A few questions posed to the Cotes du Rhone winemakers, Isabelle and Arnaud Guichard.

Continuing the series of our Gourmet Odyssey partner winemaker profiles, we recently asked a few questions to Isabelle and Arnaud Guichard, who run the Domaine de la Guicharde in the Rhone Valley village of Mondragon. It’s a biodynamic winery surrounded by wooded hills and bushland, where they make wine with passion and care.

For how long have you been winemakers and why did you create the winery?

Whilst looking for a few hectares of vines to set ourselves up with, we stumbled across the Guicharde, hidden away in the heart of the Massif d’Uchaux in the Haut Vaucluse region of the Rhone Valley.

The property was for sale and our surname is Guichard. It just seemed the right place to put down our city dweller bags and settle in this Provençal villa, surrounded by vines and woods. And so the adventure began in 1988.

The first harvest was fun. Complete philistines that we were, we had everything to learn. We didn’t yet know where we were headed or what type of wine we wanted to make, but we knew that we had made the right choice. Our relationship with the terroir and the vines slowly developed over the days, the seasons, and the years.

This slow journey led us naturally to turn towards organic winemaking.

What is your best memory at the winery?

The first steps of the winery towards becoming biodynamic. Thanks to a wonderful encounter with a delightful man, we started our biodynamic conversion in the autumn of 2010.

Virtuous and caring, this marvellous approach to farming re-enchanted our daily life and our vines.

For the 2016 vintage, that you are in the process of ageing, what is your favourite wine and its short story?

Terroir du Miocène. The newcomer amongst the wines at Domaine de la Guicharde, the Terroir du Miocène was born the previous year with the 2015 vintage. A few young grenache and syrah vines that thrive in the white limestone marl from the beginning of the Miocène epoch.

From the nursery to the vineyard, the vines have only ever known what it’s like to be cared for biodynamically. The vines have reached the age of reason, and even if they are still young, the potential of this wine is already evident, because the quality of the terroir can already be discerned in the wine.

What are your challenges, wishes or projects in the coming months?

Biodynamics has made our wines become more refined. They are less sun-drenched and exuberant, and more elegant. The aromatic palette has become more developed. In the vineyard, the soil is softer, the vine branches flourish and they have become a nice golden mahogany colour. We would like to learn more and further develop our biodynamic approach to wine-making.

We would also like to create new wines. It’s always fun to try new things at harvest time. In 2010, we made a very exclusive wine called Petites Mains. Using grenache grapes from some old vines that had been carefully picked, placed in small crates, sorted grape by grape and then lightly crushed, we aged the wine in some large 600 litre demi-muid barrels for a few months before bottling. It was a successful test. We used the same technique again in 2012, only using syrah grapes this time.

One question that our clients often ask. What do winemakers like to do when they have a little time to themselves?!

When nature allows us and the vines take a breather, we take a few days rest to climb mountains and marvel at the snow-capped peaks. Arnaud is a great lover of downhill skiing and walking. Isabelle prefers taking a small rucksack and walking the paths that lead to Saint Jacques de Compostelle.

Wine and the love of nature are never far away. Arnaud is actively involved in the winemaker associations and Isabelle has written two books on the harvest and biodynamics. Recettes de vendangeurs (Harvesters recipes) was published in 2012 by the publisher, Rouergue, and Précis à l’usage de ceux qui pensent que Demeter n’est qu’une déesse grecque (A summary to be used by those who think that Demeter is just a Greek Goddess) has just been published by L’Epure. Two different works about the daily life of being a winemaker.