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"We
are the spiritual sons of the ancient soils. Our soul has
received the nobility and the tourment of the familiar immensities
created by the hand of a man."
Gaston
Roupnel.
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At
some plots away from the Vintage Wines, our first vintages,
Petite Chapelle and Clos Prieur, vie with their prestigious
cousins in fineness and grace.
These
are the oldest soils of the domain. In 1877, slightly
before the philloxera invasion, my great-great granfather
decided to acquire a parcel of land near the Grande Chapelle,
this area was then called Ergot or Petite Chapelle.
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By
a strange irony of fate, the same year the French vines
planted in the unbelievable density of 35 000 vines per
hectare, underwent an attack of a small coleopterous insect
which the winemakers called the " writer "
or the " scribbler ".
The
Ergot harvest was thus greatly reduced to six plots. But
what a delicious wine ! Arthur, my great-grandfather
aged ten years old, recalled this wine with much emotion.
But, above all, he held in memory the pride with which his
father sold this nectar in 1881 at the astronomical price
of 480 francs a piece !
Some
years later, in 1893 when some vines had already been replanted
with American stocks, Louis bought his " Clos
Prieur " near the Mazis.
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Was
it this name with monastical evocations or rather its earth
of light, stony, well-drained structure which made up my
great-grandfather’s mind ?
We
can’t be sure but, whatever his decision, Louis was
particularly well-inspired. The same year, at the General
Wine Exhibition, which preceeded the famous Hospices de
Beaune Sales, the fruit of his first transplanted vines
was given an ovation by his wine-making friends and amateurs
from all over the Côte !
Today,
our ancient soils of First Vintages, this Petite Chapelle
and this Clos Prieur make us believe that mystically man
possesses the soil he occupies.
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In
fact, the soil possesses the man and this property, a strength
elaborated in common, is reciprocal and inalienable !
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