FAY D’HOMME: LA PART DU COLIBRI GAMAY
Vincent is the 5th 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 leads to a 14 Ha domaine owned by both Vincent, his wife Sylvie and his two younger brothers who are participating from further in the continuity of the family story. He continued expanding the domaine by putting his hands on great parcels 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 “safrified” 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 improvment 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 philosophie 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 pratices, he is now starting to learn and work a part of his domaine in Biodynamy with a strong determination to live his dream. Vincent’s goal is as simple as producing great grapes ! That might seems a little strange but easy to understand.
The harder and better you work in the vineyard, the less you have to do in the cellar. He is not lasy, however tend to learn year after year just “to do nothing”, self derision meaning do not interfere in the making of the wine. His work leads to a very expressive Gros Plant, straight, pure laserbeam Muscadet expressing there identities upon their terroirs ( orthogneiss, gabbro and granit ) and aromatic reds ( Cot, Abouriou and Gamay ).
HARD FACTS
WINE NAME: La Part du Colibri Gamay
PRODUCER: Fay d’Homme
VINTAGE: 2015
APPELLATION: IGP Val de Loire
GRAPE VARIETIES: Gamay
FERMENTATION TANKS:Stainless steel
YEASTS: Natural
MACERATION: 8 days
MALOLACTIC: Done
AGED IN: Stainless Steel
AGED FOR: 6 months
CLARIFICATION/FILTRATION: Filtered
ALCOHOL CONTENT: 12 % vol.
TOTAL PRODUCTION: 5,900 bottles
ALTITUDE: 50 – 100 m
SOIL: Gabbro
YEAR PLANTED: 1972
DENSITY: 7,000 vines/hectare
YIELD: 40 Hectoliters per Hectare
Grown on Gabbro soil, the same terroir as the Muscadet of Gorges.
40 year old vines, aged in steel for 6 months.
We all have our own references in Gamay; most of us think Beaujolais or other Vin de Pays. La part du Colibri’s Gamay is slightly different from what you could expect. The big difference here…
from other Gamay is the expression of the terroir. Only 3% of the Pays Nantais soil is made out of Gabbro, the same rock which gives the great minerality to the Muscadet from the area of Gorges. Gabbro is close to Basalt, and the result of cooling and solidification of lava. Vincent’s Gamay was planted more than 40 years ago and vinified in the same way as his other reds; 8 days of maceration, 6 months in stainless steel. He only makes 5,900 bottles of Gamay. A perfect food pairing wine.