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Q & A with Baptiste Cuvelier, French winemaker and founder of the wine adventure group Clos de los Siete in Argentina. TheWineBuzz: Will you let the genius out of the bottle with some Cuvelier family history? Baptiste Cuvelier: We started at the beginning of the 19th century as wine merchants in Northern France, where the family is from originally. It was the prestigious part of the job back then; the vine-growing and harvest part was considered as vulgar, and left to the peasants. Being a successful wine merchant was about going to Bordeaux, making a selection of the best tanks and barrels and bringing them back to Northern France during fermentation where we were doing the rest of ageing, bottling and the distribution. Though at the end of the 19th century, the owners in Bordeaux started to keep for themselves the best lots of wines, and then finish the process at their estate, and then sell the bottles. This is the origin of the phrase you still find on many labels of Bordeaux: "Mis en bouteille au Chateau" (Bottled within the estate). My ancestor in charge at that time (my grand, grand, grandfather) bought Chateau Le Crock in Saint-Estephe, Chateau Camensac in Pauillac (sold by the family in the ‘60s) and Leoville-Poyferre and Moulin Riche in Saint-Julien. Amazing how things are shifted today. Now we are all proud of being the vine-growers and produce our raw material. Today we still own these estates as well as the wine merchant company TWB: The most pressing question we have here in America is: What is the official pronunciation of your Bordeaux property Leoville Poyferre. What is it? Baptiste Cuvelier: Difficult in writing! TWB: How about Low-vill Poy-fair? Baptiste Cuvelier: Bon. Enough to get you a bottle of it in Paree. TWB: And why did you choose to also make wine in Argentina? Baptiste Cuvelier: That had a lot to do with Michel Rolland, who has been our advisor for our Bordeaux estates since 1979. He is now a good friend of the family, and when he thought of the project Clos de los Siete, he obviously needed some support and partners. So he asked his friends to join. As Michel was one of the investors, we thought it was a good guarantee. And also because the potential for vine-growing is huge [in Argentina]: the soil, climate, altitude, temperature difference from day to night. [There’s] no phylloxera, mildew or all these vine-diseases that make culture so difficult in Europe and so easy here in Argentina or Chile. Now, after 12 years of producing on both sides of the Andes, I think the potential for full-bodied wines, very ripe, very Michel Rolland style, is greater in Argentina than in Chile. Plus, we can work the way we want; we do not have to deal with these stupid and obsolete DOC [laws] as in France. We are free to work as we feel we should work. TWB: And to what do you attribute the Malbec craze? Baptiste Cuvelier: I have no idea, to be honest, but you know sometimes in life, don’t waste time in trying to understand, just enjoy TWB: Do you personally prefer the hugely extracted styles so loved by Parker and Americans but ridiculed in European wine circles? Baptiste Cuvelier: I love good wines wherever they are from and have no preference. According to me, wines must be balanced. This is the key word to me. If a wine is hugely extracted, it also needs to have huge aromas and flavors, a huge alcohol content, and a huge acidity to carry all the sensations for a long time. This is exactly what we are trying to do at Cuvelier Los Andes. The cold preserves our acidity, the sun and the heat in the day brings us the sugar, and therefore the alcohol, as well as matures our fruits and its tannins. Without these conditions, we couldn’t produce a wine such as our Grand Vin. Today, it is still a baby compared to Leoville-Poyferre but we made this Argentinean project in order to create an Argentinean cousin to Leoville, and we are not there yet. It is a very, very long-term investment, I think we are on the right path... Though coming back to your question, I really hate over-extracted wines that are unbalanced, mostly because of a lack of acidity. Sorry, but I want to drink wine, not a reddish oak and a sulfites mouth-bath. Now don’t pay too much attention to what Europeans say - a well-balanced, extracted wine can be excellent, and they cannot (or rarely) produce them. They are just expressing the jealousy in their comment! TWB: As Northeast Ohioans, we are for once grateful for the snow that slowed you down long enough to get a glimpse of the Cuvelier history and your efforts that contribute to our pleasures Leo-veell Poy-ferree? Non? Baptiste Cuvelier: Oui! C’est ca! - Interview conducted by contributing writer Michael Sarro, Grapemaster, St. Martin's Grapeschool
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