Champ Des Treilles / Corinne & Jean-Michel Comme
Saite-Foy-Bordeaux
This extremely understated Vin de France is the definition of an IYKYK wine. Biodynamic since the nineties!, Champ des Treilles is the petite family vineyard of the famed wine-couple Jean-Michel & Corinne Comme, a highlight of Saint-Foy on the very Eastern boundary line of Bordeaux.
Jean-Michel was the outspoken and visionary leader at Pontet-Canet for 31 years, retiring the role in 2018 to enjoy his home vineyards and travel consulting with his wife. Jean-Michel had boldly embraced biodynamics on the left bank before any other classified estate, taking Château Pontet-Canet from a sleepy fifth growth to the universally revered status it enjoys today. Many Châteaux followed suit and paid homage to the man, including Palmer, La Lagune, Durfort Vivens, Haut-Bages Libéral, Ferrière, many of whom Corinne consulted with, having fallen in love with Biodynamics alongside her husband in the 90’s as they lived and worked at Pontet-Canet. She became the equally famous globe-trotting arm of this super-duo, taking on biodynamic consulting projects over the last three decades not only in Bordeaux but in Armenia, California, Mâcon, Oregon, Virginia, et al., converting estates like Climens, Fonplégade, Haut-Bages-Libéral, Pym-Rae, Rudd, Hamel, and RdV, to name a few.
When I visited their beautiful home in Saint-Foy this summer, the gravity with which they relayed their way of farming was dramatic and impassioned. It is because of people like the Comme’s that we now live in a time when transitioning to biodynamic viticulture is actually chic (and thank god for that!) but it was clear that these two pioneers had spent decades vociferously defending and justifying their methods. That grit and determination to persuade the listener that this was the right way to farm — to farm soil, to farm life, to get in step with nature instead of seeking to conquer it — still imbues their speech, even when they’re preaching to a humble choir-of-one. 👋
The Comme’s vineyards are a truly beautiful place. Learning how to stir the nettle tea is a memory I’ll not forget. As for the wine itself: hiding behind this purposely plain Vin de France label (they dropped the AOC a couple years back to be done with the paperwork), Jean-Michel & Corinne have bottled a wine that is as serious, thoughtful, and elegant as they are. This wine is structured like a classified growth — grip, body, and acid to go the distance for decades — with the chief distinction that it is largely aged in concrete to preserve the purest possible expression of the fruit. The nose gives black plum, tomato, olive, parilla, stewed sour cherry, blue corn flower, and an almost Mexican spice cabinet’s je ne sais quoi. Indigenous yeast; unfined & unfiltered; minimal SO2 additions; majority old vines with many planted before the brutal frost of 1956. The production is limited yet the prices are kind. It’s such an honour for us to represent this wine.
On Sundays, the couple walks the vines together, and Jean-Michel insists on doing the tractor work himself. (“And it’s always raining,” Corinne says.) The level of talent certainly doesn’t align with the prices they charge […] but that’s precisely the point: Fame in Bordeaux shouldn’t have to be equated with only its best wines. — Jon Bonné, The New French Wine.
The wines produced here are rich with fruit and can be relied upon for their vibrancy, starkly delicious without ever putting a foot across the line of over-extraction or rusticity. They provided without a doubt a reason for being optimistic about the future of the Ste-Foy appellation. —Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux.
