
<p>Having said that, 95% of the wines we import now have EXTREMELY detailed technical information, dare I say the most technical anywhere on the internet. Please enjoy now while they are up to date, knowing that half of these will probably be totally wrong by next vintage. </p>
<p><u><strong>Search:</strong></u></p>
<p>If you know what producer or wine you are searching for, the search should quickly autofill what you need. Go ahead, give it a whirl.</p>
<p><strong><u>Hyperlinks:</u></strong></p>
<p>Everything on the website has a hyperlink now. This means you can easily share a specific producer page, article, wine or filter combination with anyone. </p>
<p><u><strong>Copy/Paste:</strong></u></p>
<p>If you need to copy/paste anything, the glossary needs to be turned off for the text to paste correctly. Also, if you are going to straight up use our writing verbatim, PLEASE credit us when doing so. Seems obvious but we see it happen all the time. </p>
<p><u><strong>A Shit-Ton of Written Content:</strong></u></p>
<p>The articles themselves can often be very long, and for this reason we developed a Propriety Pop Up System™ where you can easily scroll through various articles/wines and "pop out" to efficiently look at the rest of the content.</p>
<p>We've tried our best to pack as many dog pictures as possible in there, but the digital ink has been spilled: the cumulation of decades' worth of writings from Joe, Denyse, Kevin and Jules is here for you to read. A huge part of the work with this new website was to find better ways to condense and extract essential information you need without getting lost in all that BORING text. </p>
<p>We still think you should check it out. Don't worry, there are plenty of pictures. And you might even find the writing interesting. Or funny. Or both. </p>
Article
EXPLORE
producers visit
24.12.2021
This visit to Domaine de Bellivière took place in July, 2021
... Read more…2021 Domaine de Bellivière Visit
<p>Man it had been a long time since we'd visited Bellivière! After catching up with Christine and Eric, Clément and his wife Laure-Anne pulled up and we headed directly to one of the four <glossary term="Tuffeau" title="1053">tuffeau</glossary> <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellars</glossary> to taste the <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">un-bottled</glossary> 2020's. </p>
<p><em>"It feels good to have all four </em><glossary term="Cellar" title="254"><em>cellars</em></glossary><em> full this </em><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109"><em>vintage</em></glossary><em>!"</em></p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/e4/5e/e45e77d38439f3e212ad8de191723ef0.jpg" /></p>
<p>We started by tasting many <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrels</glossary> destined for "Les Rosiers" 2020. The Nicolas were hoping the <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> will be <glossary term="Dry/Sec" title="405">dry</glossary> and by the time of this writing, the wines will have been <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottled</glossary> in November 2021. Because they had such a plentiful <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> in 2020, "Premices" will come from <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> that would have usually been reserved for "Les Rosiers". And many <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> intended for the <glossary term="Old Vines" title="740">old vine</glossary> "Calligramme" will end end up in "Les Rosiers".</p>
<p>At this point nothing had been <glossary term="Blending" title="1146">blended</glossary> and we were tasting single <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> expresssions.</p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/94/7e/947e4d25de34a9a944f93cc4624c08f3.jpg" /></p>
<p>If you're wondering what happened to Eric's hand, he sprained it while defending himself from a ninja attack.</p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/37/19/3719d0a6821ce97b99b5f9b1312e3f22.jpg" /></p>
<p>Fun fact: for the <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin Blanc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the Nicolas do a seven hour <span class="zalup"><span> <glossary term="Pressing" title="827">press</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p>
<p>We kept tasting through various <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrels</glossary> of "Effraie" and "V.V Éparses". Trying the whites from <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> at Bellivière is always a little tricky, since each varies greatly in <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Minerality" title="662">minerality</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Acidity" title="71">acidity</glossary> and oftentimes sugars. It's an interesting exercise, but ultimately Eric and Clément's <glossary term="Blending" title="1146">blending</glossary> choices will make for a totally different expression in bottle. We did however try one <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Single Vineyard Bottling" title="959">single vineyard expression</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the "Vigne en Foule" <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> we would later vist. It was already <glossary term="Dry/Sec" title="405">dry</glossary> and very good.</p>
<p>Here's a picture of the Nicolas' dog I took for my mom.</p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/8e/8f/8e8f7f7e12d1146dfc8726539b7372d5.jpg" /></p>
<p>From the <glossary term="Tuffeau" title="1053">tuffeau</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellars</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> we headed to the new <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> to taste the reds.</p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/69/8d/698d38657f9647a5faa53fb9d18e386e.jpg" /></p>
<p>We started with a new <glossary term="Vessel" title="1160">vessel</glossary> for Bellivière, a <glossary term="Concrete Egg" title="1284">concrete egg</glossary> you can see in the background of the above shot. 2/3rds of the wine was <glossary term="Maceration" title="610">macerated</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Whole-Cluster" title="1124">whole-cluster</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> We also tried some Hommage à Louis Derré from <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> before delving into some of the <glossary term="Négociant" title="729">négociant</glossary> wines, specifically "Raisins Migrateurs" 2020 and 2019 as well as the new <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary> of "Castor".</p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/72/8d/728d274471f527c15c7c6aaed6c5da69.jpg" /></p>
<p>Despite the afternoon sun high in the sky, after tasting we set off to see some vines. Our first stop was the "vigne en foule", an experiment started in 2001:</p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/5b/ec/5bec7d5f6a5a286f70a2904dca54f962.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/eb/82/eb823ac8d666776e7e672c914989c6ff.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/dd/a7/dda77494a0c6ca2f2392814e52091cfb.jpg" /></p>
<p>"The vignes en foule (“crowded vines”) were planted in 2001 at a density of 40,000 vines of <glossary term="Chenin Blanc" title="281">Chenin</glossary> per <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectare</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> It was an experiment on a small area. At this density, with 50 cm x 50 cm between each plant, everything is done by hand and we cannot <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Mechanization" title="645">mechanize</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> The term “en foule” means without <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Training System" title="1039">vine training</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Mark Angeli had had an experiment like this and he ended up tearing the plants out to be able to <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Mechanization" title="645">mechanize</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p>
<p>Since planting, we have never really been able to <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> because we couldn't manage it properly. But since Clément joined us, we have undertaken a lot of work on it, in particular the training of the <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> into a <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Pergola" title="774">pergola</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> We have also covered the ground with mulch to minimize grass regrowth.</p>
<p>So this year (2020), for the first time, we were able to <glossary term="Harvest" title="521">harvest</glossary> it properly. The pickers were delighted because they had the impression of entering a "forest" of vines and the picking was within reach without having to bend down.</p>
<p>The aim of this experiment is to see the impact of competition from the vines on the rooting and therefore the result on the wine."</p>
<p>This vineyard has also led to some interesting discoveries Nicolas have started applying to other <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> On one <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> they are planting with more density now to create shade for the other vineyards to avoid <font color="#7b143e"><b><glossary term="Grillure" title="1462">grillure</glossary></b></font><span class="zalup"><span><span>.</span></span></span> On another, they are letting the vines have less density, which will permit them to grow higher and free-er. The goal is to adapt and ultimately do less to the plant, but also expose them to less trauma during the growing season. With over 65 <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> at their disposal, the Nicolas are exceptionally suited for this type of experimentation. </p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/af/8c/af8cf0cbb3f3d7896ca8f45095946bda.jpg" /></p>
<p>From the vines, we headed back to the house to taste currently <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottled</glossary> wines before dinner. </p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/7c/ce/7ccefbe800abda44d2f8752d64748ae9.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/c1/29/c129b07c9e471c1fd85966b1d8cc62e4.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/32/6a/326a02b8b631d6c529610e14d98b56c6.jpg" /><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/9c/c1/9cc1ef04b6991fea2c227275a1734747.jpg" /></p>
<p>After tasting, we took advantage of the nice weather to barbecue outside (it had and continued to be a very rainy summer). Over a delicious meal of sausages and a few back <glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintages</glossary> from the mid-to-late aughts, Eric's optimism resonated:</p>
<p><em>"I believe we can fight against </em><glossary term="Frost" title="1135"><em>frost</em></glossary><em> using natural methods. But it's a risk and a long term investment. We are currently in our third year of converting the vines."</em></p>
<p>Clément, who is now fully at the helm of the estate's <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> agreed. </p>
<p>By this point in our <glossary term="Loire Valley" title="602">Loire</glossary> trip, we'd experienced quite a bit of doom and gloom in the vines, so it was good to hear the Nicolas motivated and actively working towards facing the major challenges of climate change. They weren't the first to bring it up, but their particular drive was a turning point of the trip for me. I am still worried for northern French <glossary term="Viticulture" title="1103">viticulture</glossary>; the 2010's have made it abundantly clear that for it to have a future, adapted and perhaps drastic measures have to be taken immediately.</p>
<p>To be continued... </p>
<p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//932/c8/a1/c8a157181097f3ad25f057f54a7dcdad.jpg" /></p>
