Organico ergo je fume* – I'm bio therefore I smoke

 

AC Touraine vineyard blitzed with weedkiller 

– Loire UNESCO World Heritage site...

I have a great deal of sympathy and respect for producers who chose to farm their vineyards organically or biodynamically. In the Loire an increasing number of producers are now choosing to convert to organic viticulture joining a significant number of their colleagues who have already made this decision.

Equally I deplore the use of weedkillers, especially when vineyards are totally blitzed, although I do understand the economic imperative in appellations, such as parts of Touraine, where wine fetches a low price. Here it isn't just the producer who bears a responsibility but also the commercial wine buyer and us wine consumers looking to buy very cheap wine.

So in no way is this a post knocking organic viticulture or its adherents. I am genuinely puzzled and astonished that so many organic wine producers smoke. Producers who wouldn't dream of poisoning their vineyards appear to think nothing of lighting up and poisoning themselves. 

It is not as though the health risks of smoking are not widely known. My guess is that at least as much research has been done into the effects of smoking as they have into the use of weedkillers. Smokers in the 1940s and 1950s could argue that they didn't know the seriously increased health risks that smoking brings. Today this is no longer possible.

My question 'why do fervent organic wine producers smoke?' was brought into sharp focus when I recently visited friends and family of the late Charly Foucault, who died of lung cancer at the end of December 2015 aged 68.  I am pretty confident that if Charly hadn't smoked he would still be alive today.

I was shocked that despite Charly's death from smoking a number of his friends and family still smoke. You would imagine that Charly's fate would be more than enough to shock them into giving up smoking before it is too late. Apparently not!

Back in January 2016 I posted a similar reflection on Jim's Loire here.

Do the strains and stresses associated with organic viticulture drive its producers to seek relief in smoking? Is smoking more prevalent amongst organic wine producers than amongst those who practise conventional viticulture?

Your thoughts are most welcome.

* Abject apologies to René Descartes for trashing his famous dictum.

Next time you light a cigarette remember Charly!

The late Charly Foucault

At the annual French Wine Discoveries tasting in London I learn that it was lung cancer that had very sadly killed Charly Foucault at the end of 2015. 

I can't say I was surprised – it confirmed my suspicion that it was lung cancer that had killed smoker Charly.

Millésime Bio starts in Montpellier on Monday. As usual a good number of the organic growers will cluster around the entrances and exits to the exhibition halls dragging on a quick cigarette. 

It is tragically sad, ironic and shockingly paradoxical that people like Charly Foucault and so many other organic growers, who rightly refuse to use to use toxic chemicals in their vineyard, risk killing themselves with the toxins from cigarettes.

Next time you go to light up please remember Charly.

••• 

Unfortunately my time at the French Wine Discoveries was decidedly limited this year as I had a lunch appointment to discuss fraud. Here are a few wines I picked out – Muscadet was strongly represented at the tasting with the Cru Communaux especially impressive.


Véronique Günther Chereau showed two – a Gorges, which has been officially recognised, and a Monnières Saint Fiacre, whose recognition is still in the pipeline and seems to have been for an inordinately long time. Both spent 36 months on the lees and showed well but will be even better with some more time in bottle.

Véronique told me that she is finding an increasing demand for the these wines – both in France and on exports markets like the USA and Belgium and they have doubled the volume of the cru communaux they now produce.

I wasn't surprised to learn that the UK isn't showing the same interest – sadly we remain a market that is too focused on price. Yes the cru communaux are a little more expensive than most Muscadets but for their quality and complexity they are great value.   

I was also impressed by the texture of the 2013 Clos de l'Alouette, Domaine Plessis Glain from vines planted on schist. It spent 18 months on the lees and although a little tight in the finish at the moment clearly has potential.
 
 

2012 Gorges, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine

  Véronique Günther Chereau

 2012 Monnières Saint Fiacre  Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, 

Véronique Günther Chereau 

2013 Clos de l'Alouette, Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine, 

Domaine Plessis Glain

2014 Menetou-Salon Blanc, Domaine de Loye

       2014 Touraine Sauvignon, Vincent Lacour 

To my surprise I made in new discovery in Saint-Georges-sur-Cher (just five kilometres north of Epeigné-les-Bois) – Vincent Lacour in the hamlet of Vrigny.  

More detailed notes to be added tomorrow.