An intense winemaker at work.
Parallel to the 1,600 exhibitor booths, multiple wine-tasting events, and conference sessions at Vinisud were a series of so-called “Off’ events. The name comes from a French propensity to borrow an English word or expression (“le week-end,” “un leader,” “le smoking,” etc.) and to use it to express something else. In this case, ‘Off” is short for “offsite.” So an “Off” is an event that is held apart, or offsite, from a major event. Main exhibition organizers frown on these parallel events, looking on them in the same way that an “Official” Olympic Sponsor, say Nike, might view Adidas handing out logo-laden tote bags at the Olympics.
But, as I discovered at last year’s Vinexpo, and here again at the recent Vinisud, many of these “Off” events are as interesting as, or even more interesting, than the official program. That’s why I was excited to get an invitation to an “Off” event organized by winemaker Pascal Fullá from Mas de l’Ecriture in the Languedoc-Roussillon’s Terrasses du Larzac appellation.
I wrote about Fullá in October 2009. About how he had given up his corporate law career to make wine at the foot of the Larzac plateau, a geological smorgasbord of well-drained, sandy-clay soil and Jurassic limestone that allows winemakers who understand this terroir to make wines of amazing subtlety and finesse.
Fullá is one of the most intense people who I have ever met. He sometimes seems to be almost consumed by his obsession to make great wines. His vineyard goes beyond orderly, approaching perfection, with each leaf and rock in place. He installed a weather station so that he could, through the use of a sophisticated software program, monitor air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, vine leaf moisture, soil humidity, the strength and direction of the wind, and the atmospheric pressure. This data allows him to anticipate vine diseases such as oidium, mildew and rot, so that he uses the absolute minimum amount of treatment products. Having this capability set him on the path, in 2009, to earn an official, ECOCERT-organic status, and 2011 will be the l’Ecriture’s first, official vintage made with organic grapes.
Judicious pruning, extensive leaf thinning, and a green harvest of unripe grapes reduce his yield to 18-22 hl/ha, less than half of what the appellation permits (50hl/ha, or 5,000 liters per hectare), and double sorting of the grapes (once when they are handpicked, then again on a sorting table before they enter the wine cellar) ensures that he has the highest quality fruit available.
His obsessiveness continues in the cellar, where, following destemming, the grapes undergo a long fermentation in either stainless steel or French Haute Futaie oak, followed by a gentle pressing with the same sort of vertical, hydraulic wine press used to make legendary French wines such as Pétrus and Yquem. Maturation is done in French oak barrels (with a small number of Russian oak barrels also used to give, he says, a more “subtle effect”) in sizes ranging from 225 to 600 liters. These barrels are kept in a temperature- and hygrometry-controlled cellar where the wine ages for 12 months.
And, throughout the fermentation, pressing and aging process, each grape variety is kept separate. It’s only when he’s satisfied with each separate, varietal wine that he proceeds with what he calls the “complex, creative process” of blending each of his wines. I’ve already written of Fullá’s view that winemaking and writing are linked because they are both means of expression, and of how his winery entrance is decorated, in foot-high letters on the wall, of quotations from French poet and Résistance activist René Char, so I won’t repeat that here. But I think that it’s quite telling that he compares the blending of his wines to complex, creative processes such as painting or writing poetry.
“Each year I write a new poem,” he explains, “using words such as fruit, structure, texture, minerality, precision, balance, elegance, freshness, subtlety and length.”
The ten l’Ecriture wines (the domain’s top cuvée) featured in the vertical tasting at the Vinisud “Off” event represented each vintage that Fullá has made since he created Mas de l’Ecriture in 1998. This deeply colored wine is a combination of mostly Syrah, with a touch of Grenache Noir and Mourvèdre. It’s a wine meant to age for a minimum of five years to bring out its intensity, roundness and elegant tannins. Noted wine critics, including Robert Parker, who awarded the 2000 vintage of l’Ecriture 89 points (an amazing feat, as this was just Fullá’s second vintage), UK wine writer Jancis Robinson, Neal Martin from The Wine Advocate magazine, and Louis Roederer International Wine Feature Writer of 2009 Margaret Rand, have given this wine positive notes.
I don’t consider my palate anywhere near that of these experts, but here are my impressions of the ten wines in this unique tasting:
• 2008—Still evolving, as it won’t be bottled for some time, the wine has the l’Ecriture trademark ruby red color, vibrant cherry notes, with distinctively sharp tannins and an undercurrent of wood that will, respectively, grow rounder and be absorbed in time.
• 2007—Ruby red color, very fruity, with balanced, smooth tannins and a delicious, long finish.
• 2006—Light ruby red color, with an increasingly complex bouquet (somewhat less fruity but with delicious hints of leather).
• 2005—Light ruby red color, with lots of concentrated fruit, a tar-like aroma, and still, to my taste, somewhat closed (additional aging should deliver a stunningly balanced and finessed wine).
• 2004—Ruby red color, more open, fuller and smoother than the 2005, with mineral elements balancing the fruit. Considerably longer with a distinctive earthy character evolving.
• 2003—Ruby red color, slightly less fruity in aroma, but smooth and structured.
• 2002—Bingo! Light ruby red color, but with a lovely, rich, concentrated nose, nice concentration on the palate, an interesting spicy intensity, and a delicious, long finish.
• 2001—Light ruby red color, nicely rounded, with hints of smokiness, and a firm, spicy structure.
• 2000—Another wine that I wish that I had in my cellar to continue tasting as it evolved (I wonder what note Parker would give this wine now?). Deep ruby red color, with a lovely fruity, spicy, minerality. Key word here is “intensity,” as it has a meaty, earthy edge. A really delicious wine.
A wine as lovely as a poem
I asked Fullá how his wines have changed over the past decade, and here’s what he had to say:
“They’re moving, I believe, more towards finesse and subtlety, with a purer, more authentic expression of the terroir. It’s that desire to respect and understand the property’s terrior that led me to go for the “Bio” certification,” he explained.
And this winemaker who is as adept at words as he is in creating fine wine, explained–in response to my final question, “How has he changed over the past decade?”–that he is more fatalistic as he begins to prepare for his 12th vintage.
“You understand quickly that the millésime effect’ is real, and that it’s useless to fight nature, which,” he underlines, “will always win. You need to adapt to nature, to work with it and not against it, in the vineyard, in the cellar, and in the aging of the wine. Once again, this is why I decided that “Bio” was the right path for me.”
Fullá and his wines have come an amazing distance in just ten years. I hope that he’ll continue to write such beautiful verse for decades to come.
