Philippe Kuhn
With his winery in Vaour and plots in different places, Philippe Kuhn is always on the move. Today, this ex-pig farmer is concentrating 100% on his grapes and taking his elemental wines into another sphere.
Philippe Kuhn is a gentle giant. Originally from Alsace, he dropped his studies to become a farmer in the South West. He spent 20 years raising black pigs and growing Chasselas-de-Moissac table grapes - and making wine with them too. Today he’s devoted to his natural wines: Le Cat, L’Element, L’Arrangé and 100% Chasan…they are all local favourites.
He is based in Vaour, a tiny village near the Forest of the Grésigne and Saint Antonin Noble Val, between the vineyards of Gaillac and Quercy. Phillipe rents a total of 6 hectares:“2 plots in the Quercy where he grows Cabernet Franc, Chasselas and Gamay and one plot of Chasan and Gamay in Gaillac: “So many people want to uproot their vines today, old vines that interest me, so I prefer to rent, and it allows me to mix terroirs which gives really interesting results in the winery.” This year, he’s blending Gamay from two terroirs: “Everything is different about these grapes except the variety: the soils they’re grown in, the age of the vines, the size of the berries, the amount of juice they give. I didn’t believe in mixing terroirs before, but a combat is created in the tank between the yeasts from each terroir. They’re auto-stimulated, more active, the fermentation process goes better.”
Phillipe has no fixed recipe when it comes to making wine, he says a lot of it is just chance. His 100% Chasan is a fascinating white wine, dry and complex with savoury, umami notes: “The fermentation went quickly and I was left with 0,0g of sugar. It was pure luck! If there’s sugar left in your wine and it continues working in the bottle, the wine will be fizzy. You see that a lot in natural wines. You can shake the bottle or carafe the wine before serving, but that’s not what people want. You don’t want to be telling your clients how to use your product, you just want them to enjoy it!” Chasan is a cross between Chardonnay and Listan. “No-one talks about it because it’s a hybrid and hybrids were not deemed ‘noble’ in the wine world before. It’s resistant to disease, so not very interesting for sulphur and copper merchants either - but that’s all changing now. Winemakers want hybrids today because it means you can eliminate inputs and people want products that are natural, so hybrids are coming back - but very few have the intense aromatic qualities of Chasan. This wine opens with aromatic complexity and it’s long and rich in the mouth. It’s got the buttery, toasted characteristics of Chardonnay, not from the wood, just the grape. It was aged in old acacia barrels from 2009 that don’t communicate anything to the grapes. And it finishes on this bitter note that comes from Listan. It’s got the real crunch of the grape, real bite, ideal with a nice sea beam….”
The harvest lasts three weeks for Phillipe: “Cabernet Franc has to be harvested when its really ripe. Further South, in the Herault and Corbières and Aude, they harvest Mourverdre and Grenache and Carrignan early to make lovely fresh wines that would be too heavy otherwise. You can’t do that with Cabernet Franc here.” In the winery, Phillipe de-stems the grapes and leaves them to macerate and ferment. He doesn’t really interfere, except for some light pumping over and pressing down: “The fermentation curve has to be regular and sometimes you need to reactivate it. The lees at the bottom are charged with yeasts so you spray them over the cap at the top of the tank for 5 or 10 minutes to dampen the grapes and then you push them back down once or twice a day. After pressing the grapes, he transfers the juice to a tank and then he presses all the pips and skin left over, and stores it in another tank: “The cap could bring more structure and body to the final wine but it could also make the subtlety of the aromas disappear. I keep everything separate and decide whether to blend and in what proportions later.”
He tests his wine as he goes along, in a glass, with passers by! You’re tastebuds get saturated when your tasting primeurs all day and I’d rather have the opinion of someone in the street than an oenologue - they have so many preconceived ideas in their head. A passerby will just tell you whether the wine is good or not, they’ll have gut feelings about it. They’ll be no mention of strawberries, blackberries and cassis, that’s oenologue-talk.” As Phillipe is not in an AOC, he can mix vintages too. “I have Cabernet Franc from 2016 and I might add 20% to the new harvest when it begins to a ferment. The idea is to find a balance, but its risky, I don’t want to destroy the new harvest. I actually prefer doing vintages. I like giving expression to the season. It’s impossible to make the same wine each year when you’re working naturally, without any additives. You can make wines that are similar because the climatic conditions were similar in those years, that’s what a vintage is all about, but you can’t make the same wine unless you add yeasts to create the same taste despite the weather conditions…that’s just a recipe, it’s not the work of a winemaker.
Winemaking suits Phillipe: “When you make sausages, you’re just following a recipe too. Winemaking is unpredictable, and you get three months off too! With animals, you have to work all year round. In winter, I go and see my winemaking friends in L’Herault and in the Aude. I don’t need to go abroad to have a holiday. I just drive for a couple of hours and I’m by the sea. I love meeting up with people and sharing food and wine.” And that’s exactly what we did! My day grape-picking with Phillipe and friends felt like one long holiday. They’ve got a make-shift cabin on one of the plots, high up on the hill with great views. A perfect hideaway for apéros and barbecues paired with Phillipe’s wines. Catch them if you can!
Key Facts
Hectares
6
Terroir
Clay-Limestone slopes in the Quercy and chalky soils on the Cordes Plateau in Gaillac.
Grape Varieties
Tannat, Cabernet Franc, Gamay, Chasan
