It seems Spring is right around the corner, fingers crossed. Daylight now till 7 (thank god), sap is flowing, and mud is everywhere. Perfect time for a transitional grape, Gamay!!
I love Gamay anytime of year, but what a perfect red grape……. light fresh and fruity. Perfect for seasonal changes as Gamay loves a slight chill to it, great when we get some high 50’s and 60’s during the day.

Spotlight this week is on Fay D’ Homme Gamay.

Vincent is most known for his Muscadet, but make other wines including Cot and Gamay. Wines are certified Organic as well. Vincent is the 5 th generation of winemakers. Both of his parents, indeed came from winemakers families which make Vincent a ” concentrate” of winemaker !This is also the reason why his parcels spread on such a wide territory (4 towns and 3 great terroirs over 14 kilometers ). Vincent started to work with his father in 1986 with 4 Ha and took over his dad’s parcels when he got retired in 1992. This lead to a 14Ha domaine owned by both Vincent, his wife Sylvie and his two younger brother who are participating from further in the continuity of the family story. He continued expanding the domaine by putting his hands on great parcells for sale, up to 38 Ha and then reduced it down to 26 by selling the least interesting ones.

Let’s go back to the “good old days” when the nature was the queen. None of us remember this time as it was ante WW2. Then came the winemaking schools along with the development of technologies and pharmaceuticals helps. Well, let’s looks at ourselves and see the use of damn antibiotics to cure a simple running nose back in the early 70’s. That catastrophy did happen in the whole France and Vincent can even put a date on it : from 1980 /81 for his area. This was right when he went out of school in 1981. At this time the demand for Muscadet was so big that the AOC extended the appellation by almost 50 % and much winemakers got tempted to produce more and use the new technologies to reach this goal. Vincent’s father has to admit that he did the Same at Le Fay D’Homme. Vincent considers that his generation has been “safaried” but fortunately, he is curious and open minded. By tasting wines from his area and elsewhere, he realized very quickly that a difference of quality showed between wines from old time practice and the ones from the new technology. He then considered changing his practice and learn from his references ( i.e. Guy Bossard in the Muscadet ) with a firm conviction that going back to ancient techniques in addition of some good improvement he had learned at school would make a wine he would be proud of.

You can see a nice quote on Le Fay D’Homme wine boxes : ” To make good wine, you need a certain philosophy…you need to be a dreamer “. A dreamer is a perfect adjective to define Mister Caillé ; someone with a positive spirit willing to get out of a comfortable life to improve the quality of his wine and participate to the respect of the nature and a better life in general.

La Part du Colibri means the Part of the Humbird from an ancian Indian philosophy meaning that even if you do just a little bit but the best you can, this is your contribution to a better place. After converting his all property from conventional methods back to organic practices, he is now starting to learn and work a part of his domaine in Biodynamy with a strong determination to live his dream.

For more details on this wine and where it comes from visit http://www.indiewineries.com/france/loire-france/fay-dhomme/