It’s a long
path from Louisville, Ky., to Saint-Jean-de-Minervois in Southern France. But
that’s the journey Brown University graduate John Bojanowski took in
transformation from literature major to Languedoc winery owner.
Bojanowski
was recently in Indianapolis to promote his Clos du Gravillas wines and visit
family in Kentucky. His journey is an interesting one as is the unique
Languedoc wine he champions.
Bojanowski
attended prestigious Brown University in Providence, RI., and wanted to travel.
He landed a job in the computer industry that took him to 50 countries in five
years. During that time he met Nicole who wanted to be a winemaker. They went
in search of just the right property to open their winery.
 |
| John Bojanowski at Indy's Tastings |
“When my
wife started she wanted white limestone gravel, which is what our soil is
because you get freshness and minerality out of that to balance what the sun
does to the grapes,” he explained. “But Carignan was what we started with
because that’s what she was able to buy. “
Their
property included Carignan planted in 1911.
Carignan is
an often-maligned grape. It is a dark-colored and strong flavored wine. Some
will even call the nose offensive and the taste can be strong. But the old vine
Carignans can produce deeply flavored and rich wines. Small amounts of Carignan
is consistently found in most Languedoc blends.
“We
discovered that Carignan could be more than just okay. It can be really, really
good. We’ve made it our purpose to tell everybody about it.”
Clos du
Gravillas is a small production winery featuring wines made from 15 different
grapes. “So it’s sort of like being an artist with 15 different colors on the
palette. We try to figure out what each of those grapes are best for and how we
can make it the best wine.”
The Languedoc
is the largest wine-producing region of France.
“The
Languedoc is on the Mediterranean. It’s between the Rhone River and Spain. Our
winery is three hours form Barcelona and six hours from Paris. It’s sunny,
beautiful and rain free almost all summer. You find very different terrain when
you go a half hour drive in any direction from sea to flatlands to plateaus to
mountains. It’s a beautiful place and wine grapes have been grown there for
2,000 years.”
The warm
weather, the region averages 315 days of sunshine a year, produces ripe fruit.
“We pick the grapes ripe which means a certain amount of sugar, a certain
amount of alcohol, so they’re not little wines. We practice very natural and
organic farming and then natural non-interventionist winemaking, and
fermentations. We try not to do too much
besides getting really great grapes, putting them into the tank and letting
them become wine.”
Clos du
Gravillas wines are available in some Indiana restaurants and fine wine shops.
John’s wines are above the value price points usually featured in Grape Sense.
His wines are in $30-$50 range.
Languedoc wines are widely available in the
$12-$16 range. Finding a 100 percent Carignan isn’t impossible but could be
difficult; it will be worth the effort.
Howard’s Picks:
Le Rendez Vous du
Soleil 2007 - This is
a nice extracted blend of Cabernet, Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, Counoise,
Tanet, Terret Gris, and Carignan. This is big rich red wine that is beautifully
balanced with big dark fruit. (SRP $42)
Lo Vielh Carignan
2007 - This is
the real star in John's stable and the supply alloted Indiana has already sold
out. This is the 100 percent Carignan from vines planted more than 100 years
ago. Its a big incredible wine that has a smoothness unlike many Carignan
wines. It's outstanding fine wine. ($53)
Howard W. Hewitt,
Crawfordsville, IN., writes every other week about wine for 18 newspapers.
Contact him at: hewitthoward@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment