PJ's discreet sign(14 August 2008)
Although I have visited Pierre-Jacques on several occasions over the past 20 years or so, I have never had to find my own way there. Finding the street (Rue de la Croix Rouge) in Benais is not difficult but finding No 7 is quite another matter. Initially we were encouraged by the official sign at the beginning of the road indicating that P J Druet was ahead of us. Despite driving slowly down the road there appeared to be no sign either for PJ or No 7. Furthermore the street numbers appeared to be haphazardly scattered – certainly not in numerical order. Some two kilometres down the road we turned round and asked directions. Driving slowly back we still missed PJs chai and it wasn’t until our second slow sweep along la Croix Rouge that Sarah (not called The Wine Detective for nothing) spotted PJ’s tatty, modest and discreet sign (see above) wired to a railing.
By the time Sarah and I found the Druet chai and located PJ it was 10am. We had hoped to start the visit at 9.30. Thanks to the now completed A85 motorway it had taken us just under an hour to get across from Epeigné-les-Bois in the Cher Valley. The final stretch of the A85, from near Tours to Saint-Aignan, opened in December 2007. With the opening of the A11 by-pass of Angers in the summer of 2008, the Loire’s motorway system is now complete, at least until a second autoroute is built round Tours. The A85 has made a huge difference to travelling up and down the Loire and the Cher Valleys. Previously the journey was very slow and on a very dangerous road – the N76.
Unlike many Loire producers PJ had no family vineyards to inherit and provide a launching pad. Pierre-Jacques comes from Chissay in the Cher Valley, four kilometres east of Montrichard. He started his wine career as an oenologist before deciding to establish his own domaine in Bourgueil in 1980. Although curiously François Chidaine, a leading producer in Montlouis, believes that there is a big untapped potential in that part of the Cher – Chissay, Montrichard and Bourrée, trying to establish a serious estate in Chissay then would not have been an option – it is still not easy.
PJ makes his Bourgueil rosé using a method called guillage that dates from the middle ages. He learned this technique many years ago from an old vigneron called Jean Bertrand in Rochecorbon, who used the system for making his Vouvray. With guillage the must goes directly into a barrel without settling (débourbage). The barrel is filled to the brim, so that once fermentation begins it overflows and with it the solids that would normally be settled out. “It’s like skimming a sauce or a boiling liquid when cooking,” explains PJ. “You lose about 10% of the juice,” he adds. The advantage is the gain of additional flavours from the solids. PJ’s rosé is made from vines between 45-50 years old using the saignée method. The juice ferments very slowly taking some four to five months. The 2007 rosé was soft with delicate red fruits, a touch of residual sugar and freshness in the finish. PJ uses 25 mm corks against the more standard 24 mm as the tighter seal helps to maintain a higher level of carbon dioxide in the wine.
“2008 has been a difficult year so far,” said PJ. “Some frost damage in early April, attacks of mildew and oidium and a difficult flowering in June. But September makes the wine here.” PJ pointed out his special conical vats, which he designed many years ago. “They are the same shape and size as the best oak fermenting vats,” he explained. There is a pigeage system on the top of the vat – pigeage replicates pushing down the cap of skins and pips into the wine – something traditionally done by human feet.
Conical vats with pigeage system
PJ outside his cellar in the hillside at the top of the Coteaux
Although I have visited Pierre-Jacques on several occasions over the past 20 years or so, I have never had to find my own way there. Finding the street (Rue de la Croix Rouge) in Benais is not difficult but finding No 7 is quite another matter. Initially we were encouraged by the official sign at the beginning of the road indicating that P J Druet was ahead of us. Despite driving slowly down the road there appeared to be no sign either for PJ or No 7. Furthermore the street numbers appeared to be haphazardly scattered – certainly not in numerical order. Some two kilometres down the road we turned round and asked directions. Driving slowly back we still missed PJs chai and it wasn’t until our second slow sweep along la Croix Rouge that Sarah (not called The Wine Detective for nothing) spotted PJ’s tatty, modest and discreet sign (see above) wired to a railing.
By the time Sarah and I found the Druet chai and located PJ it was 10am. We had hoped to start the visit at 9.30. Thanks to the now completed A85 motorway it had taken us just under an hour to get across from Epeigné-les-Bois in the Cher Valley. The final stretch of the A85, from near Tours to Saint-Aignan, opened in December 2007. With the opening of the A11 by-pass of Angers in the summer of 2008, the Loire’s motorway system is now complete, at least until a second autoroute is built round Tours. The A85 has made a huge difference to travelling up and down the Loire and the Cher Valleys. Previously the journey was very slow and on a very dangerous road – the N76.
Unlike many Loire producers PJ had no family vineyards to inherit and provide a launching pad. Pierre-Jacques comes from Chissay in the Cher Valley, four kilometres east of Montrichard. He started his wine career as an oenologist before deciding to establish his own domaine in Bourgueil in 1980. Although curiously François Chidaine, a leading producer in Montlouis, believes that there is a big untapped potential in that part of the Cher – Chissay, Montrichard and Bourrée, trying to establish a serious estate in Chissay then would not have been an option – it is still not easy.
PJ makes his Bourgueil rosé using a method called guillage that dates from the middle ages. He learned this technique many years ago from an old vigneron called Jean Bertrand in Rochecorbon, who used the system for making his Vouvray. With guillage the must goes directly into a barrel without settling (débourbage). The barrel is filled to the brim, so that once fermentation begins it overflows and with it the solids that would normally be settled out. “It’s like skimming a sauce or a boiling liquid when cooking,” explains PJ. “You lose about 10% of the juice,” he adds. The advantage is the gain of additional flavours from the solids. PJ’s rosé is made from vines between 45-50 years old using the saignée method. The juice ferments very slowly taking some four to five months. The 2007 rosé was soft with delicate red fruits, a touch of residual sugar and freshness in the finish. PJ uses 25 mm corks against the more standard 24 mm as the tighter seal helps to maintain a higher level of carbon dioxide in the wine.“2008 has been a difficult year so far,” said PJ. “Some frost damage in early April, attacks of mildew and oidium and a difficult flowering in June. But September makes the wine here.” PJ pointed out his special conical vats, which he designed many years ago. “They are the same shape and size as the best oak fermenting vats,” he explained. There is a pigeage system on the top of the vat – pigeage replicates pushing down the cap of skins and pips into the wine – something traditionally done by human feet.
Conical vats with pigeage system
PJ outside his cellar in the hillside at the top of the CoteauxTo be continued....
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