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About Domaine Des Fourquieres
About Domaine Des Fourquieres |
| Daniel and Chantal Basset work 10 hectares of vines that grow on plots in their home village of Saint Etienne La Varenne as well as in the neighbouring communes of Odenas and Saint Etienne des Oullières.
Daniel’s father created the estate and, at 83 years of age, he still takes an active interest in the workings of the estate.
Daniel started working his own vines in 1979 and took over the family estate 9 years later in 1988.
He married Chantal in 1982. Up to 1984, when their first daughter – Claire – was born, she worked in an office, at that time she joined her husband on the estate.
Chantal’s is also a winemaking family. She is the 5th generation with her brother working the family estate, so it was quite natural for her to form a team with her husband.
Stéphanie, their second daughter, was born in 1987 followed in 1991 by their son Benoit.
Today, Claire works in environmental analysis and is living with her partner, Emeric. They have a son called Mathis who is 16 months old.
At the moment Stéphanie is travelling and odd jobbing in Australia before stating her master’s in special education in September.
Benoit is just about to finish his first level of furniture making and joining apprenticeship, he then plans to embark upon the next level with a new company.
In addition to his traditional style Beaujolais Villages that Nathan sells, Daniel also crafts white and rosé Beaujolais Villages and a special cuvée of red Beaujolais Villages from the pink granite terroir around Château des Tours in Saint Etienne La Varenne.
There is also one Beaujolais Cru in his range. He makes Brouilly both in the traditional style and ages some in oak barrels for 10 months. He also does a dry table wine with really ripe fruit aromas and flavours called Cuvée Autumne for which the Gamay grapes are harvested 3 weeks to a month after the main harvest.
For vinegrowing, Daniel has three key words; observation, observation and observation!
He uses integrated vinegrowing and training methods, this means adapting any treatment to the vine’s exact needs at the right time, limiting any chemical additions to the bare minimum. He doesn’t use any fertiliser, forcing the vines to push their roots deep down for their nutrients and giving all their terroir flavours to the wine.
Yields are controlled through hard spur pruning, natural elimination and ‘green harvesting’ or thinning if necessary.
In short, he lets nature do her job.
For winemaking, he uses traditional Beaujolais methods relying on indigenous yeasts as much as possible.
The harvest is fully manual with the pickers sorting on the vine, the porters giving their work the once over and the use of a sorting table before 8 to 14 days of vatting depending on the wine, making sure that only the very healthiest grapes ever get into the wine.
Daniel’s instruction to the pickers is “if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t pick it!”
The 15 to 20-strong harvesting team is made up of students and job seekers with a core that returns every year. They are lodged by the Bassets throughout the harvest, with Chantal doing all the home cooking.
The end of the harvest is celebrated with a ‘revol’ or harvest home.
An open day is held on the estate every last weekend in November. In addition to the Bassets, there are vinegrower-winemakers from Bordeaux, Alsace, Burgundy, Muscadet, Champagne, Cognac and Côteaux de Layon. There is also a farmers’ market with regional produce, farm charcuterie, cheese, snails and oysters.
The old small gauge train line between Villefranche sur Saône and Monsols used to run past the estate buildings, the oldest part of which date from before the Napoleonic census. The building that used to be Saint Etienne la Varenne station is in their courtyard just behind the main Domaine des Fourquières barn.
Daniel Basset’s commitment to the community was highlighted in March 2008, when he was voted mayor.
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French Vines Limited, 3 Josselin Court, Wollaston Industrial Estate, Burnt Mills, Basildon, Essex, SS13 1QE
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