Fabian Daviaux has redefined the concept of a co-op as his numerous growers have committed to his preferred biodyamic viticulture, in turn creating beautifully pure, ripe and delicious Champagnes. What's more, with strong vineyard work comes the need for little - if any - sulfur addition, and most of his wines are never sulfured at all. In the winery, the grapes are allowed to ferment naturally in stainless steel tanks after pressing, with only the Coteaux Champenois Blanc and the Saignée Rosé seeing time in barrel. The rest of the range is crafted to be immediately enjoyable, with incredible freshness and purity of fruit.

Chavost

In Champagne, there is a big generational shift similar to Burgundy. The new generation is taking their families’ domaines and making drastic changes. Being the avid Champagne lovers we are, we couldn’t be more excited.

Fabian from Champagne Chavost is one of those generational movers. He is making quite a splash in defining the idea of a grower, negociant and/or co-op. The trend in recent years has been to look for the term RM, or focus on growers, but this is evolving. Buying land in champagne isn’t easy. Young winemakers are looking for other ways to follow their dreams; buying grapes from growers they trust and operating under negoce is a very suitable option. For example, Fabian still operates under his family’s co-op. Fabian sits on the board of their 5ha co-op and made the decision to declare, “We are going organic”. Albeit aggressive, it was the only way to sway them into organic farming and show that it is the way of the future. Fabian took the time to invest in sharing his goals and passion with members through a series of tastings and educational conversations. This approach has worked quite well. They have gotten a nice portion of their growers to farm organically since 2016. These grapes have since been included in the new wines of Champagne Chavost.

It is Fabian’s goal to add nothing to his wines. He currently adds no sulfur at bottling (a feat quite rare in Champagne). After tasting the wines, we clearly see why. The wines are pure, transparent and easy to drink. In his arsenal, he makes a series of “glu glu” champagnes and wines that are fully no addition. The wines that are sans soufre are the Rose de Saignee, Coteaux Champenois, and the cuvee Eurêka.

Champagne Chavost is located in Chavot-Courcourt. It is an interesting place in Champagne; technically, the village is part of the Coteaux-sud d’ Epernay which acts as a continuation to the Côte de Blancs. When you stand at the top of the vineyard you understand why you are a bit unsure of where you are - you are in the center of Champagne. To your right, the Côte de Blancs, straight ahead is the Montagne de Reims just over the mountainside, towards the left and continuing further you see the Vallee de la Marne. The top of the vineyards are full of limestone moving to more chalk mid slope.

His “Glu Glu” Champagnes are 'made' in the vineyard using organic farming and spontaneous yeasts. Starting fermentation is usually done by gravity. Never seeing any barrel, the wines are drinkable, pure, and all about freshness.

FERMENTATION

Spontaneous yeasts

Temperature controlled to preserve the indigenous yeasts

AGING

4 months in stainless steel tank

At least 20 months in bottle - No sulfur at bottling - ever!

"As many of the top winemakers in the world, it was natural to spend time in Burgundy and Valentin did so working alongside some of the top white winemakers we know and love, Raphael Coche and Paul Pillot after which he returned to the Loire and started his own Domaine, Domaine des Quatre Piliers"

Les Quatre Piliers

Valentin Desloges comes from a long lineage of wine growing. After receiving his bachelors in Amboise and a BTS viti-oeno in Bordeaux, Valentin went to work for Chateau Mangot in Saint-Emilion. Following that, he went on to work in New Zealand in 2015, with a strong focus on the varietal Sauvignon Blanc. Returning back to France, it was natural to spend time in Burgundy and he did so working alongside some of the top white winemakers we know and love, Raphael Coche and Paul Pillot. Additionally he spent time elsewhere, such as Alsace with Vincent Sipp. These mentors with roots in diverse territories have brought a wide array of experience in both the vineyard and cellar. He returned to the Loire and started his own Domaine, Domaine des Quatre Piliers. Ten hectares between Noyers and Saint-Aignan. He converted the estate to organic, focusing all of his energy into the vines while still focusing on details in the cellar such as creating his own barrels in collaboration with Francois Freres. Produced with wood from the estate that he drys and prepares himself. His first vintage was 2020.

Viticulture and Vinification

Just under 10ha, located in Touraine and split into about 15 different small parcels. Upon acquiring the vineyards-the vines have been converted to organic cultivation. About half of the vineyards are planted to Sauvignon Blanc on clay and limestone soils. With Chenin, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, and Cot/Malbec making up the rest. The Cher river acts as a large temperature regulator with close proximity to the vines. There is a large area of tuffeau that has been dug out, creating mineral equilibrium and serving as a natural ventilation system for the vineyard.

This panel of different soils is divided into 4 parcels: Les Puits aux Chiens, totalizing 3.5ha Sauvignon Blanc between 15 and 50 years of age, as well as Chenin vines about 30 years old; at the top of Noyer, there is high white clay with limestone borders with a cooler climate, preserving freshness, high aromatics, and acidity to the wines; To the north is Bernardières, one of the warmer parcels with 45 year-old Cot vines planted in sulphate rich soil close to the Cher river; the Bel Air parcel consists of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and the Quatre Piliers parcel has 25 year-old Pinot Noir and 50 year-old Cabernet Franc vines planted to a cooler climate at the top of the hill with warmer micro climates at the bottom of the slopes with high red clay content. This complementary mix between warm and cold lands is fostering the subtle equilibrium sought after by Valentin in winemaking, associating robustness from the clay and delicacy from limestone.

In the cellar, there is great focus on controlled pressing - the amount of pressure used, the length of time the grapes are pressed and which juices are used. All the work is done by the moon calendar. Fermentations occur with indigenous yeast, and there is no fining or filtration of the finished wines. The wines are aged at a natural and constant temperature of 13°C in tuffeau caves at 75% humidity. Cabernet Franc and Cot grapes are carefully de-stemmed before fermenting in tanks for 20 to 30 days. Pinot Noir is cooled down with 20% of entire grapes and ferments for 9 days. Alcoholic fermentation takes places in stainless steel before being transferred to various barrels for malolactic fermentation. White wines only ferment in wood casks, with a varying proportion of new wood depending on the cuvée: 20% for the Grande Cuvée of white Sauvignon, and 30% for the Chenin.

"Family-run estate is verbiage we are all too familiar with. Usually it is family-run and one family member is making the wine while the other is working the books; the Pressanda family has a different definition of this. "

Ca' di Press

The vineyard and cellar work truly is a family affair and when speaking about family, this also importantly includes the place they are from, Perno. Alice & Cristina's grandparents have owned land in La Morra and Monforte since 1900 historically were a farming family that sold their grapes. Their father, Bruno, has spent most of his career overseeing and working their 7.5ha estate. He knows the land, the vineyards, and the grapes like the back of his hand. When Alice and Cristina decided to get involved in the family business, they didn't do so by fully taking over, but rather working together with their father, seeking to absorb the amounts of of knowledge he had that could be passed along, the depths of which couldn't just happen overnight.

Historically, the family sold off all of their grapes and kept a small amount for family and friends. Little by little, they have stopped selling their grapes and are now producing 3 of their 7.5ha, and trying to create in the bottle, what Perno is to them. 2018 was the first vintage they vinified at home and decided to sell themselves. The oldest vines in Perno were planted in 1960 - Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, and Barbera. Their production is slowly increasing along with the winery!

The history of Ca' di Press begins in the early 1900s, driven by love for nature, and also by necessity. An activity borne of a close bond with their territory and linked to the atmosphere of when wine was made for family, friends and for a few customers who often ended up becoming friends, too. This is where their name Cà di Press takes its inspiration from - in Piedmontese dialect this means “House of the Pressenda” - to them their wine is passion but above all it is home. Even though their family is by no means new to Perno, they are on a new journey together, one that fits seamlessly with Thatcher's Imports.

Viticulture and Vinification

All of their wines are fully de-stemmed. Right now, fermentation is happening in stainless steel tanks. The Langhe Nebbiolo and Barbera only see stainless steel. They believe the wine is a bit more sensitive to the wood and can easily become overpowered, and its best expression comes from absence of wood. They have recently started working with new foudres from two coopers, Garbellotto and Pauscha. To reduce the impact of the new wood, they chose Slavonian oak casks (25-30 HL). Right now, they are trying to be as hands-off as possible in the winery, letting the grapes take their own course, and simply overseeing the fermentation and aging and making decisions to best keep control and identity.

Lara Rocchetti is the "La" to Luisa Sala's "Lu", a dynamic young duo in Piedmont who have their sights set on producing top Barolo. Following harvests in their native region with Trediberri, they gained valuable experience from Burgundy luminaries Cecile Tremblay and Dominique Lafon, developing keen insight to crafting their legendary finesse, not to mention parcel selection and viticulture. With the 2019 harvest, LaLu was born with a small harvest of Barolo from the Monforte d'Alba cru Le Coste. Given their passion and pedigree, as the duo grows with their vines so too will the already-impressive quality!

Azienda Agricola LaLu

Lara and Luisa have burst onto the scene at a seemingly young age, having already compiled a wildly impressive C.V., though it took a circuitous route. A chance meeting at the University of Gastronomic Science in Pollenzo created a fast friendship, and as their joint studies introduced the young duo to the world of biodiversity, the proverbial seed was planted within their minds. Through visits to producers to learn about the benefits of biodiversity in a gastronomic sense, the vinous side of the equation tugged at their curiosity.

Through their studies and Luisa's work in a wine shop, Lara and Luisa were able to taste a great deal of wine and soon began to experiment with ideas as to what methods inside the winery and vineyards would lead to the creation of the greatest final product. Their joint thesis centered around creating a carbon-neutral winery, but it was all still theoretical - they needed to get their hands dirty.

As city girls from Torino rather than heiresses to a Piedmontese winery, the early opportunities for graduates of a program that didn't focus on oenology mostly included more commercialized wineries than the women had idealized, resulting in harvests in South Africa and Argentina. Certainly the opportunity to gain valuable repetitions in the winery and moving grapes and juice around, but not the final picture. Following a return to Italy, after some 200 resumes were sent out, Lara and Luisa begged the Oberto family of Trediberri in La Morra for an internship; this presented an welcome chance to grow within their home region of Piedmont and learn from a young but already successful small and vineyard-focused winery. Trediberri tends enviable plots in the Langhe, including La Morra and Rocche dell'Annunziata, two legendary vineyards that showed the young, aspiring winemakers the potential of strong farming within special vineyards; this only served to whet their collective palate for a chance of their own.

In 2014, through their work with Trediberri the opportunity to acquire their first plot of vines within La Morra - it was all of half a hectare in the La Morra cru of Roncaglie but Lara and Luisa scraped together the funds to acquire it, thus beginning their first joint vigneron venture at the age of 24.

What followed was not complacency in their new purchase, but a need to source more inspiration and education; this presented itself in the form of harvests with legendary Burgundian winemakers Dominique Lafon (2017) and Cecile Tremblay (2018) . Both winemakers are known to craft wines of extraordinary finesse but also focusing strongly on impeccable viticulture, certainly Lafon presented a different challenge from Tremblay: Cecile follows her own lead, spending countless hours carefully measuring taste, texture and structures of both grapes and juice to ensure absolute perfection; Dominique has honed his methods through decades of experience and was one of the early champions of biodynamics in Burgundy, a much larger, but still superlative domaine. Both experiences shaped and honed the views of Lara and Luisa, and in 2019 the first vintage of LaLu was born.

Viticulture & Vinification

Today LaLu organically farms 5 hectares of Nebbiolo and Barbera from choice sites within Monforte and La Morra. Such inspiring experiences with their varied mentors left them compelled to treat both their vineyards and their fruit with exceptional care, to the point that there are no pumps, no punch-downs, and all juice is moved through the winery by gravity flow. As they largely tend to the notoriously tough, tannic and acidic Nebbiolo grape, a soft touch can work wonders to allow a finished Nebbiolo wine to be approachable at a relatively young age. With an eye to finer tannins and more elegance, the grapes are now entirely de-stemmed - they did experiment with partial whole-cluster, but prefer the more delicate structure of forgoing the clusters - and there will be no punch-downs. With an emphasis on delicacy of handling the grapes, as many whole berries are retained as possible; this allows for semi-carbonic maceration, with the eventual effect of a brilliant lift to the wine and its aromatics as well.

With time within their small cantina that they acquired in 2019, team LaLu allows for spontaneous fermentations and will do "pumpovers", sans the pump of course - juice is methodically removed and poured by hand over the top of the grapes - twice per day, just to wet the cap. Macerations vary from 2 weeks to 30 days, and for the Barolo, the cap will be submerged for 30 days, preserving the natural fruit character. Very little press juice is added, generally only in lighter years such as 2022 & 2023, and even then only the most delicate, first-press juice. Again with an emphasis on delicacy, the aging is shorter; after vinification where all plots are fermented separately, the wines will be blended just 7-8 months after harvest (excepting the Barolo) and one year after harvest are bottled. The wines will age in bottle another 5 months before leaving the winery. For the Barolo, which by law must be aged in oak, the duo feels Nebbiolo does not favor small barrels, and the wine will ferment and age in at least 15 hL conical oak casks.

The early returns have been beautiful, from the Barbera to the Langhe Nebbiolo: the Lalu wines are extraordinarily approachable, delicious and bright. With the release of the 2020 vintage, the Barolo comes into the fold; Lara asserts that the wines would be ready to drink earlier than laws permit, as they are not the brutish, burly, structured Barolo but wines of finesse and finer tannins. Joining their friends and compatriots Philine Isabelle and Tom Meyers, LaLu provides another beautiful side of Piedmont to our collection of talented producers!

Vineyards, more so maybe than wine ran in Didier's family ...

Didier Fornerol

Several generations had farmed his land in the humble parts of the Cote de Nuits, but he didn't inherit the vines until after 16 years' time working alongside de Smet at L'Arlot, where he watched a master at work, creating sumptuous and soulful wines in a classic method.  Didier has applied all that knowledge to his family's wines: Says Noah, "This is truly masterful, whole-cluster winemaking - all the crunchy fruit, savory aromatics...I'm in awe"

He's applied all of his knowledge to his family's wines: Says Noah, "This is truly masterful, whole-cluster winemaking - all the crunchy fruit, savory aromatics...I'm in awe - maybe it's not appropriate to compare producers, but in Didier's wines I almost feel Jacques Seyesses' influence here." He drifts off as memories seep back in. "Actually, my first trip to Burgundy, we ended up at L'Arlot, tasting with de Smet, at which point L'Arlot was a hidden gem of sorts and it sank into my brain." Now those have blown straight up and his former mentee is the hidden gem. "I guess they aren't a true secret," Noah laments, "But they just aren't expensive. Maybe we're just lucky. I don't know. Drink 'em while you can!"

Didier has about 1.2 hectares total of white grapes, both Aligoté and Chardonnay. The white wines are fermented with minimal intervention, and the Bourgogne Blanc as well as the Cote de Nuits-Villages Blanc see about 20% new oak.

The reds typically have a great influence of whole-cluster fermentation, as Noah alluded to, and are all fermented in barrel - about 10% of which is new. Fornerol's plots are mostly in the Cote de Nuits-Villages. The Bourgogne Rouge , and is a beautiful intro to the range, red and dark-fruited with delicate spice. The Hautes-Cotes de Nuits-Villages has a more pronounced stony mineral tone, and is brighter as the elevation here is the highest of all his vineyards. There are two Cote de Nuits-Villages reds; the flagship wine comes from about 3.7 hectares of family land with about 40 year-old vines on average. Red- and dark-fruited, perfectly laced with minerals and subtle spice, and perfectly silky texture. The Rue des Foins comes from a nearby vineyard, but from a 0.5 hectare plot that Fornerol and de Smet found to consistently produce higher-quality fruit - expect a darker hue, more concentrated flavors, really just that extra notch more intensity.