The Wicklow Wine Company Newsletter

Exclusive Interview with Jean-Claude Lapalu

How is your Nouveau made? Is it a semi-carbonic maceration, as with La Tentation, at what temperature and for how long do you ferment?
Full bunches of grapes are given 100% carbonic maceration for eight to twelve days at 22 – 25 degrees. The whole process is totally normal, with no added sulphur, yeast or sugars. Nearly everyone else heats up to 60 – 70 degrees and then cools, the wine is sulphured up and given only three to four days maceration for colour extraction and to save time. Therefore the wines are all the same.

The received wisdom in Ireland is that Nouveau should be drunk very young and quickly – how long do you think the 2006 will hold and will it develop in the bottle?

As with all wine, it is always better with a winter under its belt! It will be at its best in springtime to early summer.

Did your parents make wine, or are you the first in your family to make, as well as grow?

No, my father was a vigneron and his grapes went to the local co-op. My grandfather was a metayer he worked for another vineyard owner and was paid in produce – the wine was not bottled but remained in barrel and he would then sell this on, en tonneau, to local bars and restaurants. This practice continued up until 1950.

How long have you been making wine? Do you think that they will age well, are you holding back any stocks of older wines?

I started in 1996. I needed four or five years to empty my head, to get rid of my ideas before re-educating myself. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew what I didn’t want! If you look to do things in the cellar, you have maybe made a mistake in the vineyard. I tasted a lot and really got the buzz with some wines. Jules Chauvet was a great influence via his writing – he was an excellent maker and taster who advocated a back to basics approach. I regret not meeting him before he died.

The first year for reference is 2000, the ‘Cuvée des Fous’ is excellent now. I prefer to drink in the first four years or wait until the wines are seven or eight years old as they tend be be unbalanced in between.

Where are your vineyards located, mainly around St Etienne-la-Varenne? What sort of terroirs and aspects do they have?

They are mostly around St Etienne-la-Varenne and all within fifteen kilometres of each other. They face east to south-east, the ‘Croix des Rameaux’ is south-east and the terroir is all granite. There is 30 –40 cm of sandy soil, then schist or granite deeper.

How much land do you have in production?

Twelve hectares, seven in Beaujolais-Villages, four in Brouilly and one in Côte de Brouilly.

Are you excited about the parcel you have acquired in Côte de Brouilly?

Yes, I have thought about it a lot! I will perhaps give longer maceration times, maybe fifteen to twenty days, in demi-muids of 600 litres. I will have a big fridge to cool the grapes down to 10°C and will hold them there for three to four days in a kind of pre-maceration cold.

How old are the vines and what condition is the vineyard in?

The vines are sixty to eighty years old and the vineyard is in good condition, but I always try to improve the health of a vineyard. All my lands are in conversion to biodynamic and this will take another three years.

Which is more important to you as a maker, terroir or technique?

Terroir! It is why we plough and wish vines to descend to get to goodness below!

You produce six cuvées; do you want to do more, or less?

I’ll leave it the same, I am just happy to be able to make my wines the way I do, without any problems, that’s the objective.

Are the named cuvées made differently from the others?

Yes. For the ‘Fous’ and the 'Rameaux’ we pick on the 20th of September (for the others, we pick at the end of the first week in September for the Nouveau, the second week for ‘La Tentation’ and then the rest, except for the ‘Rang du Merle’, for that we pick between the 10th and the 15th of October). They have the same vinification- the grapes are de-stemmed and put into the cuvée with nothing added. I follow the odours and in the first ten days will do a remontage (pumping-over) perhaps three times. From day ten, when the fermentation is nearly finished we will pigeage (push down) every two days until the twentieth day and there will be another five to seven days with the press juice. Carbonic maceration is only done with whole bunches and these have been de-stemmed – if we didn’t there can be a green taste from the stem. The cuvées are stainless steel or concrete and the latter are used for the top wines: they breathe more and are easier to use. Malolactic fermentation is done in cuvée and takes place straight after, it is quick here. In December the ‘Rang du Merle” is barrelled using 25% new oak and all the wines are bottled the following August, just before the next harvest.

Are there any other producers in the region who you admire?

Yes, in Fleurie there is Yves Métras, in Chasselas in the Mâconnais, Phillipe Jambon, in Morgon, Jean Paul Thievenet and Jean Paul Brun for his Beaujolais White.

Jean-Claude Lapalu was interviewed for this article by Michael Anderson of Wicklow Wine Co.

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