When he landed in Auvergne in the spring of 2021, Henri Chauvet swapped office towers for rocky hillsides in the land of Saint-Nectaire and Saint Gamay. But don't think he's gone off on a whim: this serious 30-something knows exactly where he wants to go. Installation In the spring of 2021 - the worst in years for the French vineyard - Henri Chauvet took over the Sauvat estate, in Auvergne, in Boudes. That is 10.5 hectares of Gamay (60%), Pinot Noir (30%) and Chardonnay, and fabulous slopes, including the vertiginous Baconnet. The vines grow there on a flow of volcanic lava, and a unique mixture of blue, red and white marls. The work there is arduous, the mechanization complicated and the conversion to organic farming (started from day one) perilous. “But I wanted to go back to the land, outside,” Henri explains simply. The course "Yes, suits and ties, I wore them", confesses this young man well in his boots. A business school graduate, he began his career in the world of major banking and insurance. Far, very far from wine, Auvergne and tractors. Of course, it all started with a glass of wine (or two). “It was the tasting that introduced me to viticulture. I drank everything, but I realized that the wines that gave me the most pleasure were plain. " He ended up passing a BTS viti-oeno by correspondence, obtained in July 2020, after passages at Jérôme Bressy in Rasteau (domaine Gourt de Mautens, Rhône Sud), then at the "monument" Thierry Allemand (Cornas), which remains its reference. "My parents did not really understand this 90° turn, they are rather Cartesian... But they love natural wines, I converted them. The murkier and flightier it is, the better they like it, oddly! » The land first Originally from Brive, trained in the Rhône, Henri landed in Auvergne "to make great local wines". And he found his happiness: 10.5 hectares divided between several plots and at least two very distinct terroirs. Those of Bard and Donazat, in the bottom of the valley, have the color of red clay, and a temperament "more Beaujolais than Auvergnat", evokes Henri. While the hillside of Baconnet, historic land of Boudes, has all of Auvergne, starting with the basalt-colored earth and the vertiginous slope descending to the village. The soils are worked there with a horse (by a specialized service provider). Finally there is the Quaire, another hillside but all yellow marl and basalt, but its condition prompted Henri to place it in "rehabilitation" and under observation. From the top of these plots, you can see the tiny village of Boudes, at the bottom of the valley. But forget the picture of the perfect, green-domed "volcano"; we are here in the other Auvergne, the most arid of the country of Saint-Nectaire. The village has counted up to 460 hectares of vines, there are only 40 left, some of which are abandoned. The buyers do not jostle around these ungrateful hillsides. Nature without pressure Henri loves natural wine, and that's what he wants to produce...but he doesn't want to be defined by it. “I am neither natural nor conventional. I don't want my philosophy in the cellar to take precedence over my terroir", he explains at length, denouncing in passing "a form of radicalization of natural wine, which looks a bit like a cock competition, to the one who would put as little sulfur as possible. The longer it goes, the more it resembles what happened in conventional wine. I find it a pity. Highlighting the financial risks taken to settle, he defends his "vision of the land", in the face of "pressure" from "hyper nature" friends. “It takes five people to work on these hillsides. We are not going to do all this work in the vineyards to end up with wines that have 2.5g of flight, and zero terroir. There are already plenty of wines like that. Conclusion: his 2021 whites received 3g of sulfur during vatting. For the rest, his wines tick all the natural boxes: 100% indigenous yeasts, no filtration or other operations, grapes in organic conversion. Wines: time for testing His first winegrower harvests were tough, and above all very long. “I started the first, September 22, and finished the last, November 6. I don't know where I got all the energy. And it's not over yet. At the time of writing, its wines have not yet been composed, each plot and grape variety having been vinified separately. On the white side, the chardonnay had not finished fermenting. Henri has composed two rosés, one from Gamay, with rather sharp citrus notes, and one from Pinot Noir, which is more delicate. A priori, they should not be blended... On the red side, he separated three cuvées of Gamays: old Gamays from Bard and Donazat (red clays), those that grew on basalt, with long notes of smoked tea, and a final cuvée with more rustic notes. The pinot noir gave him a hard time after a hailstorm damaged the grapes, which prompted him to add sulphites (3g after blending the free run and press juices), and despite the closed side of this wine, it is also one of the most interesting... A part was placed in wood, as a test, and the result already seems very elegant. Henri already foresees rather high selling prices (16€ minimum). "Not to drive a Porsche, he laughs, but to match the very high production costs" on these thankless hills. But to discover the wines and the labels, we will have to wait until the summer of 2022, or even the autumn. Text and Photos: Julie Reux.