Eric Morgat and the Clos Serteaux, 2024
The reinvention of daily life means marching off the edge of our maps.
– The Abolition of Work, Robert Charles ‘Bob’ Black (published 1985)
I don’t think I am sticking my neck out too far when I suggest that the controversial author and anarchist Bob Black was probably not drinking Savennières when he penned his ideological essay on why none of us should ever work. After all, anybody who argues for the abolition of work because “it is the source of all the misery in the world” has clearly never enjoyed the benefits it can also bring.
Like a decent glass of wine.
Having said that, one element of Bob Black’s anarchic argument rings true. If we are to reinvent ourselves, we must redefine and redraw the boundaries of our existence. We must “march off the edge of our maps.” One vigneron who has successfully reinvented himself is Eric Morgat. And in doing so he has redrawn the boundaries not only of his own map, but the map of the entire Savennières appellation. Quite literally, as it turned out when I visited him earlier this year.
But to understand Eric’s march off the Savennières map, perhaps we should look at some of his prior reinventions, with a potted account of Eric’s story so far.
Eric’s Origins
Eric Morgat (pictured below in the Clos Serteaux) is the son of an Anjou vigneron, the Morgat family having previously had tenure of Château de Breuil, which sits very close to Château Pierre-Bise in Beaulieu-sur-Layon. Eric might have been expected to take over the family estate, but he felt a different calling, towards Savennières. Having returned to the family fold after completing his studies in 1995 he bought a tiny parcel of land in the appellation, followed by a second parcel and a micro-cellar at the foot of the Roche-aux-Moines. Eric moved in, and rooted himself in Savennières, and in Savennières alone. Reinvention number one.
