Alain & Isabelle Hasard (Burgundy)(1)
By 2009-3-3 11:38:57
Isabelle & Alain HasardAluze (population 250), Cotes Chalonnaise (Burgundy)
The Côtes du Couchois (named from the small town of Couches) is one of these largely-ignored Burgundy Appellations, it borders the Côte Chalonnaise on its north-western wing (another lesser-known Appellation). A mountainous area with a mix of woods, cow prairies delimited by hedges, quiet villages and vineyards, the Cotes du Couchois is wildly beautiful, and driving along its steep and narrow side-roads is just a pleasure by itself, especially compared to the busy plains of Beaune. Alain Hasard began his wine activity in St Sernin du Plain in the Côtes du Couchois, where he and his wife Isabelle started their winery in 1997. The house, which they found before the vineyards, was located on the Place de l'Abbaye square in Saint-Sernin and the name of the estate was found : Champs de l'Abbaye, a play with chants (the songs for which the abbeys are well known) and champs (fields). Alain Hasard was not raised as a vigneron, he wasn't even from Burgundy and he discovered wine and gastronomy while working in restaurants in Montpellier as a student. To make it short, this all led him first to become a caviste, near Paris first and then in Limoges, but ultimately his discovery of Burgundy made him want to start a new life there making wine. The landscapes of Burgundy, the people working in the vineyard, he says with a smile, touched both of them as they came to live in Beaune, there was some sort of sensuality in this region that they wanted to be part of. They looked for a landing spot and chose the Côtes-du-Couchois. Alain Hasard was to be the one that would put in the spotlight this little-known part of Burgundy. In the early years, Isabelle who was a trained nurse, kept her job in the hospital to help pay the bills. The humility of the Côtes-du-Couchois Appellation (compared with the better-known zones of the region) made the area a very affordable start, and Alain Hasard began with 4,5 hectares of Passetoutgrain, i.e. Gamay and Pinot Noir.
Aluze - Alain Hasard pointing to his vineyards below the villageSince Alain Hasard moved to Aluze in the Côte Chalonnaise (just at the border with the Côtes du Couchois), he took up other vineyards (Côte Chalonnaise, Mercurey and Rully) and doesn't make anymore wine on the Côtes du Couchois, but what he did for this little Appelation in just a few years must be mentionned. The Côtes-du-Couchois Appellation was created in 2000 and in this area where the vignerons still sell in bulk at low price to the Negoce, he applied a rigorous organic farm-management in the vineyard (officially in organic farming since 1999) and his low-intervention red wines surprised the wine critics. Blind tasted, his Couchois wines were often ahead of some top-names in Mercurey or Côte de Beaune. His neat, terroir-driven wines suddenly put the Côtes du Couchois on the map. In 2003 they had three red cuvées there, based on the three particular types of soil found in the Couchois. From 2005, they felt some routine and jumped at the opportunity to take some vineyards (0,5 hectare) in Rully, with Chardonnay (2005 saw the beginning of a crisis in the region and this led to more opportunities to find available vineyards). This opened their apetite as from the start they dreamed to work on Communal Appellations. They had looked long before here and there (Maranges, Santenay, even Côte Chalonnaise) but being outsiders with no local help they failed to get vineyards there. The viticulture crisis that started in 2005-2006 helped a lot to open the doors. In 2006 they found this estate in Aluze and there was no other contender for the purchase. The estate had some vineyards on Mercurey (one hectare) and on Côte Chalonnaise, which added to their Rully plot. Just at the border of the small village of Aluze which sits atop a hill at 360 m elevation, Alain Hasard shows us the Appellations around : Mercurey in the far below the woods, Côte Chalonnaise just below the village, and Côtes du Couchois on the other side.
From wineterroirs.com
