Harvest time | Freewheeling: choosing Quebec

In 2018, after four vintages in Beaujolais, Geneviève Thisdel was at a crossroads: settling in France permanently or returning to make wine in her native land. And that’s how Quebec won a talented winemaker, who launched her label, En roue libre, in 2021. Last week, we helped her harvest the last vidals of 2022.

Eve Dumas
The Press

“I really like Vidal. It has the versatility of chenin blanc”, says Geneviève Thisdel, while we are precisely squatting at the foot of the vines of this grape variety which can give good bubbles, white, “orange” as well as sweet wine. Trained in French vineyards, the Quebecer is now learning to deal with the very specific climatic conditions here.

Comparisons with French grape varieties and French ways of doing things are almost impossible to avoid. It’s cultural. Also Geneviève affirms that Marquette has a bit of the aromatic profile of Gamay. She even made a new wine of it, Beaujolais Nouveau style, in 2021 and has every intention of repeating the experience this fall, with a very young red that she will put on the market before the holidays.

At 18, the one who would later study photography and then work in landscaping did the grape harvest in Beaujolais. She returned to pick grapes there for 10 years in a row. Later, in her thirties, she obtained a patent in viticulture-oenology, learned the cultivation of vines in the field and even vinified four vintages under her own label, from 2015 to 2018.

His mentors, Bernard and Marie Mathieu, at the Moulin du Prince, in Vauxrenard, had offered to take care of a plot that they were about to uproot, under the name “village”. For four years, Geneviève took care of these 6,000 Gamay vines, to which others were added, including a little Chardonnay to make a white Beaujolais.

Shortly after arriving in Quebec, she met Sébastien Daoust, owner of the Les Bacchantes vineyard, who quickly offered her a job.

This is how she found herself vinifying the estate’s 2020 vintage, while awaiting the arrival of the new “official” oenologist Thomas Lahoz, blocked in France by COVID-19 and administrative delays. She was thus able to have access to a few grapes to carry out her own experiments.

Subsequently, the hard-working, who doesn’t seem to back down from any challenge, accepted the position of crop manager at Les Bacchantes, a position that suited her since she believes that to make good wine, you must above all take good care of the vines. . Those of the Bacchantes, which constitute no less than 12 hectares, are now in organic conversion. It’s work!

But organic standards do not seem to be sufficient these days for winegrowers to have the feeling of respecting the plant and its environment. Regenerative agriculture, green manures to increase the porosity of the soil, improve its composition and thus make the vine more combative are the watchwords.

For her and for many others, the future also lies in new hybrid grape varieties resistant to mildew and powdery mildew, fungi that attack plants and wreak havoc in Quebec vineyards. Thus, salaries would decrease. “There are already a few in the official catalog of French vine varieties, such as Floréal and Voltis, which was planted here at Domaine L’espiègle. It remains to be seen what quality of wine can be obtained with these new grape varieties. »

At the moment, at Les Bacchantes, Geneviève is still trying to fully understand the needs and behaviors of Marquette, Vidal, Seyval, Frontenacs (white, grey, black), Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir, in the climatic conditions that are ours.

She considers herself extremely lucky to have access to these grapes and to be able to use the Bacchantes facilities to make her wines. “I couldn’t have afforded to buy land and plant vines myself. This is a formula that is gaining in popularity in Quebec, think of La Bauge, where Simon Naud also shares a bit of his grapes, his land and his cellar with apprentice winegrowers, in the estates that have welcomed Common places before the quartet had its own vines and cellar, then to several others, who mentor budding winegrowers.

In this great collective momentum of understanding of the Quebec vineyard, its wealth, its particular challenges, a beautiful solidarity is taking shape, observes Geneviève. Between the sharing of knowledge, the loan of equipment, the constructive exchanges on the wines, the new generation of winegrowers sticks together. In particular, there was a mutual aid movement last spring, when a winemaker who suffered a serious accident had to spend several months in hospital. A dozen of his colleagues traveled to Bas-du-Fleuve to help with the spring work.

Then in this spirit of wanting the good of her neighbour, Geneviève works with as little sulfur as possible in her wines. “If I put it on, it’s just to preserve the best of what we do. The primeur and the natural sparkling were not sulphited at all, in 2021. And having tasted them, a year later, we can confirm that they are still as lively and vibrant, if not more so.