Grapefruit from Granite

Rémi Sédès
France, Nantes, Coteaux d’Ancenis

When we spoke with Rémi in January, he was excited to soon be bottling his 2020 Samplemousse, confirming it was tasting 'tres,tres,tres,tres,tres bon'.

2020 had gone- in contrast to the rest of the world- very smoothly in Ancenis. Yeast populations were healthy, fermentations had been fast, and the wines were tasting excellent.

Whilst 2021 started off with great promise, nature had a different plan. Over a series of consecutive sub-zero nights last week, Remi battled to save what he could of the nascent vintage. It's too early for Remi to tell how bad the damage is, whether a second bud break will be viable, but he's already looking at 50% losses. 

Even if he's able to retain half of the buds, things look to be difficult for the rest of the season. The stresses of a major frost to the vine can compromise the amino acids in the juice, leading to fermentation issues and potentially increasing the risk of mousiness compromising the final wine. 

Whether or not we'll see a Samplemousse next year then is to be determined, so we'll be enjoying this one all the more whilst it lasts!

Remi's grapefruit driven rosé is pressed from Gamay grown on micro-granite, yielding that aromatic, pithy citrus. Remi's work with the rosé is as delicate as possible to retain the signature aromatics. It shows.

Now In Stock

ROSE

NEW - 2020 - VDF - Samplemousse - Gamay

"The Samplemousse rosé is a direct pressing of whole bunches at a cold temperature (5-6°c) to keep the freshness of the grapes, the juiciness, and to avoid oxidation of the aromas. The fresher the juice the less oxygen dissolves into the wine. The pressing is gentle and long (about 2 to 3 hours) the juice is moved to tank by gravity to avoid pumping and damaging the aromas.

Fermentation starts naturally but gently since the juice has a temperature of 6°c. This helps express each characteristic of the indigenous yeasts, different populations start working as the wine reaches another temperature through fermentation. The wine finishes its alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, and is slowly decanted to clear itself.
Taking advantage of the cold winter, I bottled at the end of February, keeping the gas from the fermentation to retain freshness and those delicate fermentation aromas.
That's how it happened, the simplest way in the world!"

RED

2018 - Coteaux d’Ancenis -Cuvée Noé- Gamay
2018 - Coteaux d’Ancenis -Trait Gamay- Gamay

New Arrivals from Marine Leys

Vignereuse - Marine Leys
France, Gaillac, Andillac

Each year, ever-hotter summers in Gaillac require Marine Leys to begin her harvest earlier and earlier. Despite rising temperatures, Marine continues to maintain a real freshness in her wines, which she credits to her soils, heavier with limestone than others in the area.

She doesn’t over extract, winemaking is gentle and considered, and whilst the limestone soils certainly give the wines their mineral backbone, there’s much to be credited to Marine’s hard work & care in the cave.

Marine farms her 5 hectares organically. Planted mostly with local varieties: Mauzac, Loin de l’Oeil, Braucol, Duras, along with a little Syrah and Gamay, situated on the south east facing slopes of the Cordais plateau in Andillac.

Having made the transition from marine photography to wine whilst living in Turkey, she then studied formally in Beaune, before working with the Plageoles family in Gaillac for three years, which she likes to joke was her ‘finishing school’.

We’ve just received a top-up of Marine’s 2019 pet-nats, a little more of her blend CroiZade, along with new vintages of A la Santé des Mécréants and her 2020 Primeur. The wines have had no sulphur added since 2018.

We caught up with Marine as she was out pruning her vines in the Gaillac sunshine last week, cautiously optimistic at the thought of getting to see some friends at wine fairs in May, the steady snip of her secateurs a calming soundtrack to our conversation.

Afternoon Marine! How are you?
I’m good thank you! Just in the vineyard, it’s a lovely day. Good to be outside!

We’ve got a few bits landing from 3 different vintages, 18, 19, and 20- how were they for you?

2018 was a good year for us here, we had water at the right time, it was that perfect balance of water & sun, we picked early as the phenolic maturity was looking good. 2019 was hot, but not as hot as last year!

In 2019 we had water at the right time as well, so it didn't block maturity, nothing burned- so it was good timing. Still we harvested earlier again- every year we keep harvesting a tiny bit earlier. This year was really early, we picked in August!

We used to pick at the end of September... it's changing so much. Hopefully this year it won't be that early but they keep announcing really hot summers. It's quite shocking.

Your wines still have real freshness, how are you retaining that?

I'm up on a hill, 250m above sea level, which is not that high, but it's pretty high for around here. I actually have more sun than if I was lower, and it does get a lot hotter, it's harder. However, my soils are calcaire- limestone, whereas down the slopes they're heavier in argilo- clay, their wines are rounder. Limestone brings a lot of salinity, and keeps things very fresh and mineral.

Even in the really hot summers, when the alcohol gets high, they still have the freshness. I don't like to do a lot of extraction, I like the wines to be able to live in the fridge without destroying the tannin and being unpleasant to drink. 

2020 was so hot. I had to add a little white to my rosé this year, even though it was pressed directly, it was still red! But I don't want to have to do that with my reds, I like them as single varieties- with the exception of CroiZade. I use the two varieties, and the ratio of the blend can change so if I have more Syrah or more Duras, I can make a big batch of it.

Can you tell us a little about the new vintages we’re receiving?

A la Santé des Mécréants - 2018

For the '18, we picked pretty early, so it's quite fresh compared to the '17. 
Mécréants is from a 60 year old parcel of Duras, I've been saying it's 55 years old for 5 years so... it must be 60 years old now! We picked by hand, as always. It was destemmed and had an 8 day maceration. I don’t want too much extraction, but I had to bring a bit more oxygen as the fermentation was a bit slower at the start. I did a little remontage at the beginning, and we didn't run into any trouble.

Le Primeur Mais Ne Se Rend Pas - 2020

This year it was really easy! Last year it was so stressful doing the Primeur- it didn't ferment as quickly, I didn't even think it was going to be ready on time. This year I picked early and it finished early, so I had 3 weeks to keep it cool, at 5 degrees, which allowed it to clear and rest properly.

We harvested on the 20th August. It was really hot already.  It's a carbonic maceration, but I wanted to have a dry carbo so I drained off the free run juice everyday. With the weight of the grapes, the ones at the bottom are getting mashed a bit, and I didn't want the yeasts to start working yet, so we drain off their juice.

To start the gas we need for carbo, once the tank is full of grapes I pour in a few buckets of my pied du cuve*, for 2-3 hours with the tank closed. Because it's already fermenting, it creates enough CO2 to push out the oxygen, then I can drain off the pied du cuve and let the carbonic begin, just as total solids, no liquid.

I wanted to have a dry carbo so I drained off the free run juice everyday. With the weight of the grapes, the ones at the bottom are getting mashed a bit, and I didn't want the yeasts to start working yet, so we drain off that juice. This way at the beginning it's just the enzymes within the grape are breaking down into alcohol, which brings that specific taste of carbonic, rather than the yeasts converting sugars to alcohol. So it's a true Beaujolais style carbo.

Have you got any new projects on the go this year?

I'm doing two new bubbles from the 2020 vintage, we’ll have a white and a new red, from the Duras. I started a Vin de Voile in 2019 and it’s going well. It’s made from Mauzac, using the same principles as a vin voile from the Jura, but totally different because this variety of ours has such low acidity compared to Jura varieties, so it's much rounder, it's really interesting. So hopefully in 2026/27 that will be ready to go!

Now In Stock

Sparkling

2019 - Broco Lee - Braucol
2019 - Mayga Watt - Gamay

Red

2018 - CroiZade - Syrah, Duras
NEW 2019 - A La Santé Des Mécréants - Duras
NEW 2020 - Le Primeur Mais Ne Se Rend Pas - Gamay

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What's He Building In There?

Les Chants Jumeaux - Mathieu L’Hotelier
France, Loire, Nantes

Making wine in an isolated shed with a loose-straw floor (or a borrowed beach on occasion) Mathieu L’Hotelier has a singular approach that yields wild, delicious results. One of our favourite characters in the Loire, he certainly keeps us on our toes.

After a little rest we are releasing two new cuvees from his 2019 vintage, a field blend and a Chenin Blanc.

Originally from Brittany, Mathieu worked with Marc Pesnot in Saint-Julien-de-Concelles for 4 years before heading east up the river to the village of Montrelais to strike out on his own in 2012. Montrelais used to have 300 hectares of vines planted, and now the village has 2.5. Matt farms most of them, treated with local plants: nettle, comfrey, horsetail and willow.

He chose the region as he wanted his wines to channel the energy of the sea, a sense of being back home. It was his salty, sea-kissed Chenin we first fell in love with in the early days of Under The Bonnet.

Matt is embedded in Nantes’ experimental music community, and his twin passions overlap pretty regularly. On our first visit to see Mathieu in 2015 his tiny winery was illuminated with strings of flashing lights, fibreglass tanks wrapped in foil, and an endless loop of stuttering electronics ‘singing to the wines’ from a rigged amplifier in the corner.

A return visit saw us given a tour of musician/sculptor Pierre Gordeeff’s ‘Built From Scratch Apparatus’ that had been constructed in one of the sheds at Mathieu’s old squat. An intricately tangled mass of cables and mechanised found-objects, capable of absolute cacophony, or more musical rhythms.

Mathieu makes wine like this musique-concrete he loves: he takes what he’s given, works in the moment, improvises based on a combination of intuition and knowledge, and when pressed for information on his processes is a little bewildered as to why anyone would want to know how he got there. ‘The wine speaks for itself’

Recent vintages though have not been kind to Mathieu, with some vintages wiped out by frost, hail, or problems in the cellar. We’re thrilled then that 2019 saw an upturn in luck for Matt, and he’s been able to produce good quantities from a beautiful vintage, confident this year to bottle without any sulphur, as he would always prefer.

Rouge 2019 is a blend of 7 varieties, Gamay is de-stemmed and macerated for 3 weeks, while the rest of the blend (Grolleau, Cab Franc, his hybrid varietals) undergo between 3 days to 3 weeks of whole bunch maceration depending on the varietal- Matt couldn’t pin down which. He presses the reds, and tops up the juice with a fresh harvest of Chenin, and allows it to continue fermentation in fibreglass for 6 months. Bottled in June 2020.

The 2019 Chenin has one of Mathieu’s signature soft, manual fourteen hour presses. It’s a technique he learnt with his friend JC Garnier, extracting the juice gently and adding a hint of that honeyed, toasty oxidative quality to the wine. Aged simply in fibreglass, before bottling in June 2020.

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Pierre Gordeeff’s ‘Built From Scratch Apparatus’

Vincent Alexis Discusses O'Ranch & Introduces Les Gaules De Bois

Chateau Barouillet - Vincent Alexis
France, Bergerac & Monbazillac in Pomport

Vincent Alexis is the eighth generation winemaker at Chateau Barouillet, responsible for 45 hectares that straddle both sides of the river Dordogne, 120km inland from Bordeaux. He joined his Father in 2010, first taking 6 hectares on as his ‘organic project’.
3 years later, with Vincent at the helm, all 45 hectares were certified organic. Now, ten years since he joined full time, biodynamic certification is on the cards for the whole operation.

Whilst upholding the reputation his dad and the generations before him have established, Vincent maintains an attitude of experimentation and a garage sensibility when it comes to new cuvees, excited into action with the encouragement of his right hand man, Romuald Cousy.

We caught up with Vincent to discuss two new wines that have just landed, and his struggle through the scorched 2020 harvest.

How are you today Vincent?
I’m fine, I’ve just been working out allocations for next year actually. We were not able to make much wine in 2020. But, I’m feeling good, we have good things ahead, and this year you’ve just received O’Ranch, which is my favourite orange wine we’ve made I think!

This is the first year we’ve been able to get some, what can you tell us about this one?
With this one, we really found a way to make our own style of orange wine.
We picked just half a hectare for O’Ranch. We harvest Ondenc and Muscadelle, two local grape varieties, and Chenin Blanc. All three are picked together and macerated together in amphora, for three months of skin contact. All the fermentations, alcoholic and malolactic are done with the skin contact.

We don't do any punchdowns or any pump overs, we let it go! Of course we try it and taste it a lot because we have to find the right moment to dig it out. That's one of the keys I think to have something really aromatic, but with not too much tannin. I don't like my orange wine too tannic. I think we found the right moment in 2019 to dig it out.

Everything is made by hand, the artisanal way. We dig it out all with a bucket! We don't even press it in a real press, we just push the grapes into a little grille, by hand, over a bucket. It's very slow! That way we keep the juice and extract very little tannin.

Another first for us, we’ve just received the Ambitio from your Les Gaules De Bois project - can you tell us about that project and the Ambitio?
This is a project I started in 2018 with Romuald Cousy, who works with me at Barouillet.
We wanted to make the light, easy drinking wines we love to drink, but are hard to produce in our region. We planned to visit other regions, and make wine with their grapes, back at our place. The 2019 became a 50/50 blend of Gamay & Merlot.

We went to Beaujolais, to buy Gamay from Jean Francois Dubourg, an organic winemaker in South Beaujolais. We got there early, about 7 o'clock in the morning, after a 4 hour drive, had picked everything and loaded the van by 11, and it was all in the tank by 4 that afternoon! It had a week of carbonic maceration. We really enjoyed the wine, it was really light, but we thought it could be a bit hard for people to understand, so we decided to make the blend.

Romuald used to have his own vineyards nearby in Duras, which he decided to stop as things became a bit complicated for him. 2019 was his last vintage from those vines. He made some destemmed Merlot, with just one or two punchdowns at the beginning of the ferment, but it was still really full bodied.

The Merlot had been aged for a year in old barrels, and the Gamay for a year in stainless steel. When they came together, it worked really really well, it has a lovely balance.
We added just 10 milligrammes of sulphur per litre before bottling, and that’s all we did with this one!

And the plan is to keep changing where you source the grapes each year?
Yeah we want to keep Les Gaules De Bois small, and to just build on relationships with winemakers. So in 2020 we went to the Alsace to pick Pinot & Riesling, then to Minervois in the South of France to pick Grenache. We’re hopefully making also a rose pet nat, and we’ve made another orange wine with Sauvignon Blanc from Duras, with one year of whole bunch maceration. It’s quite strange, really interesting.

How long has Romuald worked with you at Barouillet?
We met 10 years ago. He came to do work experience whilst he was studying, and then worked with us full time for two years before he started work in his own vineyard. He had his vines from 2016 to 2019, and then came back to Barouillet to be my right hand guy! It’s been amazing to have him helping out, we’ve been able to do so much more exciting stuff. 

Thanks to him, we’ve been able to turn to biodynamics. We’ve been working biodynamic since October, we made our first spraying of preparation 501, that kind of thing. Hopefully, by 2022 all the vineyards will be certified biodynamic. We’re super proud of it, it’s a rush to be there, to have all 45 hectares biodynamic.

You said you’ve been unable to make much wine in 2020, was it the heat for you, like others?Yeah, when we harvested the whites, the weather was okay, not too dry, the soil was not too dry. So the alcohol degree on the whites is correct, but on the red it increased really fast. Not what we were after! We had some Merlot with about 17% potential alcohol! We’ve had to blend in some whites but the red we are able to produce this year will be low. We’ve made a little more white, and orange. In 2019 we made 15 hectolitres of orange wine, which we’ve increased in 2020 to about 21 to 22 hectolitres.

Did you have to pick earlier?
We've tried to but lots of the grapes were not good. They were really tannic and still tasting green, not ripe enough. So we picked things at maturity and had to blend in the white. The Cabernet Sauvignon, which is quite late normally, we were able to pick earlier. We’ve been able to use that to balance the high alcohol of the Merlot.

We didn’t have any rain, from the middle of July to October. Through August, the heat was 40 degrees nearly everyday. It was terrible. Terribly dry, and hot. We had a lot of sunburn on the grapes, lots without even any juice. So yeah, it was really complicated.

I’m the eight generation here, and it’s crazy how early we have to pick now. We started harvest for Splash on August 14th, and harvest continued until October 10th, so we finished very early, for us. My Father used to start picking in November!

We’ve actually torn up some vines that were just not good enough, and are watching some new ones that will hopefully give more yields in the future. We’ve lost about 40% of the harvest. I’m hoping this will be the smallest a vintage ever gets. We were able to just make about 16 hectolitres per hectare which for us, is very small.

But, I’m excited for the future, the new vines are looking good, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the biodynamic practices express themselves in the wines. I’m really missing the wine fairs this year though. Travelling to meet people, to see you guys. It’s nice to have this extra time in the vineyards, but I really do miss the travel, that chance to try new stuff with the winemakers.

NEW IN STOCK

NEW - 2019 - VDF - Gaules de Bois - Gamay, Merlot

NEW - 2019 - VDF - O'ranch - Ondenc, Muscadelle, Chenin

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Following The Line: Gamay & Ploughing with Rémi Sédès

Rémi Sédès
France, Nantes, Coteaux d’Ancenis

Like the beloved Shire horses he uses in the vineyards, Remi Sedes likes to take things slowly. For him, his work as a winemaker is as much a lifestyle choice as a profession. He relishes his time outside, and avoids working with machines. As he puts it; he might as well get a job in a factory listening to machinery if he were to sit driving a tractor around the vineyard all day.

Hailing from the Jura, he studied agronomy when he arrived in the area to live closer to his wife's family in Nantes. He earned his white stripes with Vincent Caillé, followed with a brief stint in Bordeaux to grapple with reds, before setting up to take things at his own pace in 2013.

Speaking to him in the early days of the pandemic, he was thankful for the opportunity to slow down further. "Actually, I like the way things are now. There is a lot less speed and stress, people have slowed down. I can concentrate better on my work in the vineyard and I feel calmer overall."

It's in character then that Remi prefers not to rush his wines to market, and has just released his 2018 Gamay; Cuvees Noe & Trait. 

Rémi is a Gamay specialist, and this was a key factor in choosing to work in Ancenis, north-east of Nantes. The soil is micro granite - which suits Gamay particularly well - with a mix of clay, sand and limon underneath. Gamay is vigorous, and the acidity in these soils help to reduce yields.

Remi takes Gamay very seriously, his have real structure and finesse. The approach changed a little in 2018, being the year he felt confident to give sulphur the boot, and decided to soften the edges of his reds.

What can you tell us about 2018 Remi?

"That summer I had to put up a big fight against mildew due to loads of rain, that’s what I was worried about the entire time. But, the harvest ended up really good, the mildew didn't affect the buds. The year before our yields had been so low, things really bounced back for 2018. It ended up as a very good year, in terms of quantity and maturity."

"For the Gamay in '18, I wanted shorter macerations - just 15 days on the Trait Gamay while for Noé the maceration was 3-4 weeks. They were bottled without sulphur in May 2019.”

How is your mare, Tocade getting on? When we last spoke you were hopeful there might be a successor?

"Tocade is well, she is pregnant! She will hopefully give birth in May. This autumn we had to plough the vines with a very good plough I found back home in the Jura, it did a great job. So I'm happy."

How was the rest of 2020?

"We’d had a very rainy winter in 2019, which was unusual here but great for the soil to build up water reserves for the hotter months that came in 2020. We had a very hot summer, 37, 38 degrees celsius. But the vines had drunk well over winter and it ended up being a very easy year for them. The fermentations went very smoothly. 

I'll actually be bottling the 2020 rose next month and it is tasting very, very, very, very, very good!"

NOW IN STOCK

2019 - Muscadet Côteaux De La Loire - Michto - Melon de B - 12.78

NEW 2018 - Coteaux d’Ancenis - Cuvée Noé - Gamay - 12.78

NEW 2018 - Coteaux d’Ancenis - Trait Gamay - Gamay - 13.25

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A Chat with Vignereuse

Vignereuse
France, Gaillac, Andillac

Marine Leys works with a mix of local varieties: Mauzac, Loin de l’Oeil, Braucol, Duras and then some Gamay (fashionable in the 1970’s for Primeur wines), and Syrah (the most commercial of the varieties, and Gaillac used to sell a lot of bulk must and juice to other regions).

The vineyards are situated on the south-east-facing slopes of the Cordais plateau. The soil is schist on limestone – less argilo-calcareous than the rest of Gaillac. All wines are fermented and aged in fibreglass. No sulphur is used on the reds.


How did this year's harvest go for you?
It was a very good one. We were lucky to have had rain at the right time. The maturity progress was never interrupted and the alcohol levels aren't too high either. I would say we've had the perfect result.


That's great! A lot of other winemakers we spoke with have suffered from the big heatwave this summer
I know, we are really lucky here in Gaillac. We have enough water but not too much. Haven't had any frost this year either. Last month we've already had 100mm of rain, which is already building a reserve in water supply for next year.


What is special about Gaillac?
Gaillac is one of the oldest vineyards in France, established in Roman times or even earlier, with great soil and terroir. Roman merchants transported wine to Bordeaux and Northern Europe down the Tarn.
Gaillac is quite isolated. It's close to Toulouse, but Toulouse never wanted to drink wines from Gaillac.
Gaillac has always been underestimated. It's not as famous as Burgundy or Loire regions. And I find that as a result of that Gaillac's winemakers underestimate themselves today, even though there is a big potential here for great wines. Today there are around 20 winemakers in Gaillac doing natural wines. 


And how did you find you way to Gaillac?
I learned winemaking in Turkey when I followed a friend of mine who was establishing himself as a farmer there. His daughter wanted to get into winemaking so he planted a whole vineyard with vines imported from Italy next to his farm just for her. I then decided to help them and fell in love with the vineyard in Turkey. 
When I came back to France it was mainly for my own education, as it was rather complicated to do in Turkey. I wanted to work with someone who knew how to make natural wines. In the vineyard in Turkey I was working organically, so I knew that this was the direction I wanted to head in. But they have never let me experiment with making my own wines, so when back in France I didn't want to start without learning about it first; how to work with natural yeasts for example. So I have gotten in touch with the Plageoles family and they said yes. I've spent two years at their domaine in total and have then found a vineyard of my own in 2014 not too far away. I have always worked organically but am organic certified since 2018. 


What about your family? Do you have any winemaking background?
No, not at all. We have a chef but no winemakers!


Do you work alone?
I get people to help with the harvest and I've been employing a worker called Sebastien for two years, mainly for pruning. We have also done a cuvée which he is in sole charge of. But besides that I do everything myself. I'm really excited to have done this year's primeur under the new appelation 'Vin Nature'  which is now on a testrun in France for the next three years! This will be really big. 

How do the other winemakers in Gaillac influence you? 
We've got a great community of winemakers, called Terres de Gaillac. There are about 20 of us and we see each other pretty often. Once a year we take a road trip together to visit other winemakers and get inspired. Last year we've done Beaujolais, this year it will be the Rhône. We exchange a lot of tips and see how we can improve things - and just help each other out generally.


Which wines do you enjoy drinking? 
Le Clos de Grillons from the Rhône, we are going to visit him so I'm really excited.


Which wine fairs will we be able to find you at in the coming few months?
I'll be at Roots 66 on the 27 & 28 of January 2019 in Montpellier and at La Dive Bouteille on the 2 & 3 of February in Angers. That's all I have planned at the moment.


What can you tell us about your future plans?
I'd love to work with animals, but I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to do this. And also this year for the first time I'll be making a 'Vin de Voile', which has to be kept in a barrel for 7 years. So I'm pretty excited to see how that will turn out. 

 

Wines now in stock

Red


2018 (VDF) Gaia Quoi! – Syrah
A saignee of around two days. Is this Gaillac's answer to Lambrusco? Hand-harvested and unfiltered Syrah pet-nat.

2017 (AOC Gaillac) Croizade - Syrah, Duras
Hand-harvested Syrah (40-year-old vines) and Duras (10-year-old vines) blend. Unfiltered and unfined. 


2016 (AOC Gaillac) A la Santé des Mécréants - Duras
Hand-harvested Duras from 40 year old vines. Eight-day maceration with regular pumping over. Aged in fibreglass tanks.


2016 (AOC Gaillac) L'Ancêtre - Braucol
Hand-harvested Braucol from 15-year-old vines.

For any wholesale and stock enquiries, please contact hello@winesutb.com

A Chat with Ferme de Sept Lunes

Jean Delobre
France, St Joseph, Bogy

Le Ferme des Sept Lunes is a 10-hectare farm perched on one of the highest areas of St Joseph. Visiting involves a tortuous 350m road-climb from the valley floor. The hair-pins are not for the faint-hearted.

The latest of three generations on the same farm, Jean converted to organic and biodynamic agriculture in 1997 and only uses sulphur in his wines when it's absolutely unavoidable. The vineyards in the upper part of St.Joseph have a south-eastern exposure, the altitude bringing freshness to the wines. The climate has been tending to Mediterranean in recent year, with wind coming from the north.

Each cuvée is site-specific; with Syrah, Roussane, Marsanne, Viognier and a bit of Gamay planted mostly on granite soils.

The wines all show great freshness and purity, the whites all have texture and tension, the reds with depth, aromatics and a fantastic juiciness.



Tell us about the new wines we have just received: 2015 Lunatik Ladyland and the 2018 Syrah Gamay
Lunatik Ladyland used to be AOC St Joseph but then it was declassified to Vin de France as it was too oxidised. You used to have the 2012 version. 2015 compared to 2012 is richer and less oxidised.
We chose to declassify the wine as we thought that when people order a classic St Joseph they will expect something entirely different. So it was better to change the name and appelation so we don't mislead our customers.It's a Roussanne Marsanne blend harvest at good maturity and aged one year in barrels then in stainless steel for another year. We then left it on the side for the wine to stabilise further.

The 2018 Syrah Gamay cuvée is an exception as usually it's only a Syrah. But that year the summer was hot so the Syrah was quite concentrated and lacking it's usual freshness. So I have then added 25% of juicy Gamay to make it more balanced. 7 days maceration, kept in fibreglass tanks.



How did the 2019 harvest go for you?
It was a hot year but in the end we had a good harvest which should give us great wines. We were very careful about choosing the harvest date, so the maturity doesn't go too far. But it was a hot year and the vines suffered.


Would you say that there was a noticeable change when it comes to temperature in the recent years?
Yes, the last three summers were very hot. Before that we've had years with fast maturity in 2003 and 2005, but it's true that the recent years are noticeably hotter.


What are your personal favourite vintages you have made to date and why?
The first one I have ever made: 2001. Beginner's luck! Then, I also like 2009 and I believe that 2017 has great potential.


Which wine fairs will we be able to see you at in the coming few months?
This weekend (23 & 24 Nov) I will be at Salon des Doubouchées in Lyon, which is a local wine fair. On the 26 & 27 of January I'll be at Les Affranchis in Montpellier and 1 & 2 of February at Salon Degustation Grenier St Jean in Angers. Next April I'll also be at Vini Circus, which sees a big mix of public as well as trade visitors.


What can you tell us about your future plans?
We would like to plant some trees and bushes in and around the vineyard. This is to protect the vines from the strong winds we are having in this area, as well as offer some shade during hot summers which are becoming more frequent now.

Wines now in stock

White

NEW 2015 (VDF) Lunatik Ladyland – Roussanne Marsanne



Red

NEW 2018 (VDF) Syrah Gamay – Syrah, Gamay

2015 (AOC Saint Joseph) Premier Quartier – Syrah

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Ferme De Sept Lunes

Ferme De Sept Lunes

Jean Delobre (left)

Bogy, St Joseph, France

We toasted the birth of the idea that became Under the Bonnet Wines with a bottle of Jean Delobre's formidable Ardeche Syrah VDF. Four years on, imagine how chuffed we are to be able to bring his wines to you.

Le Ferme des Sept Lunes is a 10-hectare farm perched in one of the highest areas of St Joseph. Visiting involves a tortuous 350m road-climb from the valley floor. The hair-pins are not for the faint-hearted.

The latest of three generations on the same farm, Jean converted to organic and biodynamic agriculture in 1997 and only uses sulphur in his wines when it's absolutely unavoidable. The vineyards in the upper part of St.Joseph have a south-eastern exposure, the altitude bringing freshness to the wines. The climate has been tending to Mediterranean in recent year, with wind coming from the north.

Each cuvée is site-specific; with Syrah, Roussane, Marsanne, Viognier and a bit of Gamay planted mostly on granite soils. The wines all show great freshness and purity, the whites all have texture and tension, the reds with depth, aromatics and a fantastic juiciness.

Wines now in stock

White

NEW 2017 VDF Lune Rousse – Roussane
No added SO2, creamy, peachy, long.

NEW 2016 St. Joseph Blanc – Roussane,Marsane
Vinified and aged separately for one year in old oak, waxy, earthy, saline, still retaining freshness and tension.

NEW 2012 St. Joseph Blanc – Roussane, Marsane
The wine developed flor during its one year in barrel. Oxidative, nutty, saline, with an underlying citrus freshness. A very intriguing wine.


Red

NEW 2015 Premier Quartier – Syrah
A blend of parcels, deep concentrated, the most structured wine with the broadest shoulders, sappy and pithy.

NEW 2016 Pleine Lune – Syrah
Vines planted in 1990, Aromatic, juicy, rhubarb, blackberries, violets, long, soft and very easy to drink.

For wholesale prices, please email hello@winesutb.com