Rhône Wines from Eric Texier
Eric Texier was born in Bordeaux in 1961 and has lived in Lyon (or thereabout) since 1979. By profession, he is an expert in building materials, and he spent a year studying that subject at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After years spent working in the leisure and the nuclear industries, he decided to make a career of his true passion, wine, in 1990.
He thought at first of buying vineyards, and did extensive research to find areas where vineyards were neglected or forgotten, and found two in his favorite spots, the Northern Côtes-du-Rhône. He also travelled around the world to discover vineyards and meet winemakers. Three regions made a lasting impression on him: Burgundy, for vinification methods and respect of terroir, Piedmont for the radical changes in style and fashions that occurred in the 80s, and Oregon for its winemakers’outlook, free and unencumbered by the weight of traditions.
Fusing his discoveries in these three regions, he defined his winemaking objectives and applied them to his chosen region of Côtes-du-Rhône:
- to vinify as burgundians do, with respect for each vineyard’s specificity (emulating Michel Lafarge in Volnay and the Ramonet family in Chassagne-Montrachet)
- to turn his back on the heavy, nondescript style of traditional CDRs, which often lack fruit, and let the vineyards express their character (as the great Piedmont winemakers, like Elio Altare, do)
- not to be restricted by old-fashioned principles and consider that boldness doesn’t contradict tradition, and work in a new style while respecting what the previous generations have achieved (like the winemakers in Oregon and Washington state David Adelsheim or Joan Wolverton).
In 1992, he went back to school, studying viticulture and oenology, then worked with Jean-Marie Guffens at Verget. Guffens taught him to respect the grapes and how to use the lees, and Texier went on to emulate his buying of grapes from owners who had respected strict viticultural fashions. When he left, he had adopted the following ideas: no clones, shy-bearing root stocks, plowing the soil instead of using weed-killers, moderate yields paid as if the grower had cropped for the legal maximum (for example, asking for 35 hectoliters per hectare in Côtes-du-Rhône Villages but paying for 42 h/h), green harvests, lutte raisonnée (viticultural methods used in organic agriculture), no anti-rot sprays and hand picking.
His winemaking techniques for white wines include sorting at the vineyard and at the winery, whole clusters pressed in a vertical press (that's the old fashioned wood kind), no added yeast, barrel fermentation (less than 10% new wood), elevage on the fine lees, 100% malo for the dry wines, minimal usage of SO2, fining and filtration only when necessary, no pumping, elevage in a naturally cool cellar (all wines are brought to the Beaujolais when fermentation is complete, to take advantage of an excellent cellar there, since those are rare in the south).
For red wines, he proceeds with sorting at the vineyard and at the winery, 100% destemming (most of the time), bringing grapes to the press by conveyer belt rather than pumps or screws, cold maceration under a CO2 blanket for aromatic extraction (5 - 8 days), no added yeasts, pigeage and remontage twice a day (breaking up of the cap by pushing it down, then pumping the juice over; this is done vat by vat with slow pumps) during both maceration and fermentation, temperatures controlled not to exceed 34 degrees C, elevage in 2 -5 year old barrels and larger capacity barrels (450 l), with as much as 10% of these new. No filtration; egg white fining if necessary before bottling.
Texier’s white wines include Mâcon-Bussières, Viognier, and, in vintage 2000, a rare Brézème white (all Roussanne) and Cassis (Marsanne and Clairette). The reds include Brézème (a 100% Syrah CDR), Côte-Rôtie and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, and in vintage 2000 Séguret, St-Gervais and Chusclan.
