producers visit

<p><em><strong>This visit took place in March 2022. Words and photos by Jules Dressner.</strong></em></p> <p>Ah, <glossary term="Provence" title="831">Provence</glossary>&hellip; Lavender! Celebrity wineries! Kermit Lynch! I gotta say, I don&rsquo;t spend a tremendous amount of time in this region but I get why people dig&nbsp;it. And I also get why we don&#39;t visit often:&nbsp;outside of the established classic <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estates</glossary>&nbsp;in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bandol" title="134">Bandol</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it&rsquo;s mostly a a lot of&hellip;&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">Ros&eacute;</glossary> from celebrities, <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary> in stupidly shaped bottles, <glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary> with grapefruit extract&hellip;&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ROS&Eacute;</glossary><span>!</span></span></span> So why the hell were we in Lambesc, a small village 30 minutes North-West of Aix-en-Provence? To visit Jean Benoit and B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Comor and their <glossary term="Vigneron/Vignaiolo" title="1089">neo-vigneron</glossary> operation at Domaine la Providence!</p> <p>Our introduction to their work was through Julien Pineau, who&rsquo;d worked in <glossary term="Provence" title="831">Provence</glossary> before eventually settling in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Touraine" title="1036">Touraine</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Over a splendid vegetarian dinner in summer 2021, he <glossary term="Blind Tasting" title="170">blinded</glossary> us on a bottle we all loved. After the reveal, it was clear Julien was <glossary term="schnook" title="1448">schnooking</glossary> us on his friend&rsquo;s wine: &ldquo;He made 2000 bottles and it costs this much!&rdquo; After some communications with Jean Benoit, we agreed to import this single wine, &ldquo;La Providence&rdquo;, and to visit as soon as we could.</p> <p>So here we were. The property, a dilapidated farm house and 18 sprawling <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of vines, was acquired by the Comor in late 2016. It used to be called La Pomme (&ldquo;the apple&rdquo;), which instantly felt off&nbsp;since none were grown there. A new name was inevitable but many of their original choices were taken (more on that later). Eventually they settled on Domaine la Providence; no it&rsquo;s not named after&nbsp;the city in Rhode Island or religious undertones but for the lesser common use of the word: a person or event that arrives at the right time to save a situation or constitutes an opportunity, an exceptional help.</p> <p>We began the visit right outside the main entrance, with three <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary> and 0.5h&nbsp;of Caladoc, a <glossary term="Hybrid" title="532">hybrid</glossary> of <glossary term="Grenache" title="508">Grenache</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Malbec" title="366">C&ocirc;t</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/ff/11/ff11c1662198c44db87092dc1f54c584.jpg" /></p> <p>For the &ldquo;coup de coeur&rdquo; <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> (<glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> they feel are truly qualitative, they like working and currently <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinify</glossary> themselves), JB&nbsp;is superficially working every other row of soil while leaving <glossary term="Cover Crop" title="1255">cover-crop</glossary> in the other to rest for a year. They are also replanting old vines on the sites they like. Before Jean-Benoit and Ben&eacute;dicte took over, the vines were worked ultra<span class="zalup"><span><span>-</span><glossary term="Conventional Farming" title="331">conventionally&nbsp;</glossary></span></span>and 95% of the production was destined to <glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary>&#39;s&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Rosé/Rosato" title="871">ros&eacute;</glossary><span>.</span></span></span>&nbsp;Everyone around them thinks they are crazy for having <glossary term="Conversion" title="332">converted</glossary> to&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Organic" title="746">organics</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> especially since the first five crops all went to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Because <glossary term="Yield" title="1129">yields</glossary> and production were so important to the previous owner, over-plantation was rampant. Very quickly, the Comor ripped out all vines planted on richer soils on the sides of most vineyards, letting them rest or planting fruit and olive trees. JB is planning to rip out an additional five <glossary term="Hectare" title="523">hectares</glossary> in the main sector of vines by the house, mostly&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cabernet Sauvignon" title="217">Cabernet Sauvignon</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> The long term goal is to rebuild the landscape to something less&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Monoculture" title="671">monocultural</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the way they imagine it would have been in the 1970&rsquo;s. Tearing out these vines would also permit the Comor to build a new <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> and, more ambitiously, create <glossary term="Terrace" title="1022">terraces</glossary> in this sector.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/1f/b5/1fb5045df08f717937d1b753364a725e.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&ldquo;If you look, you can actually see that with years of </em><glossary term="Chemicals" title="279"><em>chemicals</em></glossary><em>, </em><glossary term="Erosion" title="1153"><em>erosion</em></glossary><em>, tractors and </em><glossary term="Machine Harvesting" title="611"><em>harvest machines</em></glossary><em>, the soil levels dip drastically from the top to the middle of the row. To properly work these soils, you actually can&rsquo;t use the same tractor. You have to switch mid-way to a caterpillar or by hand.&rdquo;</em></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/a1/9b/a19bb87bc6a3171cf161cc109d078445.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/a7/37/a7378109ca04581893fad3c4572db22f.jpg" /></p> <p>Currently, a large part of the grapes are still destined to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">cave cooperative</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> For these, they do not work the soils, choosing to clean up the edges of the rows with a disc blade. There tend to be more <glossary term="Esca" title="425">esca</glossary> problems in these <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> and they are not so sure if they want to replant. They are also still <glossary term="Machine Harvesting" title="611">machine-harvesting</glossary> these as the grapes go to the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cave Cooperative" title="252">coop</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Some sectors Jean-Beno&icirc;t has been preparing for new plantations by letting the soils rest three years after the uprooting. The only thing he&rsquo;s doing is planting fava beans to bring nutrients and air to the soil. On the white <glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> and <glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary> soils, Jean-Benoit has decided to focus exclusively on white grapes, already having planted&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Terret" title="1025">Terret</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Trebbiano/Ugni Blanc" title="1043">Ugni Blanc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sauvignon Blanc" title="927">Sauvignon Blanc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sémillon" title="1003">Semillon</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bourboulenc" title="1253">Bourboulenc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="-Select term-" title="">Marsanne</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Clairette" title="297">Clairette Rose</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Here is a picture of the biggest new plantation:</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/85/52/8552df6b4f523d8c490cdeeff4e012ab.jpg" /></p> <p>He is purchasing from three separate <glossary term="Pépiniériste" title="773">p&eacute;pini&eacute;ristes</glossary> to get as much <glossary term="Clones" title="304">clonal</glossary> diversity as possible. Many of these <glossary term="Varietal" title="1071">varieties</glossary>&nbsp;are not permitted in the <glossary term="Appellation" title="113">appellation</glossary> but since the plan is to make everything in&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vin de France" title="1092">VDF</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the constraints are limited.</p> <p>One of the major <glossary term="Plateau" title="809">plateaux</glossary> close to the farm is all <glossary term="Gravel" title="504">gravel</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Here there is mostly <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> planted in 1993. The big project in this <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> is to add <glossary term="Palissage" title="757">palissage</glossary> so he can control the vines better. They&rsquo;ve also been replanting like crazy here, in total 2200 vines with 1100 more on the way in 2022.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/a2/db/a2db722573034970ad33814685730aa4.jpg" /></p> <p>As you can see in the picture above,&nbsp;<glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> with&nbsp;young vines have <glossary term="Irrigation" title="549">irrigation</glossary> tubes and need to be watered the first three years of their life, it&#39;s&nbsp;just too dry otherwise. The <glossary term="Provence" title="831">Provence</glossary> region is actually very involved in this: they provide access to the <glossary term="Irrigation" title="549">irrigation</glossary> but also control the levels of water you are allowed to use by analyzing the stress levels of vines. As far as I know, no other region is this involved in the process. JB estimates that a young plant doesn&rsquo;t need to be <glossary term="Irrigation" title="549">irrigated</glossary> after three or so years.</p> <p>We then saw&nbsp;another young plantation of white grapes:&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vermentino" title="1081">Vermentino</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Marsanne" title="634">Marsanne</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Carignan Blanc" title="1306">Carignan Blanc</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/2b/aa/2baadc08294c564501bfa79c68d89bef.jpg" /></p> <p>In the area, white mustard grows on <glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary> and is indicative of healthy soils. Good news: we spotted&nbsp;it everywhere!</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/b7/fb/b7fbcd016375b01acedf901250526f2b.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/20/4e/204eaf7f6639e54f841be7c712f4c751.jpg" /></p> <p>We then hopped into the car to see the <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcels</glossary> further from the house. The first stop was a <glossary term="Plot" title="1133">plot</glossary> of <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary> planted in 1985. The soils here are <glossary term="Clay" title="301">clay</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Limestone" title="596">limestone</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Jean-Benoit likes it because it&rsquo;s well protected from the wind.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/e4/78/e478989a0c29e32c33da9fd2e85211de.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/7d/05/7d052dfdda00026e49798c3f976dfbe3.jpg" /></p> <p>Around this point in the visit, I turned to my colleague Carl and said something&nbsp;equivalent to &ldquo;this is a shit ton of work.&rdquo;&nbsp;What was already and currently being done, plus all the future plans: what a tremendous undertaking! I asked Jean Benoit if he anticipated or planned on such an intense project.</p> <p><em>&ldquo;I had no idea. We visited in summer, the vegetation was gorgeous and we instantly fell in love with the property. But we were also reasoning for our family. With six children at home, it was good to be close to things: schools, extracurricular activities... Even going out on a date to have dinner or see a movie in Aix-en-Provence! We also have relatives close by. I&rsquo;ve had eight different jobs before settling down here, I was always moving around. Here I feel what I am doing matters. But I didn&rsquo;t know how to drive a tractor in 2017!&rdquo;</em></p> <p>The next <glossary term="Parcel" title="760">parcel</glossary> we visited was mostly <glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> and <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary> planted in 1966 on pure&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Sand" title="909">sand</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Here they&nbsp;are working the soils&nbsp;as they like the sector, with the ultimate goal of only mowing over&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cover Crop" title="1255">cover-crops</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> There was also another young plantation of white grapes, this time&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Macabeu" title="609">Macabeu</glossary><span>,</span></span></span>&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Bourboulenc" title="1253">Bourboulenc</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> <glossary term="Grenache Gris" title="1158">Grenache Gris</glossary> and&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Clairette" title="297">Clairette Rose</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/03/f0/03f0d4e8ec1310dc342e4ea7f9ae69d7.jpg" /></p> <p>After an extensive tour of the vines, we headed to the <glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary> to taste some 2021&rsquo;s. Nothing had been <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottled</glossary> save a juicy <glossary term="Carignan" title="237">Carignan</glossary>/<glossary term="Syrah" title="1001">Syrah</glossary> called &quot;Chemin Faisant.&quot; This loosely translates to &ldquo;the path being created in real time.&rdquo;</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/21/c2/21c243f5e4ec3c1494c9ba24a1ebc5a5.jpg" /></p> <p>While there are <glossary term="Fiberglass" title="445">fiberglass</glossary> and <glossary term="Stainless Steel" title="986">stainless steel</glossary> <glossary term="Vat/Tank" title="1140">tanks</glossary> in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Cellar" title="254">cellar</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> the majority of what was <glossary term="Vinification" title="1104">vinified</glossary> in 2021 was sitting in 500L <glossary term="Burgundian" title="210">Burgundian</glossary> <span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrels</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Those saw <glossary term="Battonage" title="147">b&acirc;tonnage</glossary><glossary term="Battonage" title="147"></glossary> twice day and were <glossary term="Racking/Soutirage" title="843">racked</glossary> after&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Malolactic Fermentation" title="622">malo</glossary><span>.</span></span></span> Fun aside: whenever a <glossary term="Barrel" title="142">barrel</glossary> was&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Racking/Soutirage" title="843">racked</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> Jean-Benoit chose to write a current event he&rsquo;d heard on the news that day in chalk.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/7c/b7/7cb71bb8aa89f99cc348c3566bce74be.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/02/a2/02a2ae8ac1f6adbd9fb8e34fa8aeff33.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/48/46/4846569b411f003c4fa6166b2d474885.jpg" /></p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/7e/fe/7efe0c894ec61c6a4037bce57a75eea3.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun for the kids and helps me remember what happened on what day.&rdquo;</em></p> <p>This being the first &ldquo;real&rdquo;&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage</glossary><span>,</span></span></span> it wasn&rsquo;t decided what <glossary term="Blend" title="168">blends</glossary> or <glossary term="Bottling" title="185">bottlings</glossary> would come from what we&rsquo;d tasted. 2021 was an atypical&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Vintage" title="1109">vintage&nbsp;</glossary></span></span>with a lot of rain that slowed <glossary term="Maturation" title="639">maturation</glossary> and limited&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Concentration" title="324">concentration</glossary><span>.</span></span></span></p> <p>Over dinner, we found out that the Comor have been together since college and dreamed of starting an <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> for the last 20 years. They seriously started pursuing the idea in the 2010&#39;s and almost settled in the&nbsp;<span class="zalup"><span><glossary term="Beaujolais" title="151">Beaujolais</glossary><span>, where they</span></span></span>&nbsp;met and befriended many locals who could have easily helped them find land. But Jean Benoit&rsquo;s determination to also make <glossary term="Saint-Véran" title="900">Saint-V&eacute;ran</glossary> and <glossary term="Pouilly-Fuissé" title="820">Pouilly-Fuiss&eacute;</glossary> at the same time proved too complicated. There was also an opportunity in <glossary term="Limoux" title="597">Limoux</glossary> that fell through.</p> <p>Perhaps the funniest detail we unearthed was that they&rsquo;d originally wanted to call the <glossary term="Estate" title="427">estate</glossary> Domaine du Possible but, as some of you may already know, it was already taken! We just so happened to have bottles from our visit with Lo&iuml;c Roure, so we opened some up since they&rsquo;d never tried them.</p> <p><img src="https://louisdressner.com/uploads/images/article//934/54/15/5415a4862a471fdd7b872b150f96afef.jpg" /></p> <p><em>&ldquo;We wanted to call it Domaine du Possible because for 20 years we were always getting shut down. But Providence works.&rdquo;</em></p>