Long Road Louisville to Saint-Jean-de-Minervois

It’s a long path from Louisville, Ky., to Saint-Jean-de-Minervois in Southern France. But that’s the journey Brown University graduate John Bojanowski took in transformation from literature major to Languedoc winery owner.

Bojanowski was recently in Indianapolis to promote his Clos du Gravillas wines and visit family in Kentucky. His journey is an interesting one as is the unique Languedoc wine he champions.

The wine event was at Tastings in Indianapolis at the Conrad downtown.

Bojanowski attended prestigious Brown University in Providence, RI., and wanted to travel. He landed a job in the computer industry that took him to 50 countries in five years. During that time he met Nicole who wanted to be a winemaker. They went in search of just the right property to open their winery. 

John Bojanowski at Indy's Tastings

“When my wife started she wanted white limestone gravel, which is what our soil is because you get freshness and minerality out of that to balance what the sun does to the grapes,” he explained. “But Carignan was what we started with because that’s what she was able to buy. “

Their property included Carignan planted in 1911. Carignan is an often-maligned grape. It is a dark-colored and strong flavored wine. Some will even call the nose offensive and the taste can be strong. But the old vine Carignans can produce deeply flavored and rich wines. Small amounts of Carignan is consistently found in most Languedoc blends.

“We discovered that Carignan could be more than just okay. It can be really, really good. We’ve made it our purpose to tell everybody about it.”

Clos du Gravillas is a small production winery featuring wines made from 15 different grapes. “So it’s sort of like being an artist with 15 different colors on the palette. We try to figure out what each of those grapes are best for and how we can make it the best wine.”

The Languedoc is the largest wine-producing region of France.

“The Languedoc is on the Mediterranean. It’s between the Rhone River and Spain. Our winery is three hours form Barcelona and six hours from Paris. It’s sunny, beautiful and rain free almost all summer. You find very different terrain when you go a half hour drive in any direction from sea to flatlands to plateaus to mountains. It’s a beautiful place and wine grapes have been grown there for 2,000 years.”

The warm weather, the region averages 315 days of sunshine a year, produces ripe fruit. “We pick the grapes ripe which means a certain amount of sugar, a certain amount of alcohol, so they’re not little wines. We practice very natural and organic farming and then natural non-interventionist winemaking, and fermentations.  We try not to do too much besides getting really great grapes, putting them into the tank and letting them become wine.”

Clos du Gravillas wines are available in some Indiana restaurants and fine wine shops. John’s wines are above the value price points usually featured in Grape Sense. His wines are in $30-$50 range.

Languedoc wines are widely available in the $12-$16 range. Finding a 100 percent Carignan isn’t impossible but could be difficult; it will be worth the effort.

Howard’s Picks:

Le Rendez Vous du Soleil 2007 - This is a nice extracted blend of Cabernet, Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, Counoise, Tannat, Terret Gris, and Carignan. This is big rich red wine that is beautifully balanced with big dark fruit. (SRP $42)

Lo Vielh Carignan 2007 - This is the real star in John's stable and the supply alloted Indiana has already sold out. This is the 100 percent Carignan from vines planted more than 100 years ago. Its a big incredible wine that has a smoothness unlike many Carignan wines. It's outstanding fine wine. ($25-35)

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

Young Guns Boosting Organic Wine Growth

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE – There are 587 wineries from around the world participating in the 19th Millesime Bio here and there seems to be just as many stories.

Men of 70 and 80 years old with domaine and chateau names which just sound historic are plentiful. But you also see the young guns. There are a substantial number of 30-something and even 20-something year old winemakers. Some are following in their father’s footsteps while others sought out the life of vineyard work and winemaking on their own.


Cyril Bonnet

Cyril Bonnet is a very young winemaker with a very long history. He is the seventh generation to make wine. Most of that history is in Champagne where his father and family still live making the iconic bubbly at Chateau Bonnet-Ponson. But Cyril wanted to go out on his own and now has Chateau Bonnet in Villaudric, just northwest of Toulouse.

Bonnet is one of those 587 producers trying to make a name for himself. He grows an odd little variety most outside of Southwestern France have never heard of before. He blends Negrette with other more common varietals and even makes a 100 percent Negrette wine.

Being a young winemaker at 28 with an obscure grape means marketing is important. He also is a believer in organic practices and is fully certified.

"It’s very, very important, to be exported to the clients and be here at Millesime Bio,” Bonnet said. “If you can’t come to this type of fair it’s impossible to make contact to customers. My father told me this one is important because it’s very professional, very simple and we love it.

“Maybe 30 years ago it was possible to make it just working in your vineyard with what you sell there at the farm. But now maybe 50 percent of the work is to go to find customers and the other 50 percent is to make a good wine.”

Bonnet is serious about organics and grew up knowing nothing else. His father started organic practices in Champagne in 1979. “My father is very sensitive to all ecology and puts more of an emphasis on being all organic. I agree with this position, but I don’t like the extreme side when it goes toward biodynamic.”

The wines were interesting. I liked the Negrette grape and it definitely has a different flavor profile. The wine was light on the palate and it made for very drinkable red table wine. Bonnet is producing about 2,200 cases of wine each year.

I was able to do 6 interviews and get a lot done today for future blogs, Palate Press, and the newspaper column. I am getting together with U.S. importer of organic wines Paul Chartrand, who works out of Maine, to taste our way through more wineries Wednesday.

Another Young Gun

Luigi Di Tuccio

Antica Enotria - Luigi Di Tuccio was handing the pouring, sales, and marketing chores mid afternoon at his family winery's table. He could also be described as a young guy. He was worked every aspect of the business with his father. His father was one of first in Italy's Puglia to make the move to organics and became a leader in the region.

The winery has some great varietals that aren't household names - Nero di Troia, Aglianico and white wine grape Falanghina. His wines are available on both coasts. The family makes approximately 8,000 cases annually.

Other stops ...

Romain Bouchard - Two young brothers with no real family history in the wine business decided to buy a winery that had gone out of business in the Chablis region. They are now making two Chablis and have found some success with wines being exported to New York.

Chateau de Fosse Seche - This fun young couple are making wines in trhe Loire Valley's famed Samur region. I tasted their Samur Chenin Blanc and found it not as light as others I'd enjoyed but sure tasty. They also had a very nice Cabernet Franc.

Sitios De Bodega - This started out as a case of mistaken identy. I was looking for a winery I would find later then the language barrier with a Spanish woman and my confusion gave us a laugh. I ended up tasting and liking her first vintage of Verdejo which I liked very much. Export manager Alejandra Sanz was a good sport, with pretty good English, in telling me about the new effort.

Domaine de Picheral - Boxed wine in France seems a pretty ridiculous opposites attract kind of thing. But I've seen lots of boxed wines at the fair. I approach with my typical Tew Parl Ongleah? "Do you speak English?" to get two shaing heads and plenty of laughs for the three of us. What the heck, we used hand signals and pointing - a universal language - to taste a pretty darn good Rose, and a rather forgettable red. It was fun.

Ploder-Rosenberg - Austrian winemaker Freddy Ploder was the most congenial host of the day. The short, stout man was an enthusiastic wine tour guide through is tasting. Sharing just the right amount of wine geek talk, history, and good humor. I liked the entire line. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc ... with several of he wines done in different winemaking styles.

As I wrote yesterday, I visited quite a few more wineries but these were the most interesting stops. And I visited several and did interviews which will turn up in future writing.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com

A Full Immersion into Organic Wine World

I've downloaded the French language app to my iPhone and buried my nose in more than a few articles on organic wine. Next week I'll be attending the 19th Millesime Bio wine trade show on organic wines in Montpellier, France.

The Millesime Bio brings together wineries and members of the worldwide distribution network in a private trade fair. This year organizers expect 600 exhibitors from countries all over the world, drawing some of the world's leading wholesalers, brokers, wine merchants, sommeliers, caterers, and importers.

And like any such show, there will be a small number of wine journalists there as well. I will be attending, with a group of Northern European wine journalists, as guests of The Inter-professional Association of Organic Wines from Languedoc-Roussillon.

France's often overlooked Languedoc-Roussillon region, in southern France, is one of the leading organic grape-growing areas in the world. The region has 50,000 hectares under organic prodcution in 2010. That's 124,000 acres for you non-metric types.

Exhibitors pouring their wines will come from all over the world. The annual gathering also includes presentations and talks on organic wine laws and growing practices.

I'll have more later in the week. But I do intend to update throughout my time in France on Twitter, Facebook, and nightly updates here.

I'm blessed to have Veronique Raskin of The Organic Wine Company in San Francisco and Paul Chartrand of Chartrand Imports helping make the trip possible and arranging a few big highlights. The conference runs Jan. 23-25, but Raskin and Chartrand have arranged for me to visit three wineries on Thursday of that week before returning. I'll visit with founders of the Languedoc organic movement and the AIVB president.

It's quite exciting to visit southern France and be immersed in the worldwide discussion on organically grown grapes.

Send comment or questions to: hewitthoward@gmail.com