Ampelidae
It was some years ago that I first discovered the wines of Ampelidae, specifically the high-class range of varietal wines made from local varieties, including Le S (Sauvignon Blanc), Le C (Chardonnay), P.N. 1328 (Pinot Noir) and the wine that I personally found most impressive, Le K (the variety here might not be immediately apparent – all will be revealed within the pages of this profile). The quality of these wines, small-volume cuvées from select parcels of vines, was certainly enough to prompt me to investigate further, as well as to buy and cellar some of them, such as the 2005 Ampelidae Le K which showed very well back in 2015, when it hit its tenth birthday.
When I investigated further I soon realised that this small range of wines was just the tip of the iceberg. The then-proprietor Frédéric Brochet had created a huge enterprise, part-domaine, part-négociant, run on environmentally sound and sustainable lines, and with a commitment to organic viticulture, but with a 21st-century attitude. Frédéric was not one of those characters who saw organics as a return to the ways of his forefathers, a simplification of his work, or ‘a return to the soil’. Instead he sought to blend modern science with organic viticulture to maximise the benefit of the methodology to his soil, his vines, his wines and his customers. And was a genuine philosophy and belief in ‘doing things the right way’ which still runs through all aspects of the business today, even though Frédéric is no longer in charge here. The cogs which would eventually result in control shifting from his hands into the hands of current proprietors, the Meuli family, began in 2017.
I provide more detail on the domaine and the Meuli family in this profile, but first let’s look at Frédéric’s story, and how Ampelidae came to be.
