16 17 June 7 - 13, 2007 Small is beautiful for British vigneron
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17 16 A FTER 35 years with IT giant IBM Englishman Lindsay Phillips decided it was time for something completely different – 13 years later, he is the proud vigneron of Le Domaine St- Marc des Omèdes, “the smallest British-owned vineyard in Provence,” as his sign proclaims. It may even be the smallest, full stop, but he is not sure. However, this is one case where small is beautiful – Mr Phillips’ three hectares of vines just outside the Var market town of Lorgues produce appellation d’origine con- trôlée (AOC) Côtes de Provence rosé so good that most of his stock is bought by the prestigious London importers Berry Bros and Rudd, who supply the Queen.] Meanwhile his AOC red gets an enthu- siastic write-up in the wine-lovers’ bible the Guide Hachette des Vins, which describes it as a “charming wine” with “elegance, gaiety, luminosity and deli- cacy.” He also makes a vin de pays red, a vin de pays rosé, and two whites - an appellation Côtes de Provence and a vin de pays Chardonnay, which cannnot be AOC because Chardonnay grapes are not typical of Provence. He said this kind of restriction made some people critical of the AOC system (“they say you can make better wines if you just ignore the rules”), and was a factor in some people preferring New World Wines. He said: “If you buy an appellation con- trôlée wine it must be made from approved varieties but the label will not tell you what ones were used. With a wine from Australia, for example, if you know you like Cabernet – Sauvignon, you can see on the bot- tle that that is what is in it.” Mr Phillips, 72, and his Belgian wife Anne-Marguerite, moved to Lorgues in 1994 after deciding they wanted to be in France, partly so they could more easily visit their son, who lives in Paris. Mr Phillips was no stranger to Provence, having worked in the early 1970s at the large IBM premises in La Gaude in the Alpes-Maritimes, mar- keting computerised telephone systems for large companies. When the couple decided to move back to France they toured the country before deciding they liked the Var best. The Alpes-Maritimes had become more built-up than in Mr Phillips’s day, and it was also more expensive. “In the Alpes-Maritimes you get a lot of houses next to each other,” Mr Phillips said. “Here you’ve got space – I only have three hectares of my own but there are open views all around.” He added that the Lorgues area had an ideal micro- climate – a moderate one, without violent storms. “There was a big storm at Christmas a few years ago – the palms on the Croisette in Cannes were knocked down and trees were blown over at the Château de Versailles but we had nothing here. “We also get no hail, which can strip your vines bare before you harvest the grapes. Everything is knocked off.” The Phillips’ house, which is about 200 years old, was, in the post-war period, lived in by a farm worker who put in vines for an owner who lived in the cen- tre of Lorgues, some of which are still producing grapes. “That was the case for many houses like this,” Mr Phillips said. “The proprietors didn’t want to live in the countryside, it was too uncomfort- able.” At that time, the lower floor was used for animals. “The farm worker vis- ited us and told us he kept horses where our best bed- room is.” The house was converted by the next owner, and the Phillips’ who bought it from him, have made their own improve- ments, includ- ing creating an upstairs apart- ment, where a couple live who help in the house and with the vines, and they have planted new vines. “Some vines can grow for almost 100 years but they do die off, and fashions in viticulture change. It’s common to replace them after about 30 years.” Mr Phillips said the previous owner sold his grapes to a co-operative in Lorgues. He said every small town had one and a typical one had 60 – 100 peo- ple who took their grapes. The grapes are all mixed up and the quality can be variable. He said: “If you produce your own wine you’ve got your name on the bottle and it’s rather good fun – it’s my wine and I can send it to my family in England, and you have the curiosity of people coming here to buy.” He is a rar- ity in that, despite his small amount of land, he goes to the trouble of making and selling his own wine. The fact he does so means his property is a regis- tered vineyard. He doesn’t make much profit but that is not his priority. Le Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes produces 14,000 bottles a year on just under three hectares, while other com- mercial vineyards in Lorgues range from 12 hecares to the Château de Berne (another of at least four British-owned vineyards in the Var, Mr Phillips said) with about 80 hectares producing around 500,000 bottles. Mr Phillips’ wine is made for him by Philippe Croce-Spinelli, an oenologue from Les Arcs – a technical wine expert who advises wine makers, and, in this case, makes some of his own. “He is well-known in the Var and I was advised to ask his advice. He said to me ‘you’ve not got all that much, I can manage to make that myself.’” Mr Phillips bought vats for the wine to be stored in, and he visits during the vinification process to discuss technicalities. Much of the Domaine St-Marc des Ormèdes wine is sold directly from the property, apart from that bought by Berry Bros and Rudd. “Rosé now, is particularly popu- lar, especially in the UK,” Mr Phillips said. He deliberately keeps his prices affordable – his rosé sells for £7.50 in the UK and in France he sells it for €5. He explained that the lower-quality vin de pays rosé was made from the final pressing of the grapes – which, for his wine, includes the red varieties Grenache, Mouvèdre and Cinsault. Rosés were rarely made from one vari- ety alone, he said. The vin de pays may also include some grape varieties, or percentages of varieties, not allowed in the AOC, including kinds like Carignan, a hardy old variety usually considered most suitable for reds. Last year Mr Phillips added 5% of white Chardonnay to the rosé, making it fruitier and paler. This was quite com- mon in pale rosés, he said, and the AOC rules allowed up to 10%. The red is mostly made from Cabernet- Sauvignan, which is matured in oak bar- rels for a year. It is not pressed – the grapes are left to break down and fer- ment whole. In the case of reds it is not the stage of pressing that differentiates AOC and vin de pays, but the quality of the batches used in the final blend and the mix of grape varieties. Each grape kind is fermented sepa- rately before a blend is made and then the wine is matured in casks. “You can tell how good a batch is when you taste it, and the oenologue’s expertise comes in here. He might say ‘that one needs more time in the barrel’ or ‘we need to add a bit of this or that’. I’ll taste it with him and I usually agree with him.” Mr Phillips is no stickler for tradition – much of his vin de pays goes into “bag-in-a box”, which he said was convenient for people to collect and kept well for a year or two. “When I started, my oenologue threw up his hands and said ‘the French won’t drink that,’ but now they are used to it.” He also uses plastic corks and is even considering screw-top ones. “Real cork is expensive and can contaminate the wine. Some people say it’s necessary because the wine ‘needs air’, and plas- tic gives too tight a seal but red gets all the air it needs in the barrels, and whites and rosés don’t want any at all.” About eight sprayings with a tractor- drawn machine are done between April, when the vines come into leaf, and six weeks before the harvest, for problems including fungal diseases and insects. “I’d like to be ‘bio’ (organic),” Mr Phillips said, “but it makes life a lot more complicated. Bio vineyards also look pretty overgrown because they can’t use herbicides.” He pays his pick- ers in wine and some come back the next year and ask for the wine from ‘their grapes’. “There is a mystique about grape-picking and people like doing it,” he said. In September he picks samples every few days and tests them for sugar content with a hand-held instrument – over-ripe and they will pro- duce too much alcohol. In the old days, he said, wines typically had more alco- hol but a less fruity taste – a fresh taste for modern rosés and whites is also ensured by “thermoregulation” – refrig- erating the wine while it ferments. At present Mr Phillips is starting a labo- rious process of de-budding – pulling off some buds on each plant, so as to pro- duce a smaller number of better, juicier bunches. This is the biggest job apart from pruning, which is done in the win- ter when the vines are dormant. He said: “I’ve done this for 13 years now and sometimes I wonder how long I will go on for. Sometimes when you are short of help and you have other prob- lems in life you think ‘I could do without those dammed vines,’ and sometimes when you are picking and the weather’s not right you think ‘oh why am I bother- ing’ but when you’ve picked the grapes and they are maturing nicely and you go and taste them, you think ‘well this is quite fun.’” He added he loved the way the vines changed colour with the sea- sons. “In autumn they look beautiful. The plants start to change colour at dif- ferent times,” he said. People are welcome to visit any day to buy wine. Mr Phillips said: “When we are here we are open, it is very informal here. You can bring a picnic and eat it by the pool.” Le Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes is on the D562 Draguignan road out of Lorgues. Leaving Lorgues in the Draguignan direction, after the roundabout at the edge of the village, turn off to the right on the Chemin des Pailles. You come to a vineyard called Le Domaine des Aumèdes, on your left, but shortly afterwards you will see the vineyard signposted to the right. To confirm someone will be in, call: 04 94 67 69 17 or email: [email protected] More information is available at www.stmarcdesomedes.com LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP: Lindsay Phillips sometimes think he could “do without those damned vines” but he loves their colours and the wine they make STOCKING UP: Lindsay and Anne-Marguerite Phillips outside their wine store VINTAGE: Le Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes produces two wines in each colour every year RURAL: The Phillipses enjoy the wide open spaces around their country home, the Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes “WHEN WE ARE HERE WE ARE OPEN, IT IS VERY INFORMAL HERE. YOU CAN BRING A PICNIC AND EAT IT BY THE POOL.” Small is beautiful for British vigneron Draguignan Draguignan Fréjus Fréjus St. Tropez St. Tropez Grasse Cannes Cannes Lorgues Vidauban Vidauban Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes “IF YOU PRODUCE YOUR OWN WINE YOU’VE GOT YOUR NAME ON THE BOTTLE, AND IT’S RATHER GOOD FUN” Lindsay Phillips grew up on a Welsh farm and ran a smallholding on weekends away from his marketing job with IBM. Today he makes fine wines in the smallest British-owned vineyard in Provence June 7 - 13, 2007 June 7 - 13, 2007 P EOPLE By OLIVER ROWLAND
Transcript of 16 17 June 7 - 13, 2007 Small is beautiful for British vigneron
1716
AFTER 35 years with IT giant IBMEnglishman Lindsay Phillipsdecided it was time for something
completely different – 13 years later, heis the proud vigneron of Le Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes, “the smallestBritish-owned vineyard in Provence,” ashis sign proclaims. It may even be thesmallest, full stop, but he is not sure. However, this is one case where small
is beautiful – Mr Phillips’ three hectaresof vines just outside the Var markettown of Lorgues produce appellationd’origine con-trôlée (AOC)Côtes deProvence roséso good thatmost of hisstock is bought by the prestigiousLondon importers Berry Bros and Rudd,who supply the Queen.]Meanwhile his AOC red gets an enthu-
siastic write-up in the wine-lovers’ biblethe Guide Hachette des Vins, whichdescribes it as a “charming wine” with“elegance, gaiety, luminosity and deli-cacy.” He also makes a vin de pays red,a vin de pays rosé, and two whites - anappellation Côtes de Provence and avin de pays Chardonnay, which cannnotbe AOC because Chardonnay grapesare not typical of Provence. He said this kind of restriction made
some people critical of the AOC system(“they say you can make better wines ifyou just ignore the rules”), and was afactor in some people preferring NewWorld Wines. He said: “If you buy an appellation con-trôlée wine it must be made fromapproved varieties but the label will nottell you what ones were used. With awine from Australia, for example, ifyou know you like Cabernet –Sauvignon, you can see on the bot-tle that that is what is in it.”
Mr Phillips, 72, and his Belgianwife Anne-Marguerite, moved toLorgues in 1994 after deciding theywanted to be in France, partly sothey could more easily visit theirson, who lives in Paris. Mr Phillips
was no stranger toProvence, having
worked in the
early 1970s at the large IBM premises inLa Gaude in the Alpes-Maritimes, mar-keting computerised telephone systemsfor large companies.
When the couple decided to moveback to France they toured the countrybefore deciding they liked the Var best.
The Alpes-Maritimes had becomemore built-up than in Mr Phillips’s day,and it was also more expensive.
“In the Alpes-Maritimes you get a lotof houses next to each other,” MrPhillips said. “Here you’ve got space – Ionly have three hectares of my own butthere are open views all around.”
He added that the Lorgues area hadan ideal micro-climate – amoderate one,without violentstorms. “Therewas a big storm
at Christmas a few years ago – thepalms on the Croisette in Cannes wereknocked down and trees were blownover at the Château de Versailles but wehad nothing here.
“We also get no hail, which can stripyour vines bare before you harvest thegrapes. Everything is knocked off.”
The Phillips’ house, which is about 200years old, was, in the post-war period,lived in by a farm worker who put invines for an owner who lived in the cen-tre of Lorgues, some of which are stillproducing grapes. “That was the casefor many houses like this,” Mr Phillipssaid. “The proprietors didn’t want to livein the countryside, it was too uncomfort-able.” At that time, the lower floor wasused for animals. “The farm worker vis-ited us and told us he kepthorses where our best bed-room is.” The house wasconverted by the next
owner, and thePhillips’ whobought it fromhim, havemade theirown improve-ments, includ-ing creatingan upstairsapart-
ment, where a couple live who help inthe house and with the vines, and theyhave planted new vines.
“Some vines can grow for almost 100years but they do die off, and fashions inviticulture change. It’s common toreplace them after about 30 years.”
Mr Phillips said the previous ownersold his grapes to a co-operative inLorgues. He said every small town hadone and a typical one had 60 – 100 peo-ple who took their grapes. The grapesare all mixed up and the quality can bevariable. He said: “If you produce yourown wine you’ve got your name on thebottle and it’s rather good fun – it’s mywine and I can send it to my family inEngland, and you have the curiosity ofpeople coming here to buy.” He is a rar-ity in that, despite his small amount ofland, he goes to the trouble of makingand selling his own wine. The fact hedoes so means his property is a regis-tered vineyard. He doesn’t make muchprofit but that is not his priority.
Le Domaine St-Marc des Omèdesproduces 14,000 bottles a year on justunder three hectares, while other com-mercial vineyards in Lorgues range from12 hecares to the Château de Berne(another of at least four British-ownedvineyards in the Var, Mr Phillips said)with about 80 hectares producingaround 500,000 bottles.
Mr Phillips’ wine is made for him byPhilippe Croce-Spinelli, an oenologuefrom Les Arcs – a technical wine expertwho advises wine makers, and, in thiscase, makes some of his own. “He is
well-known in the Var and I was advisedto ask his advice. He said to me ‘you’venot got all that much, I can manage tomake that myself.’” Mr Phillips boughtvats for the wine to be stored in, and hevisits during the vinification process todiscuss technicalities. Much of theDomaine St-Marc des Ormèdes wine issold directly from the property, apartfrom that bought by Berry Bros andRudd. “Rosé now, is particularly popu-lar, especially in the UK,” Mr Phillips
said. He deliberately keeps his pricesaffordable – his rosé sells for £7.50 inthe UK and in France he sells it for €5.He explainedthat thelower-qualityvin de paysrosé wasmade fromthe final pressing of the grapes – which,for his wine, includes the red varietiesGrenache, Mouvèdre and Cinsault.
Rosés were rarely made from one vari-ety alone, he said. The vin de pays mayalso include some grape varieties, or
percentagesof varieties,not allowed inthe AOC,includingkinds like
Carignan, a hardy old variety usuallyconsidered most suitable for reds. Lastyear Mr Phillips added 5% of white
Chardonnay to the rosé, making itfruitier and paler. This was quite com-mon in pale rosés, he said, and the AOCrules allowed up to 10%. The red ismostly made from Cabernet-Sauvignan, which is matured in oak bar-rels for a year. It is not pressed – thegrapes are left to break down and fer-ment whole. In the case of reds it is notthe stage of pressing that differentiatesAOC and vin de pays, but the quality ofthe batches used in the final blend andthe mix of grape varieties.
Each grape kind is fermented sepa-rately before a blend is made and thenthe wine is matured in casks.
“You can tell how good a batch iswhen you taste it, and the oenologue’sexpertise comes in here. He might say‘that one needs more time in the barrel’or ‘we need to add a bit of this or that’.I’ll taste it with him and I usually agreewith him.” Mr Phillips is no stickler fortradition – much of his vin de pays goesinto “bag-in-a box”, which he said wasconvenient for people to collect andkept well for a year or two.
“When I started, my oenologue threwup his hands and said ‘the French won’tdrink that,’ but now they are used to it.”He also uses plastic corks and is evenconsidering screw-top ones. “Real corkis expensive and can contaminate thewine. Some people say it’s necessarybecause the wine ‘needs air’, and plas-tic gives too tight a seal but red gets allthe air it needs in the barrels, and whitesand rosés don’t want any at all.”
About eight sprayings with a tractor-drawn machine are done between April,when the vines come into leaf, and sixweeks before the harvest, for problemsincluding fungal diseases and insects.
“I’d like to be ‘bio’ (organic),” MrPhillips said, “but it makes life a lotmore complicated. Bio vineyards alsolook pretty overgrown because theycan’t use herbicides.” He pays his pick-ers in wine and some come back thenext year and ask for the wine from‘their grapes’. “There is a mystique
about grape-picking and people likedoing it,” he said. In September hepicks samples every few days and teststhem for sugar content with a hand-heldinstrument – over-ripe and they will pro-duce too much alcohol. In the old days,he said, wines typically had more alco-hol but a less fruity taste – a fresh tastefor modern rosés and whites is alsoensured by “thermoregulation” – refrig-erating the wine while it ferments.
At present Mr Phillips is starting a labo-rious process of de-budding – pulling offsome buds on each plant, so as to pro-duce a smaller number of better, juicierbunches. This is the biggest job apartfrom pruning, which is done in the win-ter when the vines are dormant.
He said: “I’ve done this for 13 yearsnow and sometimes I wonder how longI will go on for. Sometimes when you areshort of help and you have other prob-lems in life you think ‘I could do withoutthose dammed vines,’ and sometimeswhen you are picking and the weather’snot right you think ‘oh why am I bother-ing’ but when you’ve picked the grapesand they are maturing nicely and you goand taste them, you think ‘well this isquite fun.’” He added he loved the waythe vines changed colour with the sea-sons. “In autumn they look beautiful.
The plants start to change colour at dif-ferent times,” he said.
People are welcome to visit any day tobuy wine. Mr Phillips said: “When weare here we are open, it is very informalhere. You can bring a picnic and eat itby the pool.”
Le Domaine St-Marc des Omèdesis on the D562 Draguignan roadout of Lorgues. Leaving Lorgues in the Draguignandirection, after the roundabout at theedge of the village, turn off to theright on the Chemin des Pailles. You come to a vineyard called Le Domaine des Aumèdes, on yourleft, but shortly afterwards you willsee the vineyard signposted to theright. To confirm someone will be in,call: 04 94 67 69 17 or email: [email protected] More information is available atwww.stmarcdesomedes.com
LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP: Lindsay Phillips sometimes think he could “do without those damned vines” but he loves their colours and the wine they make
STOCKING UP: Lindsay and Anne-Marguerite Phillips outside their wine store
VINTAGE: Le DomaineSt-Marc des Omèdes
produces two wines ineach colour every year
RURAL: The Phillipses enjoy the wide open spaces around their country home, the Domaine St-Marc des Omèdes
“WHEN WE ARE HERE WE ARE OPEN, IT ISVERY INFORMAL HERE. YOU CAN BRING APICNIC AND EAT IT BY THE POOL.”
Small is beautifulfor British vigneron
DraguignanDraguignan
FréjusFréjus
St. TropezSt. Tropez
Grasse
CannesCannes
Lorgues
VidaubanVidauban
Domaine St-Marcdes Omèdes
“IF YOU PRODUCE YOUR OWN WINEYOU’VE GOT YOUR NAME ON THEBOTTLE, AND IT’S RATHER GOOD FUN”
Lindsay Phillips grew up on a Welsh farm and ran a smallholding onweekends away from his marketing job with IBM. Today he makesfine wines in the smallest British-owned vineyard in Provence
June 7 - 13, 2007 June 7 - 13, 2007PEOPLE
By OLIVER ROWLAND
