Who are these “pirate” winegrowers of Bordeaux wines?

• While the primeurs have just started in Bordeaux,

  20 Minutes

  introduces you to the Bordeaux Pirate collective.

• This brings together around thirty organic Girondin winegrowers.

  Innovation is their leitmotif in order to create signature wines that are unlike any other.

• In particular, they bring old grape varieties up to date and seek to find a place for themselves between the often inaccessible grands crus and the bulk wines sold in supermarkets.

In the current context, one could almost say that Jean-Baptiste Duquesne is the Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Bordeaux vineyard.

"We want to create a third way," says the owner of Château Cazebonne in Saint-Pierre-de-Mons to sum up his Bordeaux Pirate project.

Except that here it is not between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen that you have to make room but between the top of the range and the bottom of the range of Bordeaux wines, between the grands crus and what is called " the bulk" sold by merchants, with the guideline "showing that it is possible to make and produce different wines".

When this former wine merchant, who succeeded by positioning himself on the Web in the 1990s (he is notably the founder of the reference site for cooking recipes 750g.com), launched his Facebook group Bordeaux Pirate, wines in off the beaten track in 2016, it starts from an observation.

“In the 2000s, we all drank Bordeaux but little by little, we turned away from this wine, he explains.

Today, we buy Bordeaux to store it, put it in the cellar and finally never drink it.

We no longer buy a Bordeaux to drink it the same evening.

Our wines are falling into oblivion because they have aged and above all, they are not renewed.

»

Innovate to have signature wines

Jean-Baptiste Duquesne insists on this phenomenon by specifying that it is his vision and that not everyone shares it in the industry:

“The consumer today no longer has a chapel.

He is less loyal.

He is simply guided by his curiosity and in Bordeaux, things are no longer moving.

We have a totally standardized and stereotyped wine.

Either we are on grand cru inaccessible for many, or on wines sold in bulk in supermarkets, we have completely missed the mid-range for me.

»

And it's true that "gathering together in a collective or an association was on the minds of a lot of independent winegrowers even if at the start, we weren't unanimous", continues his comrade Fabien Lapeyre.

Like around thirty other Girondin winegrowers, the latter, based in Saint-Hilaire-du-Bois, now claims the black banner with a skull underlined by two bottles of wine on the cross.

Gironde: A vineyard-forest has blossomed in the middle of Bordeaux monoculture https://t.co/67X6lSVubF via @20minutesplanet pic.twitter.com/eOU4S1odRX

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He fulfills the three criteria for being a pirate: being Girondin, grown organic and above all offering innovative things.

With Château La Peyre, he was one of the first to bring the terracotta amphora up to date instead of the traditional barrel to "go get the fruit and stay on the local side".

He also replanted La Carménère a few years ago in the Bordeaux region (there are only about ten hectares of this variety in France) or downright varieties from outside the regions such as Syrah.

“Today, we talk about it quite a bit, but some time ago, I felt very alone,” recalls Fabien Lapeyre.

The goal is to move away from the codes of the 65 controlled designations of origin and to produce signature wines according to the personality of each winemaker.

Soon a control plot with… 57 grape varieties!

Jean-Baptiste Duquesne, he decided to push this logic to the extreme.

While Bordeaux wines rely almost exclusively on two grape varieties in red (Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon), he wants to revive all the others.

“I read all the possible books on the subject and in particular what was done in our country in the 19th century.

It's simple, we have known about a hundred grape varieties (and nearly 300 in France) and to date, I have officially listed 57 of them still present in Bordeaux.

Last year, I found two more during the harvest, ”explains the one who published,

in 2021.

For five years, he has simply replanted vines (500 to 1000) of 26 different grape varieties.

But the end goal is even crazier: he will plant a control plot with a row for each of the 57 grape varieties.

Of course, not all these grapes will end up in the bottle, “I have vinified five for the moment and there will be ten more this year” he specifies.

While adding that we initially took him for a “creepy”.

But a crank that advances, which interests and unites to the point that the Bordeaux Pirate collective will soon become an association with a real charter and bottles that will be identifiable for the consumer thanks to a small logo.

“The objective is also to have better communication about our products, to highlight them, admits Fabien Lapeyre.

We are often the heads in our vines and we sometimes forget the rest.

It's good to make good wine but it's even better to sell it.

»

Planet

Gironde: A vineyard-forest has flourished in the middle of Bordeaux monoculture

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