GREEN PAGES Wine

Each vineyard will have its own population of wild yeast, but you must encourage the yeasts to settle on your grapes. The grapeskins must be strong and healthy, thick enough to offer the wild yeast a home. You only get thick skins if your grapes get enough sun and the soils are in balance. If the soil is too rich in chemical fertilisers, the grapeskins become too thin and, instead of benefi cial wild yeasts, you get nasty rot spores, which destroy the grapeskins by puncturing and then causing them to rot. ‘Rather than using chemical fertilisers, we allow native vegetation like wild leaves and clovers to grow between the vine rows between autumn and spring. As well as making delicious wild winter salads for us humans, these wild plants also help feed the soil in which our vines grow. When we plough them into the vineyard soil in spring, the green matter breaks down and provides just enough nutrient for the vines. You could say we do the minimum amount of work to get the maximum result.’ This ethos is carried through into the winemaking where, as you would hope, the natural yeasts on the grapeskins do the work of making the wine by feeding on the grape sugar and converting it into wine alcohol in the process called ‘fermentation’. ‘If your vineyard is out of balance, you’ll have to use chemical fungicides,’ explains Richard. ‘And if you are using chemical fungicides, you will kill off the native yeasts on the grapeskins. As

a result, you will have to chuck a few kilos of commercially prepared, pre-dried yeasts sold in vacuum packs into the grape juice to get it to ferment. ‘Nothing wrong with that, you may say, but if winegrowers in Alsace, Bordeaux and our region of the southwest are buying exactly the same brand of artifi cial yeast for the same manufacturer, you can be sure that their wines will start to taste similar, even though the vineyards are located hundreds of miles apart. ‘We know our wines are unique because our wines are fermented by wild yeasts native to our vineyards. But we also have to be sensitive to these yeasts, so we use the bare minimum of sulphur dioxide and, in the case of our red ‘Cuvée Osée’ wine, no sulphur dioxide at all. ‘Sulphur dioxide is used by many winemakers as a disinfectant. They add it to the grape juice to kill off the native yeasts before they add these powerful commercial yeasts – a bit like sterilising a patient before an operation in a hospital. Their aim is to make the fermentation as predictable and short as possible – sometimes lasting as little as a week – so the winemakers can put their feet up and not have to bother with the winery until spring, when the wines are bottled. ‘We, on the other hand, are quite happy to let the yeast ferment the grape sugar at their own pace. Some of our wines take six months to ferment, but longer fermentations produce more complex wines, just as a slowcooked steak is going to taste more interesting than a fast-food burger.’

CONTACT DETAILS

Château Richard, 24240

Monestier (Dordogne), France

Tel 05.53.58.49.13

Email info@ chateaurichard.com

Internet

www.chateaurichard.com

078 THE ECOLOGIST

CHATEAU RICHARD TASTING NOTES Château Richard has been certifi ed organic since

1990 by Ecocert France. The following wines are

all suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

1) Bergerac Blanc Sec AC, Les Charmes White

Tingly, fresh dry white wine comprising: Sauvignon

Blanc for crispness and gooseberry fl avours; Semillon

for a soft buttery texture; and a small percentage of

Muscadelle for a juicy wholesomeness.

2) Bergerac Blanc Sec AC, Château Richard

This dry white wine is made from the same grapes

as the Les Charmes White (see above). This version is

‘lees-aged’, meaning it is kept on the dead yeast after

fermentation. The technique keeps wines fresher for

longer and adds a bread-y softness to the fruit fl avours.

3) Bergerac Rouge AC, Les Charmes Rouge

An immediately drinkable dry red wine made from

Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon,

the Merlot brings soft bramble-fruit fl avours and the

Cabernet Franc, sensuous liquorice fl avours, while the

Cabernet Sauvignon adds some blackcurrant spice.

4) Bergerac Rouge AC, Château Richard

A dry red wine, the same grapes as the Les Charmes

Rouge (see above), it has more structure, so it can be

aged in bottle for several years. A wine to savour.

5) Saussignac AC, Château Richard

World-class, late-picked sweet white wine, fermented

in barrels and made from 70 per cent Semillon, 25 per

cent Muscadelle and 5 per cent Sauvignon Blanc. These

grapes are picked late enough for benefi cial rot to

have formed on the grapeskins, which concentrates the

sugars, making for an incredibly intense wine.