Bio-expert speaks at auction
2005-03-24
AN exponent of the global biodynamic wine revolution is the guest speaker at the 31st Nederburg Auction in Paarl on April 9 - the controversial Frenchman Nicolas Joly.
He is the owner of Clos de la Coulée de Serrant in Savennières in the Loire Valley and was instrumental in the formation of the biodynamic movement among 75 of the world’s top winegrowers at the 2003 Vinexpo in Bordeaux.
Joly, 58, is the author of “Wine from Sky to Earth: Growing and Appreciating Biodynamic Wines” in 1996, which is available in seven languages - nine by the end of the year with Russian and Greek being added.
His book comes down to a simple question: “Taste - does it come from the appellation, or does it come from technology? Does a wine have a sense of place?”
In an era when the consumer is increasingly looking for holistic and organic alternatives, from the consumer’s perspective, there are also benefits to biodynamic wines.
They are made without pesticides and chemicals, the vintners pay meticulous attention to detail in the vineyard and the growers really believe that a vineyard’s character should be expressed in the wine - to paraphrase Ray Isle, managing editor of Wine & Spirit magazine.
“Herbicides destroy the microbial life of the soil. Without this, the vine cannot feed itself,” said Joly, who believes that vine diseases come from not respecting life forces.
Armed with a commerce degree from a commercial school in Paris and an MBA from Columbia University, Joly was a merchant banker for Morgan Guarantee Bank in New York from 1972 to 1977.
The lure of the family’s vineyard proved too strong and in 1980 he started putting the biodynamic approach into practice, converting all his vineyards by 1984.
The original vineyards on the estate, seven hectares in extent, were planted by Cistercian monks, and Coulée de Serrant is one of only three single estate appellations in France today.
Joly is often listed among the most influential winegrowers of the world. His wine, Le Clos de la Coulée de Serrant Chenin Blanc, was considered as one of the top five white wines by Curnonsky, the famous French gastronome, in the Guide Bettane Deseauve, the country’s leading wine guide.
During a blind tasting held by masters of wine and master sommeliers in Manhattan during 2004, biodynamic wines were assessed to have ‘more fine-tuned aromas and flavours’ than traditionally made wines, and found to have better expressions of terroir - the way in which a wine can represent its specific place of origin in its aroma, flavour, and texture.
Another interesting theory Joly espouses is that many wines are losing part of their capacity for ageing because of the use of genetically engineered, modified yeasts instead of natural aromatic yeasts.
More
News
|
