Present@Millésime Bio: Stéphanie Caslot of Domaine Pierre Caslot (Bourgueil)

The long Christmas and New Year break is now over and it’s back to London after a good ten days spent up in the Highlands of Scotland. It will be nearly two weeks in London before I’m off to Montpellier for the 2012 edition Millésime Bio held from Monday 23rd to Wednesday 25th January.

I’m delighted to have been invited to join a press trip to this annual organic wine fair. I’ve been once before a number of years ago when it was held in Narbonne – 2006 I think when there were around 200-250 exhibitors. The 2012 edition will feature over 550. The fair is very egalitarian with everyone having the same size table, so it’s the wine that counts and not the often fancy, palatial surroundings found at many other fairs. No possibility of being flattered by being welcome into a restricted access inner-sanctum! 

There will be a sizeable contingent – just over 60 –  from the Loire, some of whom will not be at the Salon des Vins de Loire, so the opportunity to be in Montpellier will certainly go a good way to making up for missing the Salons ‘off-events’, which are well and truly off this year as all three are being held at the end of January a full week before the start of the ‘official’ Salon. 

Although one would imagine that being one of France’s most northerly vineyards that Loire producers might be reluctant to opt for organic viticulture but the reverse is the case. The organic/biodynamic movement is long established in the Valley and is now growing rapidly.  There will be Loire producers from the Côte Roannaise to Muscadet not forgetting Poitou and Fiefs Vendéens, represented by the indefatigable Thierry Michon. 17 of the producers received their organic certification before 2000 with Vignoble Daulny in Champtin (AC Sancerre) in 1964 easily the first to be certified.  

Almost all the exhibitors are from Europe with France very dominant but there is a representative from South Africa (Lazanou) and one from Argentina (Domaine Jean Bousquet).

Millésime Bio will also see a mini-gathering of Les 5 du Vin with Marc Vanhellemont and Michel Smith. Marc will have just two producers present from the Jura – one of his favourite regions, while Michel will be well occupied with the large number of Languedoc-Roussillon producers present.

 They seek him here, they seek him there – Thierry Michon is everywhere!

Jim