Word: schlaepfer
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...once painted by Van Gogh, Domaine de Lauzières appears to be your quintessential Provençal vineyard - until you step into a peculiar cellar. There are no barrels to be seen, nor any of the stainless-steel tanks favored by some modern vintners. Instead, winemaker Jean-Daniel Schlaepfer ferments his high-end wines there in egg-shaped vessels based on amphorae - the clay jars used by the Romans centuries ago. Schlaepfer is part of a growing group of producers around France and beyond returning to the wisdom of the ancients in order to achieve the truest expression...
...winemaking powerhouse Michel Chapoutier, whose appreciation for harmonious, natural shapes complemented his holistic and organic methods of viticulture. The Egg might have remained a conversation piece in Chapoutier's cellar if word hadn't reached Baux-de-Provence, a progressive appellation where nearly all vines are farmed organically. There, Schlaepfer and partner François Pillon saw a resemblance between the Egg and the dolia, or the large amphorae used to make ancient Rome's most renowned wine, Falernum. (See TIME's Global Adviser for exotic, beautiful and interesting getaways...
...nourishes the wine." It also eliminates the need for stirring, which is a common source of contamination from brettanomyces - yeast that leads to spoilage and cloudiness. "We used to break our backs racking and stirring the wine, and here's a system that works better than man," says Schlaepfer. "It's a magical vinification instrument...
...proof, of course, is in the tasting - while Roman procurator turned philosopher Pliny the Elder's maxim "in vino veritas" is atrociously overquoted, perhaps an exception can be made in this case. After several trial vintages at Lauzières, and by Schlaepfer's colleagues Christian Zündel in Switzerland and Dominique Hauvette in Baux, the verdict is in: greater minerality, fruitiness and elegance. Schlaepfer's white cuvée Astérie exhibits rich honey and exotic-fruit flavors; his Petit Verdot-dominant cuvée Sine Nomine is redolent with the complex bouquet of blackberry and cedar...
Viret's search for an oak alternative began, like Schlaepfer's, from a desire to create wines as honest as they are incomparable. "It's not about making wine better than my neighbors; it's about making wines with a very strong identity," he says. "And I don't want to mask this identity - the minerality of my soil, the purity of my fruit - with artifice." Surely Pliny himself would see the truth in that...