The Dinosaur

Educated in Burgundy, Marc Barriot, proprietor and winemaker of Clos de l’Origine, makes a Burgundian style of wine emphasizing finesse, balance, ease of drinking and low alcohol. He is out of step with most of his colleagues in Maury.

Barriot: “I am a dinosaur, I don’t follow the market, I make the wine I like to drink.”

Marc Barriot harvesting his white grapes, August 19 ©2012 Ron Scherl

Combine that sentiment with his belief in biodynamic farming practice and you have the village outlier and a guy who appears to relish that role.

Biodynamics marries organic farming with a bit of mysticism to create some practices that go beyond science and cause many to mock. “Burying light” in the vineyard to enhance production is a matter of belief rather than agricultural science; but I want to focus on other aspects of the practice that I think have a more direct effect on the product and the environment. Adherents believe that a parcel of land being farmed is a complete system composed of the soil, insects, and animals that inhabit it and the microclimate that shapes it. It is the job of the grower to work in harmony with this system, managing the land and the crop with as little intrusion as possible in order to create a wine that truly expresses the terroir, which is composed of the grape variety, the soil and the microclimate. Like all other growers, he sprays sulfur to combat plant diseases, but for Barriot, that’s as far as he goes in introducing foreign substances to the land. And the practice continues in the winery: “If you add something not in the vineyard, you change the terroir.”

As you might imagine, Barriot is a very small producer. He owns ten hectares (about 22 acres) of vineyards and in this difficult year will produce only about 20,000 bottles of wine. The early flowering was battered by wind and then several hail storms caused substantial damage. It’s very hot and there’s been little rain. The vineyards appear wild and chaotic, weeds and dry grasses growing everywhere, when torn up by plowing they stay where they fall. Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish the rows of vines. These are small parcels, as small as .17 hectare and separated by miles. This makes harvesting slower and more difficult and therefore, more expensive, but according to Barriot: “the smaller the parcel, the bigger the expression of terroir.”

Once the fruit is in the winery, the idea is to do as little as possible.

RS: “What’s the winemaker’s job?”

MB: “ The winemaker is a guy who allows the wine to go its own way.”

And when it does, he gets the wine he wants: balanced in minerality and fruit, alcohol and acidity. He feels the finesse and lightness allow the delicate flavors of the garrigue to come through.

Most winemakers here would not agree. They’ll tell you the heat and soil naturally produce a fuller bodied, more concentrated wine with higher alcohol. They’ll say we’re not in Burgundy and the wine should reflect this place. That doesn’t seem to matter to Barriot, going his own way makes him a happy dinosaur. As for me: I’m always glad to have a choice.

Shopping News

Fran was here for 10 days and now I know what I’ve missed by not having kids and grandkids: power shopping. I had no idea how complex this could be. Of course you’d want to be fair to everyone but this is no simple matter. One needs to take into account the quality of the gift, where it came from, its color and perceived value in the eyes of the giver and recipient. It was of course inevitable that any purchase could only up the ante and lead to the next store. Very tricky stuff here and I could only watch and wonder, and head for the nearest café and a soothing pastis.

 

 

As for me, I’m into the barter economy. Wages and earnings are very low around here and, as a result, what we would normally think of as reasonable compensation for photography is out of the question. When the government of Maury wanted to use my photos for their web site annual report, etc. they offered me €100 and then proceeded to choose 60 images. I said OK to €100 each for 60 images, but I had misunderstood. They wanted all 60 for the 100. Tough negotiator that I am, I got them to 200. When another organization wanted to use one of my photos of the mayor in their annual report, I knew there wouldn’t be much, so I suggested €50. They were willing to go 15.

 

So now I’m into bartering and since I spend most of my money on wine, that’s my preferred currency. When Marc Barriot asked me to do some photos for a book he wants to make for promotion, I knew I could either work for about five cents an hour, or I could drink his wine. Fortunately I like Marc’s wine, so we struck a deal similar to the one I’d already made with Marcel. This is wonderful as long as I choose the right winemakers.

 

So we started with some photos of plowing, one vineyard by horse, one by a small, hand-driven motorized plow that can fit in the rows of these old vineyards.

 

Emanuel Favier ©2102 Ron Scherl

Marc also likes to talk and to teach, or preach the virtues of organic farming and was delighted to find an earthworm turned up by the plowing and offered up as proof of the quality of soil without chemicals.

 

Marc Barriot ©2012 Ron Scherl

So, having finished shopping, I’m now back to shooting, always a good thing because I like the work and I’ve been mostly happy with the results. Even days that don’t feel very good often produce a photo worth saving, not always, but often enough to convince me of the rightness of being here. Part of that is being in a new place and seeing it with new eyes, but it also has to do with the richness of this place, the beauty of the landscape and the interest I have in knowing it. I’ve been here about 9 months now and think I’ll stay a while longer so I’m looking for a place to rent and I’m looking for a landlord who wants to barter for photos.