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’

Sunshine, seafood.. sorted

Complemen'terre

France, Nantes, Muscadet

Both Marion and Manu were born in Muscadet and have been around vineyards their whole lives. After a long time away working for winemakers in New Zealand (Felton Road Winery) and Chile (Domaine Clos Ouvert), they settled in 2013 in the village of le Pallet and work now with three grape varieties: Melon de Bourgogne (eight hectares), Folle Blanche (0.68ha) at la Haye-Fouassière, and Gamay (0.60ha). The wines are all vinified by parcel with the aim of showing off the varied volcanic terroir of the region. 

Marion and Manu work organically and in line with the lunar calendar, in total respect of the soils and the nature. 

Their 2018 and 2019 whites have just landed - perfect with some sunshine and oysters!

We've had a quick chat:

"The 2019 68 Ares is 100% Folle Blanche, a really aromatic grape which matures late and a variety we've got very little of in the vineyard, exactly 68 ares (0.7ha) on orthogneiss. So being able to produce this cuvée is sort of revolutionary for us! We have replanted some of the vines recently as they were in a bad spot where they were really sensitive to frost. With this change we expect to be able to be a lot more productive in about three years time.

"Direct press, fermentation in tank. Racked once and unfiltered. It then finishes off in the bottle for about five to six months.  The cuvée is perfect with seafood as it is citrusy with a hint of acidity, so gives a fresh punch to balance out the flavours.

"The 2019 La Croix Moriceau is 100% Melon de Bourgogne and is planted on deep soil of limon and sand and is also ripening rather slowly. This wine makes up a third of our whole production. As with all our other wines, this cuvée has been harvested by hand and directly pressed. Fermentation on lees for six to seven months. Unfiltered. Expect a fruity and round cuvée with a bit of gas, which will get rounder with time. Generally it is an easy-drinking wine with low acidity.

"As for the 2018 cuvées, it was a year when we've had a huge harvest. Crop of very good quality with barely any damage. The 2018 Le Breil is aged on lees for 17 months in stainless steel. The 2018 Nolem fermented in barrels for 10 months. Both are unfiltered.

"This year we are already looking at an earlier harvest, we will be starting around the 20th of August, so three weeks earlier than usual. Due to the warmer weather the crops are maturing more quickly. Flowering started end of March, which means harvest is 100 days later. Fingers crossed we will have good results!"

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NEW 2019 (VDF) 68 Ares - Folle Blanche

NEW 2019 (AOC Muscadet) La Croix Moriceau - Melon B

2018 (AOC Muscadet ) Le Breil - Melon B

2018 (AOC Muscadet) Nolem - Melon B
                                                                                            

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The Fresh Cognette-tion

Cognettes

France, Nantes, Muscadet, Clisson

Seventh-generation winemaker brothers, Stéphane and Vincent started working in their family vineyards in 1988, converted to organic in 2009, and produced their first certified vintage in 2013. 

Their soil is volcanic in two terroirs; the first has a top soil of sand, gravel and clay with a subsoil soil of gabbro. The second; a topsoil quartz with a subsoil of granite.

Their new 2019 reds as well as refills of their 2018 whites have just landed - we've had a quick chat:

"In 2019 we have lost a big amount of grapes to frost, but we've still had great results for our reds. The grapes were of very good quality with loads of aroma and a good colour. The harvest has been easy as there weren't many rotten grapes. 

"For the Le Pas Rouge 2019 we've had two types of macerations: one with destemmed grapes only and the other one whole bunch. The result is a Gamay with a great balance between aroma and acidity. It's a red wine which is really fresh and not heavy to drink. So we are hoping to have a similar result in 2020!

"For the Pinot Noir 2019 we were lucky as well when it comes to the quality of the grapes last year. The wine has been aged in tanks as these don't change the aroma of the wine, so we've got the real taste of the Pinot Noir shining through. This cuvee has an ABV of 14% which is exceptional for our wines which have usually a lower percentage. In France we call this sort of wine 'le vin des copains', which means a wine particularly good for sharing with friends. 

"As for 2018, we have lost a good amount due to mildew. But what we were able to save was of good quality. Due to a hot summer which followed after a rainy spring, the 2018 whites are generally rich but still very fresh, with fermentations ranging between three to 13 months in order to achieve the right balance. The 2019 Chardonnay will be great but it is still fermenting. In general, natural wines have a longer fermentation than conventional wines. And the whites are fermenting even longer than reds.

"At the moment we've got a three-week advance in the vineyard due to the mild climate. We are very happy as so far the vines are looking very good, after the last couple of challenging years this will be a welcome change. But, the advance means no holidays for us this summer as we will now need to work quicker to catch up as well as have an earlier harvest than usual.

"Next year we will be trying out something new: we will do a Sauvignon Gris maceration. We're looking forward to seeing the results of that!"

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2018 (IGP) Gros Plant - Folle Blanche
                                                                           
2018 (IGP) Chardonnay - Chardonnay
                                                                                
2018 (AOC Muscadet) Muscadet les 2 Terres - Melon de B.
                                                                  

RED 
                                                                           
NEW 2019 (IGP) Le Pas Rouge - Gamay
                                                                             
NEW 2019 (IGP) Pinot Noir - Pinot Noir                                                                       
 

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