Last October. Ten-Bells. Post the Dressner tasting. A carafe of K- Dard & Ribo's white Crozes-Hermitage of Marsanne and Roussane grown on Kaolin --provided by--Jeff Viera? Corey? Help, my memory of who's bottle I was pilfering --and I thank whoever you are/were. The bottle fueled a great conversation I had with Eric Texier about Chauvet and vins naturel. Anyway, the point? Alll roads lead back to Dard & Ribo.
I suppose, knowing that, John Livingstone-Learmonth the British author of one of the terrific The Wines of the Northern Rhone and of the Drink Rhone website send me his latest article --entitled Les Vina Naturels. Also included in his discussion of sulfur was the write up from last visit to Domaine Gramenon as well as Francois & Rene Jean.
John's site is by subscription --and it will cost you 40.00 GBP a year, but for serious Rhone folks, there's no better place.
Here's a bit of what he sent to me. I know, Alice, such a tease.
Les Vins Naturel
Intellectually, I lean towards Les Vins Naturels. Let Rene-Jean Dard of the Crozes-Hermitage Domaine Dard & Ribo explain the terminology: 'Japan started this. My ex-wife is Japanese, and we have always sold a lot of wine to Japan since 1996. They termed our wine 'vin naturel' or 'natural wine', and that was the first time we heard that title. They also have their own word for buvabilite, (which phonetically sounds like Nomiasugui. Japanese subscribers, please advise!)
The natural refers to organic through and through, both in the vineyard, but especially in the cellar, where machine use and mechanical intervention is not applied, and where the application of sulphur dioxide-sulphites on the labels-is eschewed, or only used in tiny amounts. Legally in the European Union, the grower is obliged to put 'contains sulphites' on the label if the wine contains more than 10 mg per litre of SO2. As a drinker, especially if you were asthmatic, you would pick up on 30 mg of SO2 in a bottle -it might make you sneeze, or would give the smell of bad eggs, or a sort of sherbet.
etc...etc....
Dard & Ribo
The arrival of this duo in 1984 in Tain was below the radar of most wine lovers. In those days, the Rhone had only a small following of enthusiasts, and none of the global popularity of today. On a corner opposite the notary offices of the Sorrel family, owners on the hill of Hermitage, they set up in a tiny courtyard, home to old Delas cellars, their external trademark a romantic black Citroen 15, the car favoured by the detective Maigret, Georges Simenon's creation.
Their families had both been members of the Tain Co-operative, and the boys had been making wine together as youngsters, since 1980 -- but were sans image, sans much cash, sans any real material goods. But they had plenty of determination and commitment to simplified winemaking practices, having met at the Beaune Wine School. Rene-Jean Dard was born in Tournon on the Ardeche side of the Rhone in 1960, and Francois in Tain l'Hermitage, on the Drome side, in 1961.
'Local people thought we were hippies, that we did drugs,' recalls Rene-Jean. Their early wines were, it has to be said, rather hit and miss, but certainly not because of external substances. I found their 1980s Hermitage reds woody, after 18 months in cask, the wood perhaps not being as meticulously clean as it might have been. The word 'foxy; would occasionally appear in my tasting notes. Colours were solid, purple-black, and there was certainly matter in the wines.
Their holdings were very small-1.7 hectares between their Crozes and St-Joseph vineyards, 0.8 hectare at Hermitage. Today it is 5 hectares at Crozes and 2 hectares at St-Joseph, 0.6 hectare at Hermitage (rental arrangements have come and gone). 'We don't overwork the soils,' says Francois-- 'people have recently gone from doing nothing to overdoing it.' They also have some craggy gneiss granite slopes, and erosion is an issue.
The reds can be destemmed, mostly the crop from the young vines. But if the crop is healthy, then whole bunches are fermented. The duo still use open wood fermenting vats, do a foot crush, use no machines for operations-- which rules out pumping overs, but brings in cap punching by foot. 'We taste the vats every day, so the process can last for 10 to 21 days,' says Francois. They try to vinify on a plot by plot basis.
Sulphur is sparely used - the 2008 Crozes red received 15 mg/litre at bottling, for instance, given the fragility of the year - 'it is a vintage to drink fast and not lay down.' says Rene-Jean. 'Our red Crozes reflects more the vintage than Dard & Ribo - a vintage without make-up, and wines with great fruit for the short-term.'
Their 2008 Saint-Joseph red, tasted out of tank 4 days before bottling on Monday 9 November, 2009, was a wine, I noted, 'to drink solo for les brancehes (the tuned-in drinkers) or with grilled foods'-- just the sort of wine for uncomplicated moments that the duo would recommend.
In similar vein, accepting the vagaries of the vintage, they made just one white Crozes in 2008, assembling the different terroirs, and suppressing the Cuvee K for a half Marsanne, half Roussanne wine that was very agreeable.
'We make the wine for us, and if it sells, then OK,';says Francois. This is a sound approach, naturellement. Principle lies at its heart rather than a cocked eye on the points of the wine writers and the fashions of the market. But it also helps if you have an established following. Rene-Jean Dard, always good for a trenchant statement, has little good to say about oenologues who guide and even totally drive some domaines: 'Pharmacists and doctors = oenologues,; he says, adding the final thrust, 'they give out pills rather than cure illnesses.'
(Thanks for sending this along, John.)
The arrival of this duo in 1984 in Tain was below the radar of most wine lovers. In those days, the Rhone had only a small following of enthusiasts, and none of the global popularity of today. On a corner opposite the notary offices of the Sorrel family, owners on the hill of Hermitage, they set up in a tiny courtyard, home to old Delas cellars, their external trademark a romantic black Citroen 15, the car favoured by the detective Maigret, Georges Simenon's creation.
Their families had both been members of the Tain Co-operative, and the boys had been making wine together as youngsters, since 1980 -- but were sans image, sans much cash, sans any real material goods. But they had plenty of determination and commitment to simplified winemaking practices, having met at the Beaune Wine School. Rene-Jean Dard was born in Tournon on the Ardeche side of the Rhone in 1960, and Francois in Tain l'Hermitage, on the Drome side, in 1961.
'Local people thought we were hippies, that we did drugs,' recalls Rene-Jean. Their early wines were, it has to be said, rather hit and miss, but certainly not because of external substances. I found their 1980s Hermitage reds woody, after 18 months in cask, the wood perhaps not being as meticulously clean as it might have been. The word 'foxy; would occasionally appear in my tasting notes. Colours were solid, purple-black, and there was certainly matter in the wines.
Their holdings were very small-1.7 hectares between their Crozes and St-Joseph vineyards, 0.8 hectare at Hermitage. Today it is 5 hectares at Crozes and 2 hectares at St-Joseph, 0.6 hectare at Hermitage (rental arrangements have come and gone). 'We don't overwork the soils,' says Francois-- 'people have recently gone from doing nothing to overdoing it.' They also have some craggy gneiss granite slopes, and erosion is an issue.
The reds can be destemmed, mostly the crop from the young vines. But if the crop is healthy, then whole bunches are fermented. The duo still use open wood fermenting vats, do a foot crush, use no machines for operations-- which rules out pumping overs, but brings in cap punching by foot. 'We taste the vats every day, so the process can last for 10 to 21 days,' says Francois. They try to vinify on a plot by plot basis.
Sulphur is sparely used - the 2008 Crozes red received 15 mg/litre at bottling, for instance, given the fragility of the year - 'it is a vintage to drink fast and not lay down.' says Rene-Jean. 'Our red Crozes reflects more the vintage than Dard & Ribo - a vintage without make-up, and wines with great fruit for the short-term.'
Their 2008 Saint-Joseph red, tasted out of tank 4 days before bottling on Monday 9 November, 2009, was a wine, I noted, 'to drink solo for les brancehes (the tuned-in drinkers) or with grilled foods'-- just the sort of wine for uncomplicated moments that the duo would recommend.
In similar vein, accepting the vagaries of the vintage, they made just one white Crozes in 2008, assembling the different terroirs, and suppressing the Cuvee K for a half Marsanne, half Roussanne wine that was very agreeable.
'We make the wine for us, and if it sells, then OK,';says Francois. This is a sound approach, naturellement. Principle lies at its heart rather than a cocked eye on the points of the wine writers and the fashions of the market. But it also helps if you have an established following. Rene-Jean Dard, always good for a trenchant statement, has little good to say about oenologues who guide and even totally drive some domaines: 'Pharmacists and doctors = oenologues,; he says, adding the final thrust, 'they give out pills rather than cure illnesses.'
(Thanks for sending this along, John.)
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