Vincent Girault is a true pioneer of biodynamic viticulture, practicing this system long before it was either fashionable or really practical. In 1992, well before the new global warming paradigm that we are familiar with today, just having a decent vintage was anything but sure. MILLESIME is proud to represent Vincent's wines some of the most delightful (and affordable) biodynamic examples available!
Here is a translation from Vincent's website, where he explains his history and philosophy:
THE WINE PYRAMID
To me, wine is a pyramid. it comprises four sides: the terroir (soil and sub-soil), the climate, the varietals and the agriculture; the vigneron is the grand architect of this wine pyramid. In truth, the four sides are not equal and the terroir remains the most important in its relation to the planted varietal. No great wine without great terroir. No good wine without a good agriculture.
A VIGNERON FAMILY
My family has been in the vines and the wine business since 1854. More than 150 years between the vines, the négoce, brokerage, cooperage: the family genes are impregnated with tastes and flavors, but also gestures and the feeling of the harvest … In 1971 my parents stopped their négoce of Loire wines to devote themselves entirely to their original 10 ha domaine, the Clos de la Briderie, clay-limestone terroir.
Personally, with the help of my parents, I got involved in 1978 by buying the original 14 ha of the Chateau Gaillard property. I was 18 years old and I started out by removing all of the vines that were too mixed in terms of varietals, non-aligned, and those that had suffered enough from the three dormant years that preceded my taking over the domaine. The 8 hectares of old gamay that remained produced Touraine-Mesland rouge that won a gold medal at the Concours Général Agricole de Paris.
CHATEAU GAILLARD
I finished my oenological and viticultural studies before returning to live definitively at Chateau Gaillard in 1982. The domaine is situated on Miocene sands, where the gamay excels in red with its peppery and spicy notes, and in rose with its notes of berries and candy. After regrouping the parcels, purchasing additional vineyards, and replanting, the domaine reached its current size of 30 ha in 1991. Many things were also improved in the cellar in terms of equipment over those years.
THE GRAPE, THE TERROIR: THE BASIS OF GOOD WINE
Basically, like good cooking, the wine that pleases us all always comes from good ripe grapes. All basic, nothing but and it's still quite a lot. On this adequacy which is simple but far from being simplistic, I turned first to the specialists of terroirs in France. My method was to plant the cepages of my appellation where they would do best on my terroirs in Mesland. After a study of my terroirs made in 1990, I replanted 17 ha with all of the cepages of my AOC on the best terroirs that I had purchased and assembled from about thirty different owners.
MY CHOICE OF BIODYNAMIC VITICULTURE
It was also at the end of 1990 that I oriented myself toward biodynamic viticulture. Why? I had a "flash" during a visit to Egypt and the comprehension of the lost knowledge from the time of the pharoahs, in addition to the explanations of my late Father-in-law regarding the rhythms of the animal and vegetable worlds, and finally meeting one of the first biodynamists in France, Mr. François Bouchet. It has been twenty years since I began to practice this powerful agriculture, based on the understanding of nature, and it is for me very satisfying. Many consumers also have been happy to purchase our biodynamic wines and to discover their flavors, their digestible quality, and the "food-pleasure force" that they provide.
In 1994 my parents converted the 10 ha of the Clos de la Briderie to biodynamism and I work the property since 2000 when my parents took their well-earned retirement. I propose these wines to my private customers, the local restaurateurs, and also to foreign importers who also sell to nice restaurants.
MY NEW DOMAINES
In 2007, I bought the Cailloux vineyard in Onzain, situated on a flinty terroir and I have begun the work of restructuring and replanting, going from 14 to 20 ha. This property is in biodynamic conversion since the spring of 2008.
Then in 2008, a chance discovery, I crossed the Loire went down the river and found 4 ha in AOC Montlouis, reputed Chenin blanc terroir. in biodynamic conversion since the spring of 2008.
Here Vincent describes biodynamism at length:
BIODYNAMIC GROWING IS ABOVE ALL PROTECTING THE SOIL
Balance has to be assured while creating harmonious conditions between the earth, the plant and the environment. For the past dozen years, the number of domaines that are converting to biodynamic practice are in constant growth.
A FAD? A PASSING FANCY? NO, A REAL AWAKENING FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR EARTH
Conventional agriculture, marked by its course toward so-called profitability and the constant requirement of ever-increasing productivity, has proven to be a huge consumer of substances that are dangerous for plants and animals. The use of chemical herbicides, insecticides, acaricides, systemic poisons (penetrating into the circulatory system of the plant) completely destroys the balance of the soil and the environment. By killing the insects, one also wipes out their natural predators. With herbicides, the soil dies and compacts, the roots thus stay close the the surface leaving the plant among other things more sensitive to the climate and isolating it from the terroir. Synthetic chemical fertilizers contribute to the salinity of the soil, sterilizing it and inducing vigor and a level of production that is contrary to quality. In addition, these substances pollute the water tables...
Biodynamic winegrowers have made this choice because they have understood that the use of all of these products ends up wrecking the balance of their vineyards' ecosystems and harming the fertility of their land. These "peasants" who were the first to refuse to mistreat their land are no longer seen as extraterrestrials. Soon, they will cease to be seen as marginal, for the results are there to see.
BIODYNAMISM, A CULTURE THAT GOES BEYOND
Among "organic" practices, biodynamism is unique in its consideration of astral influences and the rhythm of nature, and by the use of homeopathic-type vegetal preparations whose purpose is to restore balance and to revitalize the vegetation rather than to treating it when it gets sick.
Proposed in 1924 in response to the worries of farmers who already saw the dangers to their land, biodynamism is a growing method that goes far beyond simply excluding the use of synthetic chemical products.
The principles were defined in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner. They can be resumed in the following three points:
- Valorization of the soil and the plant in its natural environment with preparations derived from animal, vegetable and mineral matter;
- The application of these preparations at precise moments during the yearly cycle: this is the "dynamic" part. It recognizes that the earth, in its largest sense (bedrock, workable soil and aerial environment), is an entire organism. Nature thus behaves like a doctor who chooses, to treat its patients, specific treatments which unleash the life forces;
- The working of the soil by plowing.
These steps support:
- the improvement of the quality of the soil by the presence of a large variety of bacteria;
- better rooting for the plant, with longer and denser roots;
- better development of the leaves and the flowers providing the necessary energy for a harmonious fruiting.
BIODYNAMISM IN VITICULTURE
The wine domaine, as with any agricultural domaine is considered to be a living organism. The cultivated soil is not simply a support for the vine but also a living space, it is a source of energy for the plant like the aerial environment.
Thus the vine - the organism in the middle - creates and nourishes its terroir in the inhabited, living milieu that surrounds the roots. The exchanges between the the biology of the soil, the root system and the leaf system permit the expression of the terroir in the grapes, where the terroir's flavors are sublimated.
The viticultural practice needs to be very elaborate to compensate for the inherent risk of this monoculture.
BIODYNAMIC PREPARATIONS
They come from transformed animal, vegetable and mineral matter.
- Dung compost supports and reinforces the process of decomposition of the earth. It contains all of the elements that help the formation of the clay-humic complex. A large number and variety of bacteria are found in it.
- Preparation 500, horn dung (cow dung packed in a cow horn and buried over a winter) acts on the plant. It reinforces the subterranean life. Its effectiveness has been confirmed by numerous experiments: the roots are longer, denser, and more spread out.
- Preparation 501, horn silica (ground quartz crystals mixed with rain water and packed in a cow horn, buried in spring and dug up in the fall) helps the development of the leaves, the balance of the flowers and the necessary energy for a good and full fruiting.
These 3 must be 'dynamized' (a process where the preparation is spun in water first in one direction, then the other - creating 'chaos' in the mixture) before application.
Other preparations, made of yarrow, chamomile, nettle, oak bark, dandelion and valerian have all undergone transformations - fermentations in the presence of animal organs for some - increasing their powers and transforming them into humus with specific qualities.
These preparations are indispensable, they help the penetration of the composts and orient the fermentations for the balance and harmony of the soil and the plant.
TERRESTRIAL AND LUNAR RHYTHMS
Solar rhythms, day and night or the seasons as well as lunar rhythms are familiar to us. For 10 years, the experiments conducted by Maria Thun have enabled us to see cosmic influences on the growth of plants. These seem connected to the positions of the moon, the sun, and the planets in relation to the constellations.
A calendar, tied to these observations was created. The effectiveness of labors and treatments of the vine can be maximized by the choice of the dates of intervention. It should be said that for thousands of years, every good farmer has paid attention to to the solar and lunar rhythms!
Here at MILLESIME we currently have these wines from Vincent in stock:
2010 Touraine Sauvignon blanc
2009 Touraine-Mesland Blanc
NV Crémant de Loire "Clémence Guéry"
