Dom Jean David, Seguret CDR 09 (5/6)

"I put the afternoon sun's fierce glow at my back as I pedaled uphill to Domaine Jean David near Séguret, who caught my attention with their "vin biologique" sign, and I wondered what I'd find. After all, good terroir and organically grown grapes only take you so far, and I'd never heard of the domaine, knew no rep. As it happens, I'd stumbled into a domaine committed to using indigenous yeasts only, rejecting all stabilizers and enzymes, fermenting without mechanical temperature control, and bottling with a minimum of sulfur — and in the case of one bottling, none at all. In other words, the Davids (yes, they are a family-run domaine) pursue a natural winemaking regime, although they don't advertise it as such. Mme Marine David greeted me and took me through a tasting. She explained that the Davids ferment and age their wines solely in cement. If a barrel helps tame a red wine's tannins, a cement tank is apt to emphasize them, and the tannins in the traditionally made reds are certainly untamed. They resolve at their own pace and are expressed differently in each wine. (The Davids could inoculate with a lab yeast that's designed to smooth the tannins, but obviously they do not.) Soils here are primarily argilo-calcaire, clay with limestone. 2009 Côtes du Rhône: This young wine is strongly tannic and to my taste needs time, although it already shows fresh raspberries, good structure, and decent acidity. Vine age averages 30 years and it's a blend of 50% grenache and 25% each carignan and syrah. 2008 Séguret Côtes du Rhône Villages: The medium-bodied Séguret is a step up from the above CdR, as it shows better acidity, more complexity, and a greater sense of soil, with garrigue and licorice aspects. The average age of the vines is 50 years and while more grenache is used (68%) the Davids blend in a wider array of grapes: syrah, cinsault, counoise, and mourvèdre. Jean David in Seguret – or how not to meet a wine maker Jean David has been organic as long as anyone down here in Provence. From a family of vignerons just under the ridiculously picturesque village of Seguret, he makes a wide range of wine for which I should have allowed a good couple of hours. It was just before a crazy weekend down here, with major wine gigs in three villages. The Hospices at Gigondas was doing a tasting of the 2009 vintage. Then there was a big wine market at Cairanne. Finally, the village of Rasteau was running its second EcriVin voyageur at which I’d been asked to »animate » a discussion of six travel writers about their take on wine and travel. So, my phone kept ringing as Jean was pouring. I was just grabbing of snippets of sensations, the antithesis of what wine is all about. It shows disrespect. Jean is a marvelous fellow with a wonderful face, especially when the late afternoon sun does to its contours what it does out in the vines. So, I’ll be back, without my phone next time. Wines tasted (with Emmanuel Imbert of Dvins, in Lyon): Rousanne 2009 Vin de Table (rich and fruity); le Rose de Janot (made from half a dozen varieties, very floral; 2008 Seguret rouge (« the mildew was a brothel, but the organic products are getting better » – again, made from many varieties and rich and generous for that year); 2007 Seguret rouge (although opened a few days earlier, it had a delicate nose, delightfully mouth filling. I had to leave before the end of the tasting." Some quotes « What’s the main thing? That my family has been working these vines for three generations. After that comes the terroir and the rest. » « I let the young vines do what they want to do, don’t hold them back too much. It’s like people. You have to let the young ones express themselves. I put the grapes into the Cotes du Rhone, not the Seguret. » « I don’t like technology. I prefer to be instinctive, and to observe. We are never sheltered from all the things that can happen. We have to leave a bit to chance. It’s pretentious to think that we can master everything.