Francing Around

Our most recent travels took Steve and I to Paris.  We were excited as we picked up a hire car and headed straight for Champagne.  Here, we met our family friends Calum Peace and his wife Marion.  Marion is the daughter of Christian and Sylvie Peligri who are Champagne producers in Colombey les-deux-Eglises.  They produce excellent wines, available for purchase in Australia. We toured the Peligri winery, which was formerly a cheese factory, and family vineyards totalling 12 hectares. Calum and Christian explained to Steve their production facility and we compared champagne production equipment to ours.  Calum also gave us a tour of their vineyards and explained comprehensively the various soil types, vine clones and inputs.  Their vineyards are steep, compared to most Australian vineyards, reminiscent of our 1.2 ha close-planted block at our estate vineyard in Granton.

In France it is very common for a vineyard to be owned by separate people/entities.  For example, a plot of 40 continuous rows of grapevines may be owned by 6 different people. And another plot 500 metres down the road could be owned by the same group of people, or others.  These varied ownership rules have come about mostly due to inheritance.  Vineyard rows are divided amongst family and, if not farmed by that person, they are sold off to other family members, vignerons or lay investors.  A stark contrast and a completely different system to how vineyards are owned in Australia. Their vineyards, like many others in the region, are managed by contractors who are instructed to cultivate, spray, and canopy-manage. The Peligri family do their own viticulture planning, pruning and harvesting.

During our time in France we also visited many wineries where we tasted 2023 wines from new and seasoned barrels.  The first reason was to gauge our wines against like-minded French producers and, the second reason, was to taste wines matured in Millard barrels. Minier and Millard are two separate barrel manufacturers based in Chagny, Burgundy.  We already purchased barrels from Minier and have done so for about 10 years.  Minier is a consistent cooper who supplies us with barriques which we use to mature our very exquisite Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.  Millard on the other hand is a newcomer to our barrel sale business.  We came across his barrels during our 2022 ‘American Odyssey’ trip, where we tasted wines from Ceritas, CA.  Steve could see the synergy between our wines and theirs, and how well the oak enhanced the finished wine.  Last year we were lucky enough to get hold of a couple of Millard barrels.  A trial took place over the past year and both Steve & Marco found the Millard oak, together with the Minier oak, contributed more shine to our extra special Estate and Collina Chardonnays.  We are now distributors for both coopers.  If you are in the market for barriques drop us an email steve@slw.com.au

Once the barrel research was completed we headed to Lyon.  On the way we stopped for lunch in Chablis and tasted some wines from various Caverns. Caverns are cellar doors located in and around the main streets.  After Chablis we arrived at Beaujolais where we had a tasting at Château Chénas where Noel and Corrine Minier’s daughter, Manon, manages the cellar door.  We were very impressed by these wines and may import them to sell in our Hobart boutique wine shop, Molto.  At our last stop in France, we arrived in Lyon and stayed the night so that we could visit Antic Wines; a wine shop in the old town that specialises in exclusive wines.  We met George dos Santos when he visited our stand at an organic/biodynamic wine fair 'Milo Bio' in Montpellier some years ago. We always hoped that we would get time one day to visit his very famous wine shop. We made an appointment and luckily George was on site on the day and immediately remembered Steve.  George happened to have a bottle of DRC ‘The Saint Vivant’ open, Steve casually tasted this very special wine whilst they chatted.  Maybe one day you will be able to visit Lyon and purchase a bottle of Stefano Lubiana Wines at George’s landmark establishment!