A Natural Master

Class of vine Alexandre Bain eschews synthetic fertilisers to ensure his wines have the true taste of the terroir

68 NetJets

Class of vine Alexandre Bain eschews synthetic fertilisers to ensure his wines have the true taste of the terroir

68 NetJets

A Natural Master TASTING NOTES

STANDING SQUARELY IN OPPOSITION TO THE ORTHODOXY OF THE LOIRE, MAVERICK WINEMAKER ALEXANDRE BAIN IS REINVENTING POUILLY-FUMÉ WITH A TIME-CONSUMING ORGANIC METHOD. JEFFREY T IVERSON REPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEA CRESPI 69 NetJets

TASTING NOTES

SAUVIGNON BLANC RANKS AMONG THE MOST PERVASIVELY CULTIVATED GRAPES ON THE PLANET, CHURNING OUT MILLIONS OF BOTTLES OF TART, AGREEABLE, THOUGH OFTEN UNREMARKABLE TIPPLE. And yet, in the hands of an enlightened winemaker, it can create some of the world’s most distinctive whites. In France, the cradle of sauvignon, perhaps the most quintessential examples have come from the upper Loire’s twin appellations Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé.

There, a new winemaker is on a quest today to elevate this potentially banal varietal to create sublime, signature sauvignons.

Sommeliers of three-star restaurants receive a constant stream of upstart winemakers hoping to place their cuvées at esteemed tables.

Most are forgotten. Yet the day in 2009 that ▲ Making changes Bain in his winery, from where he has overturned traditional views of his region’s famous product ▲ Home terroir The vines of Pouilly-Fumé provide rich inspiration for the winemaker’s inventiveness

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Alexandre Jean, then sommelier of L’Astrance in Paris, first tasted the Pouilly-Fumé of Alexandre Bain is one he’ll remember – and not because they share a name. “My references for great sauvignons of the Loire were the classics – François Cotat, Alphonse Mellot, Didier Dagueneau,” he recalls. “Yet when I tasted these wines, it was as if for all this time I’d had one eye closed when tasting sauvignon, and now suddenly both were opened, and it was dazzling. They were so full of colour, so warm and exotic in their aromas – spice, flowers, herbs – and above all so full of gourmandise, of pleasure… I’d discovered another universe of sauvignon blanc.”

If Alexandre Bain’s Pouilly-Fumé tastes like no other, it’s perhaps because, unlike many in this ancient, traditionalist region, he wasn’t born into wine. Bain grew up in Pouillysur-Loire, his father a mason, his mother an accountant. But his grandfather had a farm near Sancerre, just across the river. Bain

spent every weekend there and developed a passion for plants, animals and the land. He went to agricultural school, met his future wife, Caroline, then chose to attend Beaune viticulture school in Burgundy. In 2004 he left for the United States to test his mettle working the high-altitude vineyards of Flowers, California’s mythic Sonoma Coast winery. He soaked up their enterprising, sky-is-the-limit attitude, observed the possibilities and pitfalls of state-of-the-art vinification tech, and spent paycheques on his first earthshaking bottles, including a Lalou Bize-Leroy – Burgundy’s pioneering defender of terroir wines and biodynamic viticulture.

Those themes became Bain’s leitmotifs when he returned at the age of 29 to acquire five hectares of Pouilly-Fumé in 2007. In an appellation given over to industrial practices, Bain reintroduced draught-horse ploughing with his 850kg percheron, Phénomène, in place of tractors. For his soils, he traded

synthetic fertilisers for fermented cow manure and nitrogen-fixing cover crops. Rather than fungicides, he used biodynamic decoctions of nettles and other plants to reinforce his vines’ natural immunity. “Some consider the industrial winemaking approach to be indicative of progress, but we’d been making wine here successfully for 1,500 years before chemicals touched these vineyards,” says Bain. “What’s certain is the moment you stop using weedkillers, the soil begins to breathe, to function anew. After ten years without pesticides, I’ve discovered that each of my parcels has a unique identity, its own expression of the terroir.”

In the winery, avoiding any interventions that could mask those expressions is first on Bain’s modus operandi. “If you use a laboratory yeast from Copenhagen, enzymes from New Zealand and sugar from a Picardy beet farm, are you still making Pouilly-Fumé?” he asks.

“I think not – it might even taste good, but it’s a technological wine, not a terroir wine.”

Many call this natural winemaking, though Bain worries the label leads to misconceptions.

“Making natural wine does not mean doing nothing in the winery,” he says. “Au contraire, not intervening with additives means you must be ever present, tasting, monitoring, ready to end a maturation when it’s time, to rack the wine if it starts to deviate…” It’s an oenological high-wire act that has earned Bain the respect of exacting importers like Zev Rovine, whose New York-based boutique wine import company distributes to 30 states. “A meme you run into in natural wine is, ‘Hey, it’s natural, nothing added, just how wine should be,’ but without the dedication to make a correct wine,” Rovine says. “To make a true terroir wine, your approach must be more serious, and Alexandre is a great example of a seasoned winemaker dedicated to making precise, correct wines without additives.”

Today, Bain creates five cuvées representing parcels with soils of different geological eras, compositions and expositions. Seeking optimal ripeness, he frequently harvests grapes with noble rot, further expanding aromatics. Like fine Burgundy chardonnay, Bain’s wines undergo long barrel ageing and malolactic fermentation,

enhancing their stability, complexity and deep golden hues. The result is light years from most sauvignons, whose malolactic fermentations are blocked with sulphur dioxide to retain their green-apple tartness: a barrel sampling of two dozen wines of various vintages in Bain’s winery offers a tour de force of flavours – lemon confit, mango, yuzu, sea salt, liquorice – which linger in a crystalline finish.

“It’s a wine’s finish that allows for pairings,” says Bain. “It becomes a surface on which you can place savoury, spicy things – veal, sweetbreads, curry, ginger.” Indeed, his wine’s stunning capacity to carry dishes has earned Bain a seat at nearly half of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. At noma in Copenhagen, you may find his sauvignons paired with an umami-rich horse-mussel ragout. At L’Astrance in Paris, they might be served with Palamós prawns and spring vegetables in a ginger-infused bouillon.

Ironically, as Bain’s notoriety grew, so did his difficulty obtaining the PouillyFumé label for his wines, which authorities deemed atypical for the appellation. In September 2015, after Bain requested that a technical inspection be postponed due to harvest, the national institute for

appellations, INAO, revoked Bain’s PouillyFumé label definitively. In reviewing Bain’s Pierre Précieuse cuvée, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate seemed perplexed by INAO’s decision: “Full-bodied, rich and round on the palate, this is a clear and elegant wine with a vital, finely racy Sauvignon acidity… [and] would have been a decoration for the PouillyFumé appellation.” France’s leading industry magazine, La Revue du vin de France, seethed outrage: “Pouilly-Fumé stripped Alexandre Bain’s wines of their appellation doubtless because they shined too brightly amidst a backdrop of smug conformity.”

Bain’s response? He took INAO to court.

In 2017, a judge ruled in his favour, restoring his Pouilly-Fumé appellation. “It was a victory for the profession,” he enthuses, one he hopes inspires other artisan winemakers facing similar struggles. Bain is back in his vineyards, patiently, passionately working towards his simple, if lofty ambition: “to make a very great wine one day”. Perhaps he will, but for sommelier Alexandre Jean, one thing is certain: “Alexandre Bain has brought us another vision of sauvignon, one focused on pleasure and emotions, and tailored for gastronomy. That will be the source of his success.” ■

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