Before wrapping up what has been a fantastic year of changes for Living Wine, I wanted to share back on one of our favorite winemakers,Thibaud Capellaro in the North Rhône. This is long overdue, I probably forgot many things, but I still hope it will be of interest as we are about to receive a small batch of Thibaud’s wines next Month: La Canuse, Terra and Pierre Taillée 2021. These wines are available for pre-order on https://vintners.co, feel free to reserve your allocation. They’ll take the boat on January 1st and will hopefully be available a few weeks after.

In late September I was visiting Thibaud at his new winery, to check how the harvest went and taste all the wines in the cellar. Yes, new winery , that’s the first thing worth mentioning - if you go visit Thibaud, don’t go anymore to Condrieu, Thibaud moved. Thibaud used the time between the summer bottling and the harvest to move. His new place is a few kilometers south from Condrieu, in Chavanay, a bit further away from his vineyards in Côte Rôtie but closer to the vineyards he works with in Saint-Joseph and Ardèche.

The new space for vinification, with Thibaud and Etienne Seignovert. 

The old winery in Condrieu was cool, and it was always a pleasure to visit, but clearly Thibaud, who was sharing it with a friend, definitely outgrew it. Now, the new place is totally different, it was actually the former winery of Pierre Jean Villa. It is quite modern and doesn’t have the glamor of an old winery, but super functional, very big, conveniently located. Two large spaces for vinification and storage, an office space and a communal area. A great tool for the future! Thibaud will be able to scale up which is good news as we’ll then be able to bring more bottles.

And I could experience that, as tasting the 2022 vintage, there were definitely a lot of wines... 

Tasting what will make Le Temps d'une Bise 2022

We started with the Viognier wine that is used in le temps d’une bise and in Ze-ro. A carbo for one week then foot-stomped - very yummy by itself! Then a field blend of Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne from the other side of the Rhône. Super excited about this new wine! These are grapes from a new domaine parcelle that Thibaud took over from Simon Gastrein. Great to see that Thibaud was able to increase the size of his own estate! Then we went with a Syrah, Grenache and Viognier blended right after fermentation. Then the “negoce” Syrah wine, made from grapes farmed by Gerald Oustric (but still harvested by Thibaud), that are used in Terra and Ze-Ro.

We then tasted three more curiosities that are destined for the Juicy Squad label: the Dolcetto that Thibaud is doing from grapes from our friends at Forti del vento in eastern Piemont that they started collaborating in 2021, as well as a new collaboration, the Grignolino made from grapes from Cantina Gasparda, in the Monferrato area of Piedmont. Very curious about the Juicy Squad project, a fun collaboration with two other friends.

Grignolino in the North Rhône :-)

Moving on, we went to the flagship Canuse, called “reversed Côte Rôtie”. Canuse 2022 is again a Viognier pressed on a Syrah cake. This year, it was pressed not only on the Côte Rotie, but also Saint Joseph press cakes.

Then to the very serious business, the Côte Rôtie 2022 of Thibaud. I’ve tasted the previous 2020 vintage and can’t wait for it to be released, and I was super curious about 2022 and it didn't disappoint. Vinified and aged in sandstone amphora. Whole cluster maceration for 15 months. The terroir speaks, and we know we touch the very serious business the instant we put this wine in our mouth. Can’t wait!

Also tasted the Viognier and Marsanne (macerated and direct press) that will become Le Temps d’une Bise 2022 and the Syrah that will go into the Ombre et Lumière 2022, the collaboration between Thibaud and Etienne Seignovert. Ombre et Lumière 2021 was so delicious that we are super happy it was not a one shot… we hope there will be many other vintages after 2022!

That’s it for 2022! This is probably a lot to read, and I can’t share much tasting notes on each, not sure it would even make a ton of sense, but it says a lot on the creativity and good energy in the new cellar of Thibaud.

A nice new baby that would have probably not fit in the old winery

We ended up our tour with an outdoor casse-croute tasting the 2021 wines that were bottled during the summer. This wines are, as mentioned in the intro, about to arrive to New York:

• Canuse 2021 - the third edition of the Canuse that we bring to NY.

• Terra 2021 - the négoce Syrah from Ardèche

• Pierre Taillèe 2021 - the Syrah from the new parcelle farmed by Thibaud
  

The same energy as previous vintages. Maybe more precise and gentle. Just delicious! Wish we would have more to put on tables around NYC!!!

Etienne Seignovert en action tasting the 21s

Stay tuned for more information about the bottling of 2022s later in 2023 and for now, don’t hesitate to check in with us to put your hands on some of the 2021 about to arrive.