Nicolas Gonin: Patron Saint of "Orphan" Grapes
10/22/15 -
(Nicolas Gonin. Photo: Mike Foulk)
Though the town is only forty-five minutes east from the bustling city of Lyon, you’ve probably never heard of Saint-Chef. It is tucked away in the department of Isère -- not a well-known wine producing region by any means (all wines made here must be labeled either Vin de France or IGP Isère, which replaced Vin de Pays des Balmes-Dauphinoises in 2010) -- and perhaps the closest thing resembling a brush with fame is the fact that Chartreuse is produced some thirty miles away. A bit of history: before phylloxera ravaged France in the late 1800s, Isère boasted 35,000 hectares of vines -- one and a half times what Beaujolais has today – with 1,000 of them planted within Saint-Chef. After that the region was replanted heavily with hybrids, but due to the lack of organization amongst growers to form an AOC during World War II, viticulture all but disappeared. In stark comparison, today there are just 600 hectares of vines planted in Isère (25 in Saint-Chef) and only 300 of these are in commercial production, the rest being used for consommation familiale, or personal consumption. These small vineyards cannot be larger than 2,500 square meters and the owners of these parcels are not allowed to sell the wine made from the vines.
Enter Nicolas Gonin. Not only is Nicolas a talented winemaker who trained as an enologist in Beaune before working for the likes of Domaine Tempier, he is the Vice President of the ambitious Pierre Galet Alpine Ampelography Centre. This group scours historical documents and, even more importantly, the aforementioned small family-farmed vineyards that dot Isère, looking for ancient grape varietals that have long been forgotten in terms of producing wine. He started studying ampelography during his enological studies (he discovered the red grape Persan at the age of 22, and he farms .8 hectares of it – one of the largest plots of Persan in the world!) and has been actively, almost instinctively, pursuing his goal of documenting these “orphan” grapes.
Nicolas’ own vineyards cover 5.5 hectares planted in sandstone-rich, gravelly soils and he achieved organic certification in 2012. Vinification and élevage are done with indigenous yeasts in enamel vats; the vessel that Nicolas thinks is optimal for minimal impact on the wines. Sulfur additions are kept to a minimum and are made a few days before bottling, a length Nicolas deems crucial to the SO2’s integration with the finished wine; bottling is done without fining or filtration. In short, these are pure, well-made wines.
Nicolas in the cellar next to his enamel vats. Photo: Mike Foulk
Even though we are just starting to see the fruits of Nicolas’ labor (most of his vines are still too young to be in production), there’s no doubt that it’s the beginning of something great. It’s not every day that you are able to drink a small piece of winemaking history. Tim Gagnon
