{"id":22474,"date":"2019-01-02T11:32:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T11:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=22474"},"modified":"2019-01-02T11:35:12","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T11:35:12","slug":"alternative-bordeaux-2-chateau-falfas-cotes-de-bourg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/bordeaux\/alternative-bordeaux-2-chateau-falfas-cotes-de-bourg","title":{"rendered":"Alternative Bordeaux (2) Ch\u00e2teau Falfas, C\u00f4tes de Bourg"},"content":{"rendered":"

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V\u00e9ronique Cochran is the proprietor of Ch\u00e2teau Falfas, which she runs with her husband John. This estate is beautifully situated in the C\u00f4tes de Bourg, with 20 hectares of vines planted on gravel, clay and limestone soils (with limestone bedrock), running down to the Gironde esturary on a gentle south-facing slope. The dominant feature of the soil, though, is the clay, which can be quite deep. The nearest village, Bayon, is where the Garonne and Dordogne rivers meet and the estuary begins. ‘It is like a little sea, with tides,’ says Veronique. ‘Every 6 hours oceanic air comes in the vineyards breathe it.’ There is also a 15 hectare woodland on the property, which she describes as a ‘treasure.’<\/p>\n

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Veronique Cochran<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are two main stories about this estate that bring it into the Alternative Bordeaux<\/strong> story. The first is that this is a great example of a good terroir in an unfashionable part of the region, capable of making excellent wines even though traditionally wines from here don’t sell for much. The second is that Falfas is one of the pioneers of biodynamics in France. Since 1989 the vineyards here have been farmed biodynamically.<\/p>\n

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Limestone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chateau itself was built in 1612, and the cellar was constructed in the late 17th century. Her mother and father had a vineyard in Montreuil-Bellay in Saumur (Loire), and her father, Fran\u00e7ois Bouchet, was one of the first to apply biodynamics to vineyards (his book, Biodynamic Agriculture: how to apply it to vineyards<\/em>, is a standard in the field). He died in 2005, but her brother Matthieu Bouchet works as a biodynamic consultant, and counts Ch\u00e2teau Palmer as one of his clients. Fran\u00e7ois consulted for Ch\u00e2teau Pontet Canet when they made the transition.<\/p>\n

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Veronique’s brother runs the family estate in Saumur and this has been farmed biodynamically since the 1960s, which makes it one of the earliest biodynamic wine estates in the world. She grew up there, but was more interested in art than wine. She studied art and movement in Paris, where she met John, who was an American lawyer working there. Both changed careers to move to Bordeaux to run a wine estate. They arrived in 1988 and looked at several properties. ‘This place touched our hearts,’ says Veronique. ‘It’s a special place, serene and discrete. The situation is quite special.’<\/p>\n

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This is enough preparation 501 to treat 20 hectares<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I said it would be run biodynamically,’ she said. ‘At first he wasn’t convinced, but I had the energy to do it and it wasn’t long until he was convinced,’ recalls Veronique. ‘Rapidly he saw it was a very global approach; something very deep, permitting the expression of place and respecting the harmony of plants and soil. We built it with our feet on the ground and our heads looking at the cosmos.’<\/p>\n

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The Cochrans have worked closely with Biodyvin. She says that research, commissioned by Biodyvin and carried out by Philippe Olivier Coulomb in the southern Rh\u00f4ne, shows that biodynamic farming results in thicker skinned grapes. ‘I believe in my fruit,’ she says. ‘I know it is strong enough to be balanced in the fermentation process without sulfur dioxide additions.’ After harvest, fermentation is with wild yeasts. Veronique makes a pied de cuve each year but says she never needs it. However, she does add sulfites before bottling. ‘I\u2019m not a partisan of low sulphur. It permits the wines to travel and to be stable.’<\/p>\n

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‘I’m convinced that biodynamics is agriculture for the future,’ says V\u00e9ronique. ‘I see more and more demand for it. Some people are frightened by things they can’t understand, and things that are not visible, but I believe that life is not visible.’<\/p>\n

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