Loire 2023
Mademoiselle Agricultrice pushed the pile of receipts and invoices away with such force several of them became briefly airborne, before then gracefully fluttering to the dust-strewn floor below. Standing up from the makeshift desk – little more than a few planks of wood atop ancient barrels which were black with mould – she strode purposefully to the door, and crossed the threshold which separated her prison – well, office – from the liberty of the vineyard outside. It would take a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the bright April sunshine; as she stood there, gently blinking, she reflected on the events of the past few months.
The year had not started well for Mademoiselle Agricultrice. Some poor scores from a recently appointed critic at The Vine & Wine Advisor had not helped her relationship with several of her US importers. Given that she had been working with some of them for less than twelve months, these were fragile arrangements, and a score of 75 for her amphora-fermented Grolleau, and 60 for her skin-contact Chenin Blanc, which she had macerated for ten months in a repurposed diesel tank, had given them cold feet.
And while Mademoiselle Agricultrice acknowledged it was a somewhat leaner vintage, her Chenin Blanc didn’t deserve to be scored that low. Yes, alright, there was a slight whiff of diesel to it, but if petrol works in Riesling, why not diesel in Chenin? And, yes, she had to accept that two-thirds of the bottles were now refermenting. But do these critics have any idea of the effort that goes into making such wines? Do they know anything of wine itself, the deep culture that it represents, or the art of the vigneron?
Her sighs were audible across the entire vineyard.
Why couldn’t they just get behind her, and indeed all the hard-working vignerons of her appellation, instead of criticising everything she did?
Her eyes now fully adjusted, she was at last able to drink in the vision that greeted her, rows of ancient Chenin Blanc, more than one hundred years old, their tender young leaves glittering in the morning light.
