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Caroline Frey is proprietor and head winemaker at Paul Jaboulet Aîné within the Rhône, Château La Lagune in Bordeaux and a domaine in Burgundy – she additionally has vines within the Swiss Valais. What has she realized from the folks and the land of those numerous wine areas? Right here, Alexandra Grey de Walden finds out.
Caroline Frey was born in Champagne so it may very well be argued that wine was within the blood. “My father bought his first vineyards once I was very small,” she tells me. “I grew up in that ambiance of vineyards, harvest…”
Was it one thing she all the time wished to do? A vigneron’s vocation? Not so. Caroline’s first plan was to do one thing with crops and nature, each that includes closely in how she runs her properties at the moment. It was her mom who advised she think about oenology. In 2000, whereas Caroline was finishing her oenological research in Bordeaux, her father bought Château La Lagune within the Haut-Médoc. It stays one of many Frey portfolio’s nice success tales. As she stated of this serendipitous buy, “Generally the planets align.”
Now primarily based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Caroline spends a lot of her time travelling between her properties there, in Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Rhône. These numerous areas, with their completely different soils, grapes and climates, have given Caroline glorious alternatives for studying and experimenting. She realized about mildew in Bordeaux, about oidium within the Rhône and about each, she says, in Burgundy. “My philosophy in every place is to know the story of the wine and the folks. I used to play the piano – it’s like that. When you already know the technical issues completely, then it’s the easiest way to let the feelings out. That technical prowess provides you freedom.”
Natural evolution
After Château La Lagune, the Freys acquired Paul Jaboulet Aîné within the Northern Rhône. Whereas La Lagune had already had many various house owners, Jaboulet had been within the eponymous household for six generations. I can’t think about this was a simple transition. Caroline made time to construct belief and respect there. “There have been a number of wines, and it was exhausting to focus so we streamlined the vary,” Caroline tells me. She additionally launched natural practices in 2006 earlier than certification adopted in 2016.
“We had been fairly early to organics and regenerative viticulture. Planting cowl crops between vines is so helpful, in any other case it turns into too muddy. We have now non-cultivated areas for biodiversity and elevated ecosystems, nevertheless it’s more durable in locations with dry floor.” At La Lagune, Caroline has overseen the planting of 1,000 small timber across the winery, successfully making a pure clos (walled winery). Their managed root development (vertical, not horizontal) means they don’t seem to be competing with vines for water and supply habitats for bats and birds – nature’s personal pest management.
Regardless of her clear ardour for organics, you received’t discover the phrase on any of Caroline’s wine labels. “I don’t do it to be ‘natural’. I do it to make higher wine and get one of the best expression of the terroir”, she says. “That doesn’t change whether or not you’re natural or not.” That stated, the natural certification is essential to her as recognition. “The staff have labored in the direction of it. La Lagune’s vineyards are close to homes and it’s essential our neighbours know we’re natural.” It’s price noting that biodynamic ideas are additionally adopted at Jaboulet and La Lagune.
Classic challenges
When Caroline and I meet, we’re a short while away from the launch of our Rhône 2022 En Primeur supply. I’m eager to listen to how this difficult classic was obtained at Jaboulet. “Nicely, I assumed 2015 was sizzling after which we had 2022,” Caroline explains as she pretends to wipe her forehead. As at many different estates within the area, the vines at Jaboulet – a few of them over 100 years previous – shut down to guard themselves through the very lengthy drought. The granitic soil resisted effectively, because of the deep, water retaining clay which has helped produce balanced and recent wines in 2022.
With hotter, drier vintages turning into extra commonplace within the Rhône, what steps will Caroline take to mitigate the consequences? For one, she is eager that the Rhône doesn’t comply with Bordeaux’s lead in introducing extra permitted grape varieties. As a member of a Syrah conservation group, she is passionate concerning the Northern Rhône’s flagship purple selection. “I can’t change the recipe – the Northern Rhône is the birthplace of Syrah and the center of Jaboulet is the Northern Rhône.”
She has been experimenting with massal choice – replanting new vineyards with superlative previous vines – with 12 Syrah clones, enabling comparisons of yields, compositions and rising talents. The proper vines can then be chosen as and when replanting is required. Most curiously, Caroline additionally has a small plot of Dureza (certainly one of Syrah’s mother and father). This late ripening, low sugar and excessive acid grape is great for blends and already established as a part of Syrah’s heritage.
Horse sense
With a younger daughter at college and a burgeoning winemaking empire spanning many of the size and breadth of France, Caroline is clearly no stranger to exhausting work and lengthy days. I ask her what her expertise of being a lady winemaker and vineyard proprietor has been like. “I don’t take note of it,” she tells me matter-of-factly. She was beforehand a member of the French showjumping staff – equestrian sports activities are the one ones the place women and men compete equally collectively. “Maybe that helped me handle,” Caroline says. “Plus, I joined La Lagune at 25 because the proprietor’s daughter – that wasn’t simple.”
Caroline’s eager give attention to sustainability is already defending her vineyards – and their wines – for the long run. Her daughter helps her within the vineyards in Switzerland so maybe she’s going to comply with in Caroline’s footsteps. “It might be nice to know somebody from the household will proceed the work, however nothing is definite.” If the vagaries of the wine world educate us something, it’s certainly that.
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