producer profile

<p>Tasting Henri Goyard&#39;s <glossary title="1245">M&acirc;con-Vir&eacute;</glossary> for the first time, in 1987, was a true revelation. We were stunned: the local <glossary title="252">coops</glossary>&#39; wines were correct at best, the handful of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="427">estate</glossary><span>-</span></span></span>made <glossary title="702">M&acirc;cons</glossary> we had tasted, a notch superior, and the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="142">barrel</glossary><span>-</span></span></span><glossary title="441">fermented</glossary> <glossary title="271">Chardonnays</glossary> from the <glossary title="367">C&ocirc;te d&#39;Or</glossary> had not prepared us for this experience. 

This wine was rich, lush, intensely fruity and fat, with marvelous weight and length. It was powerful, yet fresh and lively, and its aromas of buttery, roasted nuts lingered on.</p> <p>After the 2000&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> Goyard retired, and his <glossary title="427">estate</glossary> went to Gautier Th&eacute;venet, son of Jean of Domaine de la Bongran&nbsp;in Cless&eacute;. The 5.6 <glossary title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary title="740">old vines</glossary> continue to be&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="810">plowed</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> do not see&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="526">herbicides</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary title="442">fertilizers</glossary> and anything other than <glossary title="333">copper</glossary> and <glossary title="993">sulfur</glossary> for treatment. There have been a few changes: the <glossary title="521">harvest</glossary> is slightly later than before, the <glossary title="986">stainless-steel tanks</glossary> are now <glossary title="1286">enamel lined</glossary> and horizontal rather than vertical, and <glossary title="185">bottling</glossary> is done after 15 ot 16 months in <glossary title="1140">vat</glossary> rather than 11. There is the same natural richness of flavor and ripeness in these grapes, and the wines follow the same pattern of slow <glossary title="87">alcoholic fermentation,</glossary> ending with some&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="853">residual sugar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span><br /> <br /> When the <glossary title="1112">Vir&eacute;-Cless&eacute;</glossary> <glossary title="108">AOC</glossary> was created 10 years ago, the statutes required a totally dry wine (less than three&nbsp;grams of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="853">residual sugar)</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> so Domaine de Roally, Domaine de la Bongran, and Domaine Guillemot-Michel were excluded from it. For a while, the ex <glossary title="1245">M&acirc;con-Vir&eacute;</glossary> was labelled&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="701">M&acirc;con-Villages</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Then came the summer of 2003, so hot that the grapes ripened too high, and that the entire region produced wines with a lot of residual sugar. Domaine de Roally could now label its wine&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1112">Vir&eacute;-Cless&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> On the other hand, the wine authorities have stripped some villages of the right to use their names, in order to &ldquo;simplify&rdquo; the list of <glossary title="702">M&acirc;cons</glossary> available: the other part of the Roally estate, located in the village of Montbellet, has recently lost its right to a named village on its label, becoming a&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="701">M&acirc;con-Villages</glossary><span>.</span></span></span><br /> <br /> Fortunately, all these arcane administrative rules do not affect the quality of the wine. The superb location of the vines on a <glossary title="596">limestone</glossary> ridge overlooking the plain of the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="926">Sa&ocirc;ne river</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the vines&rsquo; old mix of different strands of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="271">Chardonnay</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> their age and condition, then a simple but careful <glossary title="1104">vinification</glossary> make for a powerful, yet complex and delicate wine. Delicious in its youth, it also ages gracefully, acquiring more intense roasted notes, and sometimes, the deeply mineral character often associated with <glossary title="858">Riesling</glossary>&nbsp;rather than&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="271">Chardonnay</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><u><strong>2020 Update:</strong></u></p> <p>It bears mentioning that the profile you just read was likely written in the mid to late 1990&#39;s by the late Joe Dressner, updated in the mid 2000&#39;s by Joe and then again in the early 2010&#39;s by Jules Dressner.</p> <p>Interestingly, nothing is mentioned in regards to Domaine de Roally being integral in&nbsp;shaping the Louis/Dressner&nbsp;philosophy. Here is an explanation taken from founder Denyse Louis&#39; interview:</p> <p>&quot;In the summer of 1987, we met Henri Goyard in Cl&eacute;ss&eacute;. We&rsquo;d never tasted a wine as good as his. Despite being ignorant of winemaking and <glossary title="1103">viticultural</glossary> practices, he explained how he worked. It was way above our heads, but things that stuck with us were <glossary title="538">native yeast</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="976">fermentations</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span> <glossary title="520">hand-harvesting</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> working the soils and using using minimal <glossary title="279">chemical products</glossary> in the vines. So these were criteria we started seeking without particularly understanding. But we we weren&rsquo;t explicitly asking growers if they worked this way.&nbsp;</p> <p>In 1988, I wrote a tremendous amount of letters to winemakers, and quite a lot of them responded. Even some really famous&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="427">estates</glossary><span>!</span></span></span> We were essentially cold-calling whomever we could find because we had nothing to lose. Even growers with representation wrote back and very nicely let us know they were already working with someone. Others told us to come visit.&nbsp;</p> <p>This really leads us to our second &ldquo;philosophical&rdquo; point: nice people, growers we felt a personal connection with. We realized though extensive visits that we liked many of the wines we were tasting, but the people weren&rsquo;t always very friendly, or we didn&rsquo;t get a good energy from them. Joe said right away: &ldquo;If we are going to work with people in the long term, I don&rsquo;t want to be in regular contact with them and dreading each visit.&rdquo; It didn&rsquo;t seem worth it.&nbsp;</p> <p>I think the second major evolution&nbsp;in our way of approaching wine came from working with Catherine and Didier from Clos Roche Blanche. At the time they were working&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="160">biodynamically</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> We talked a lot with them about their ideas. They sent us in the direction of the Puzelat brothers, and that was the beginning of the whole <glossary title="601">Loir-et-Cher</glossary> gang. Everyone was working <glossary title="746">organically</glossary> or&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="160">biodynamically</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> This resonated&nbsp;with&nbsp;us, but I&rsquo;m convinced it was the connection we had with Catherine and Didier, along with falling head over heels for their wines, is what made us look for like-minded&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="1089">vignerons</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Before working with Clos Roche Blanche, we would certainly talk to our growers a lot about how they worked in the vines and the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellar</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> We discovered that many worked within the criteria that had enamored us when first tasting Domaine de Roally. But it wasn&rsquo;t everyone. For example Jean-Luc Mader in Alsace; when the conversation of <glossary title="1128">yeasts</glossary> came up, he told us he used <glossary title="321">commercial yeasts</glossary> to start the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="441">fermentation</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> He did not have the confidence in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span> <glossary title="538">native yeasts</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and the idea felt too risky to him.&nbsp;</p> <p>So it was really a series of conversations with <glossary title="1089">vignerons</glossary> that led us to understand we preferred wines from <glossary title="538">native yeast</glossary> &nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="441">fermentations</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> One event that really marked me was a visit in the South. When we asked about<strong>&nbsp;<glossary title="1128">yeasting</glossary></strong>, the grower told us that he used&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="321">commercial yeasts</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> When Joe mentioned that the vast majority of the growers we worked with used&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="538">native yeasts</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> he started making fun us, telling us that the growers were lying to us, that it was impossible to make wine that way.&nbsp;</p> <p>By the mid 1990&rsquo;s, we were convinced that specific criteria gave more to to the wines. They were more vivacious, more interesting. We now had an established roster of growers, and it was through word of mouth, asking them if they knew people who worked in a similar fashion that we found more and more like-minded producers.&quot;</p> <p>P.S: we also stole Domaine de Roally&#39;s logo.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><img src="http://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article/2020_Jun_11//86/43/8643c83269600d1bd084df93ed3bec86.jpg" /></p> <p>Denyse explains:</p> <p>&quot;The tastevin is an emblem of&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="212">Burgundy</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it was the instument you used to taste&nbsp;from&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="142">barrel</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> There was little light in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="254">cellars</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> and the little concave bumps permitted you to judge the limpidity of the wine (though it was not that helpful for color). It&#39;s been a long time since it was in regular use,&nbsp;though groups like the Chevaliers du Tastevin still exist. It was also a traditional gift for the baptism of boys. My aunt gave one to my brother.&nbsp;</p> <p>Henri Goyard had chosen this symbol for his&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary title="573">labels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Since we only worked with <glossary title="210">Burgundian</glossary> wines at the time, it seemed like a good image for us.&nbsp;We asked Henri, who no doubt forgot because he was a little mad when he saw them on our <glossary title="133">backlabels</glossary> (his printer had designed this tastevin specifically for his wines as a sort of trademark).&nbsp;We told him it was in hommage to his wines and&nbsp;he calmed down and accepted it. As time went on and we started importing wines from all over France, we never changed it.&quot;</p>