SOMM TV: Liber Pater Wines

During the winter, (wait, it's spring!) we are engaged in our continuing education in wine. This past week, we were watching an episode of SOMM TV which featured the Liber Pater Wines. Loïc Pasquet is the winemaker at Liber Pater, but he insists that he is a vigneron. His claim to fame is that he is currently acknowledged as selling the most expensive wine in the world.
How did this come about? Just a litle bit of history. During the time of Napoleon III, when Napoleon commissioned the 1855 classification, the grapes were grown on pre-phylloxera soils. After phylloxera came to Europe and caused the near extinction of grape vines, in order to survive, almost all European grapevines were grafted on to American rootstock. Some claim that own-rooted vines have a different flavor profile than grafted vines.
Enter Loïc Pasquet! After pursuing engineering studies in Dijon, Pasquet became side-tracked by the world of fine wine, and most specifically by a desire to (re)discover the ancient grape varieties of pre-phylloxera Bordeaux. Guided by his mentor, Savoyard Michel Grigard, who was instrumental in bringing back Mondeuse, Altesse, and Jacquère to the Alpine vineyards, Pasquet began his quest to ressurect pre-phylloxera Bordeaux varieties such as Castet, Pardotte, Tarnay, Petite Vidure, Mancin, Camaralet, and Saint-Macaire. To date, Pasquet has “exhumed” 14 varieties in total!¹
Pasquet identified the small commune of Ladiras with its “magnificent gravel outcrop” and excellent drainage, and a “cocktail of sandy topsoil” as an excellent location to grow his own-rooted vines.
Pasquet farms two plots, Liber Pater and Denarius. Pasquet says that both Liber Pater and Denarius wines are 100 percent ungrafted, organic, and made with native grape varieties. Of his two vineyards, he says that, in the Denarius vineyard, “we have more clay, so the wine is very soft, while Liber Pater is very elegant, more for the gods.” ²

What is it that is so unusual about Loïc Pasquet wines? The main grape variety used in both Liber Pater and Denarius is Petite Vuidure, an old name for Cabernet Sauvignon. It is blended with the nearly extinct varieties Mancin, Castets, Saint-Macaire, Pardotte, Gros Cabernet, and Cabernet Goudable, as well as Tarnay Coulant.
After the 2015 vintage, the wines at Liber Pater are being made from 100 percent native varieties and 100 percent ungrafted vines (Franc de Pied). Pasquet produces only 500 bottles a year. Some years he doesn't make any wine from Liber Pater. What will a bottle of Liber Pater cost you? $33,000.00! Pasquet will say that what he is offering is time traveling in a glass. An opportunity to taste a wine that Napoleon III might have enjoyed from a pre-phylloxera, own rooted vineyard.
Is this resurrection of ancient varietals on own rooted vines enough to justify the price? I for one will never know. Sad.
References:
1. Simon Field, Liber Pater: The shock of the old, The World of Fine Wine, August 17, 2023.
2. Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen, Why a $33,000 Wine Made From Rare Grapes Is Polarizing the Wine World, Robb Report, October 27, 2024.

What is Auxerrois?

We grow Auxerrois in our vineyard. Many people are not familiar with this grape variety, so I thought I would do a little research and blog about it. The name itself can be pronounced as either "awk-ser-WAH" or "oak-sair-wah" or even "oh-sehr-WAH". Genetic testing suggests that Auxerrois is a sibling of Chardonnay, both being offspring of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc.
Auxerrois can be found in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Luxembourg with a handful of plantings in North America and South Africa. In the United States, Auxerrois has found a home in Oregon and on the Leelanau Peninsula located on the 45th Parallel.
In our vineyard, the Auxerrois is not the first variety to budbreak in the spring. However, the Auxerrois is the first to ripen and the first grape that we harvest. We watch the Brix and when it gets to around 17, we also test for the pH and the total acidity. We want to be able to keep the acidity so that the Auxerrois is nicely balanced.

As far as we know, we are the only vineyard and winery on the east coast growing and making Auxerrois wine.
References:
1. Layla Schlack, Understanding Auxerrois Wine, Wine Enthusiast, October 17, 2023.
2. Aurora Cellars, Discovering Auxerrois: A Hidden Gem in the World of White Wine,

Racking Our 2022 Auxerrois

This past week, we racked our 2022 Auxerrois from the four stainless steel barrels that they were in, into a 240 gallon IBC tank with fittings. Before racking the wine, we tasted the wine from each barrel and they were slightly different in aromas and flavors so racking and blending the wines is a good thing to do.
The 2022 Auxerrois had the following numbers:

Variety	Harvest Date	Weight	Volume of Juice	Brix	pH	TA
Auxerrois	September 2, 2022	3097 lbs	248 gal	20.0	3.16	7.1 g/L

The wine coming through the site-glass was clear and light yellow in color. The racking of the four barrels took about one hour. We think we ended up with approximately 225 gallons in the holding/mixing tank. The cleaning of the barrels took another 3 hours. As is always the case, the cleaning takes much more time than the time spent actually working with the wine! While we cleaned the barrels, I noticed that the tartrate crystals coming out of the barrels were the largest that I have ever seen!

Of all of the vintages of Auxerrois that we have harvested and made into wine, the 2022 has been the most abundant. We are crossing our fingers that this year we will have another year as good as our 2022.