Jean-Pierre Robinot, Legend of the Loire
With the Tutto and Gergovie Spring Tasting looming, I
thought it would be fun to tell the rather fun story of when I went to visit
one of the stalwarts of this event: Jean-Pierre Robinot.
Trying to plan a meeting with Jean-Pierre proved very
difficult. No email address and a mobile number off the Internet that was never
answered. After a full week of trying to get in touch to no avail, the friends
with whom I was travelling and I decided to risk the hour and a half drive from
Angers where we were staying and hope for the best. And the best was what we
got!
As the road became a track and the trees thickened, the
sat-nav pulled us up to a rock face with three caves dug into it, this must be
the place, we thought. After a few moments stretching our legs sauntering about
and peering into caves, we stumbled upon a small farmhouse. The door was open
and some classic French Rock was blurting out of a back room, we peered in,
there were empty bottles everywhere, mainly Robinot but also the likes of
Radikon, Marko Fon, Gravner, even Cantillon. There was a half eaten choucroute
on the battered stove next to four or five open cans of paint. All along the
front wall was a big pile of rocks. A weird dilapidated but fascinating place.
We knocked and shouted in the general direction of the music, after a few
minutes a tough looking floppy haired youth emerged looking completely baffled.
We introduced ourselves and found that he didn’t speak a word of English
(something that would become a theme of the day). We explained our mission; he
whipped out a flip phone, made a call then told us to wait. We stood there for
about fifteen minutes making some of the most awkward Franglais small talk I’ve
ever indulged in.
Fifteen minutes later, a bright yellow Peugeot van pulled up
and out stepped to our great surprise and delight, the man we had come all this
way to see. He sported a small hat on the top of his head partially covering
wispy ginger hair, he had very sharp intelligent eyes and a huge grin. He
smiled, cheerily said “we ran out of wine this morning!” and disappeared
inside. He re-appeared with set of huge
keys – real medieval stuff – and lead us to one of the caves we’d parked by
earlier. Jean-Pierre doesn’t speak a word of English either. He emerged from
the cave into which he’d disappeared with a bottle of Fetambulles, his
sparkling Chenin Blanc and disgorged it on the spot for us. A sharp acidic wine
which in five minutes settled down to become a great example of the Chenin I’d
come to know and love after a week in the Loire. Next up, l’As des Annees
Folles, another pet-nat made from a blend of Chenin Blanc and Pineau d’Aunis,
again, disgorged then and there, a slightly more delicate wine with finer
bubbles and a little more depth. All this time Jean-Pierre was cheerily wittering
away about how he’d just got back from a relative’s funeral that very morning and
visiting another relative in hospital straight after, a story he concluded by
saying “oh well, people die, that’s life… except me, I’m immortal” and
energetically shuffled off to the next cave. Intoxicated by his infectious
energy and enthusiasm (and a tiny bit by his wine), we followed on. Next up was
a barrel cave, a fantastic tunnel dug deep unto the rock with mould all over
the walls. A great smell of wine and blue cheese hung in the air. As we admired
the cave, JP laughed, commenting that “they weren’t fucking about when they dug
this ” handing us some barrel samples to try. We worked our way around the room
tasting different wines from different barrique, some were as many as ten years
old, and some were in their first year of use. All JP’s wines are either Chenin
Blanc or Pineau d’Aunis (or both for certain sparkling wines).
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| Those mad medieval keys! |
Pineau d’Aunis is another very old indigenous grape from the
Loire, sometimes refered to as Chenin Noir. Records of the grape are found all
the way back to the 13th century when none other than our very own King Henry
III declared it his favourite!
All his wines are grown and made organically and naturally
although when asked about his biodynamic practices, he scoffed and
sarcastically told us “I don’t have my biodynamic club member’s card but I do
pay attention to the positioning of the moon”. JP’s only started making wine in
2000 after selling his wine bar l’Ange Vin in Paris.
We tried all sorts of wines, some straight from the barrel
some from bottles without labels, some from bottles he told us had been open
for two weeks. These were really impressive, as they had really stood the test
of time and were still very crisp and fresh. After about an hour excitedly
buzzing from barrel to bottle back to barrel with JP’s head torch throwing
energetic dancing shadows across the otherwise unlit cellar, we stumbled into
the next cave, the bottle-ageing cave. Here JP ran around looking for various
wines, picking up bottles seemingly at random to pour into our glasses. He’d
always give us his huge grin and say something like “if you liked the others,
wait until you try this!” The best was, however, yet to come. JP disappeared
into the back of the cave and beckoned to us to follow. When we got there, he
was proudly stood between three full bottle racks, each had a small slate
balanced on it and the read “Camille”, “Juliette” and “Super Juliette”, his
three top cuvees. “These are named after my daughter Camille-Juliette, you’re
very lucky I gave here two names, otherwise you’d only have one cuvee” he
explained cheerily, pouring us what would be one of my favourite wine of the
visit:
2009 Cuvee Camille is the greatest expression of Pineau d’Aunis I’ve had, from 110 year old vines! After three years on the lees, it’s
aged in bottle until JP decides that it’s ready. At first the wine is light and
quite juicy, but then the complexity unravels in a beautifully deep show of
taut acidity and freshness perfectly balanced by layers and layers of red
fruits ethereally floating about the mouth. The finish is beautiful and
delicious; the flavour keeps developing long after the wine has gone.
2009 Cuvee Juliette, my personal pick of the whole week in
the Loire. Juliette is a botrytis Chenin Blanc with 25g of residual sugar. The
sweetness is powerful, it coats the mouth, but long before it has a chance of
becoming cloying, the acidity slices through bringing freshness and subtle
herbaceous notes with it to making for a fully rounded experience. Again, the
finish is eternal. In JP’s own words, “it’s a wine of extreme finesse and great
energy.”
2009 Cuvee Super Juliette is made by a similar process as
Juliette but the grapes come from 110 year old vines in what JP calls “the
greatest terroir in the whole of the Loire valley”. Super Juliette differs from
Juliette in its intensity. It is a richer, far more generous wine that does not
hold back in any respect.
We bumbled back out into the searing sunlight, bought a few
bottles, thanked Jean-Pierre for very generously giving us three hours of his
time, plenty of samples and endless youthful energy and enthusiasm, and we
drove off. Sat in the car on our way home to Angers, we couldn’t help but
notice a buzz in the car, a euphoric feeling of general well-being, the three
of us felt relaxed and probably better than we’d aver felt after that amount of
alcohol. Maybe Jean-Pierre was onto something when he said his wines had great
energy. I think that they probably do have a lot of energy in them which we
felt and absobed after consuming them.
An amazing visit with a wonderful and inspirational man.
Thanks Jean-Pierre!
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| Three of Jean-Pierre's caves |
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