France's New Faces

Young leaders take on the problems of Old World winemaking

Per-Henrik Mansson
Posted: September 30, 2003

Jean-Louis Chave recognizes the benefits of modern winemaking techniques without the disregarding the values of tradition. Winemaker Profiles: Jean-Charles Boisset Pierre-Yves Colin Jean-Louis Chave Isabelle Coustal Stéphane Derenoncourt Philippe Guigal Laurence Faller Jean-Guillaume Prats Pierre Perrin Claire Villars

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Jean-Louis Chave
Building on half-millenium of tradition

Jean-Louis Chave walks a tightrope between tradition and innovation at one of the oldest family-owned domaines in France, where he balances respect for history and a sound grasp of modern winemaking to create collectible Hermitages in the Northern Rhône.

"The paradox is that I am young but I want tradition to live and continue," says Chave, 35, the winemaker of a domaine that's been passed from father to son since 1481.

Domaine Jean-Louis Chave, named after an ancestor, occupies a modest building in Mauve, a hamlet about 2 miles south of Hermitage. In the labyrinth of underground cellars, the walls are covered with black, cottonlike mycelia, a fungus that thrives in moisture and that has deposited a 1-inch layer of its threadlike filaments on the decades-old bottles stocked in dark corners.

The Northern Rhône winery owns 37 acres in Hermitage -- 22 acres of Syrah produce the red Hermitage; there is a regular bottling and the Ermitage Cathelin, which is made in exceptional vintages, though Chave also made it in 2000, a less than outstanding year. Twelve acres of Marsanne and Roussanne make an age-worthy white. The domaine makes only 3,800 cases each year, but Chave manages the global demand for his wines with Zen-like calm.

Chave is not much for cell phones and e-mails and doesn't envy flying enologists. He doesn't want to expand greatly beyond the nearby appellation of St.-Joseph, where he's planted 7.4 acres, and a small négoce business, JL Chave Sélection, created in 1995, which makes two reds, the Côtes du Rhône Mon Coeur and the St.-Joseph Offerus (5,000 cases each).

But though Chave grew up in Mauve, he hasn't limited his horizons to the Rhône Valley. He earned an MBA in 1991 at the University of Hartford, in Connecticut. Then he went to the University of California, Davis, where he learned about the "science of wine," he says, before returning home to assume winemaking duties in 1992. And in August, he tied the knot between the New and Old worlds when he married American Erin Cannon, 32, a former employee of Chave's U.S. importer, Kermit Lynch.

Chave's U.S. experience deepened his respect for France's traditional terroirs, and he came back with a passionate commitment to extract the best from Hermitage, which is one of France's most ancient appellations. "I realized I was part of these hillside vineyards," he says.

Chave distilled the essentials of his American experience to help improve the estate-bottled Hermitages. His father's unfiltered wines sometimes turned earthy and gamy with age. The son doesn't fine or filter either, but to avoid off aromas, he installed temperature-controlled fermentation vats, some made of stainless steel, others of wood.

"My goal isn't to make huge, hyperconcentrated reds," says Chave, whose wines impress with their elegant balance between natural acidity, tannins and vibrant fruit. Blending is a tradition in Hermitage, and his father, Gérard, 67, taught Chave the art of assembling their red from the seven parcels the domaine owns on the Hermitage hill, each of which is vinified and aged separately.

Chave is on intimate terms with nature. He doesn't just work in the vineyards, he resides in them. His house is situated on the Hermitage hill, and the house, L'Hermite ("hermit"), seems like an appropriate address for the somewhat reclusive artisan grower. "People say I am always in the vineyards, but when I come home, I see them differently; it's like a big garden, and very peaceful."

He loves to fish and hunt game. After he and his father returned from Scotland with a dozen woodcocks, they matched them with a Chave red Hermitage from 1952. "That's what old bottles are for," says the younger Chave.

Chave warns against embracing the new for its own sake. He believes the past can be an ally in meeting the future, and his success proves that consumers will embrace an authentic expression of origin.

Isabelle Coustal
A gentle woman takes on tough challenges

Starting your own winery may be the American way, but it isn't how it usually works in France. Yet every generation has its pioneers, and Isabelle Coustal was determined to fulfill her dream, even if it meant living on a shoestring for years.

The belt tightening was part of the business plan, but the bureaucratic hurdles and personal sacrifices were harder to digest. "Compared to the dream, it wasn't all a dance on roses," says Coustal, who was 33 years old when she and her husband, Laurent, paid $750,000 for Château Sainte-Eulalie in southern France's Languedoc region in 1996.

The couple had first visited the estate in the early 1980s, when they were studying enology in Toulouse, France. By the time they bought it, they had three young children. "The domaine was like a fourth child," says Coustal.

The estate is located in the Minervois region, in a commune, La Livinière, that was granted AOC status in 1999. Last year, they bought new vineyards, expanding from 61 acres to 84. The domaine is planted mostly on clay and limestone soils, covered with moisture-retaining pebbles and exposed to the south. Syrah and Grenache make up 60 percent of the vineyards; the rest is Carignane and Cinsault. The estate averages 15,000 cases a year.

Coustal manages the estate largely by herself; Laurent, 42, kept a job as enologist in Bordeaux, about 185 miles away, to help support the family and pay the bank loan that enabled the couple to buy the estate.

"The kids have gotten used to not seeing their father very much, but they enjoy a lot of quality time together," says the mother.

The diminutive Coustal has shoulder-length, brown-blond hair and wears a flowing, flowery summer dress. Her voice often drops to a whisper, and Laurent interrupts her with the admonition, "Speak up, Isabelle!"

Her achievements, however, speak loudly enough. Born in Bordeaux, not far from Château Haut-Brion in the suburb of Pessac-Léognan, and with relatives who own vines elsewhere in France, she decided to become an enologist. She gained invaluable experience as a consulting winemaker for 13 years, advising cooperatives, négociants and growers in Bordeaux, but the work only fueled her dream to own a winery. "There is something frustrating to always give advice and not make your own wine, from A to Z," she says.

Starting from scratch means that some investments still remain financially out of reach for Coustal, but at the same time, she didn't inherit a family domaine with rigid traditions. As a result, she's been free to seek new solutions to old problems.

To soften the tannins of the area's rustic wines, she embraced a cutting-edge method known as micro-bubbling, or micro-bullage, in which oxygen bubbles are released in the fermenting must from a tube pushed through the cap of solids that forms in the vats. The plush texture of the 2001 Château Sainte-Eulalie Minervois La Livinière La Cantilène, her top wine, reflects her success with this method, which she began using in 1998.

Other challenges were less technical and more personal, such as earning the respect of her local field hands, all men. "There is still a macho spirit, and it wasn't always easy to make myself respected," she says, but adds, "Women are innate managers." Her success was capped in 2001, when she was elected to the local government board, a victory she proudly describes as a symbol of integration for her family in their new community.

When she's not running the domaine, Coustal is a serious photographer. "I like to photograph the seasons in the vineyards and people's faces," she says, sitting underneath a family picture taken in Sainte-Eulalie's vineyards. She also loves to hike in the Pyrenees and other mountains that can be seen from her vineyards.

Passion is a leitmotiv in her career and life, and she adores listening as Norah Jones and other favorite female vocalists translate their deepest feelings with their voices. "If we didn't have a passion for wine, we wouldn't have done it," Coustal says of the start-up. "But personally, I would do it again."

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