John, born in the US in Kentucky, wanted to travel the world and be a writer. So, aged 24, he found a job that would pay him to do that: selling mainframe UPS equipment for an American manufacturer. He travelled the world, and along the way met Nicole, born in Narbonne, France. Nicole from Narbonne somehow managed to persuade John from Kentucky to switch up his ambitions of global discovery and literary fame for a hundred-year-old vineyard of cranky Carignan vines and life in a Languedoc village, population 49. John and Nicole Bojanowski moved to the tiny Languedoc village of St-Jean-de-Minervois in 1996.
Welcome to Clos du Gravillas, where the landscape is moonscape and ‘shoot for the moon’ is a way of being. Clos du Gravillas (meaning ‘vineyard of gravel’) is roughly 8.5 ha (21 acres) of vineyard parcels on strikingly white stony soils, which John describes as ‘lunar’ and you’ll see the sickle of a moon on the labels. This is a couple who are not afraid to embrace a little bit of crazy in their lives. When they arrived, John did not even know how to drive a tractor – although by the time I met him in 2016, they had ‘three tractors, all Italian (but only one is bright red)’, he told me somewhat regretfully. He didn’t know how to make wine either. But the lunar-white rocks of St-Jean-de-Minervois, the old vines, Nicole’s dream and stubborn determination, and the realisation that you can also write stories in a bottle of wine, came together for John. And here they are, nearly 30 years later, still making wine.
Jancis first came across the Bojanowskis and their Clos du Gravillas wines in 2004, when they were championing Carignan at a time when everyone else was grubbing it up. Over the years, they’ve kept popping up on our Purple Pages, mainly because their wines are beautiful and also because they’ve never really been conventional. John and Nicole have always walked a little bit on the wild side.
They farm biodynamically (all their wines are certified organic), and Nicole, obsessed with biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, has planted more than a hundred fruit trees and stitched the vineyards to the wild Mediterranean garrigue beyond with lines of native hedges. Between the vine rows they’ve planted legumes, grasses and wildflowers to cover the soil and build up mulch which means that the surface is never bare – every year the two of them are building soil structure, drainage, absorbency, microbial life and resilience in this arid region of southern France. They were making skin-contact wines at a time when skin-contact wines were considered hippy. Although they originally planted some ‘international varieties’, it was falling in love with Carignan that led the Bojanowskis to an interest in old, forgotten or abandoned varieties of the region – if you can, try and get hold of their Emmenez Moi Terret Gris, or their Retour Aux Origines, a blend of the almost extinct Piquepoul Gris, Terret Gris and Carignan Blanc.
I love all of their wines, and have for many years, and would recommend all of them for wine of the week if I could, but there’s only one slot, and so it’s L’Inattendu. This is a blend of Grenache Gris and Grenache Blanc with a bit of Macabeu. It’s fermented and aged on lees for 10 months in 500-litre barrels, and it’s exceptional. The combination of expansive richness, high-voltage but super-ripe acidity, smoky minerality and a mosaic of flavours fills every corner of the mouth with thrilling vibration. It starts off clotted cream and grilled mango, and then it’s wave after wave of sweet-orange acidity, glittering in the mouth. It’s a wine with both density and silkiness of texture.
It was very, very good with Gruyère cheese. And it was delicious with ham hock. I didn’t get to try, but I am assured that it’s a pair for goat’s cheese and, more surprisingly, apple pie! Which means it’s perfect timing as autumn sets in and might be an excellent choice for Thanksgiving. However, there is no hurry to drink it – it is a wine that will take on age with complexity and grace, so I have no hesitation in recommending the 2022 (which is the vintage currently available in the US – the newer vintage has yet to land) as well as the 2023.
The Clos du Gravillas wines are imported by Fruit of the Vine and this wine will soon be available (it’s currently out of stock thanks to last week’s port strike, but is on the way) at Chambers Street Wines in NYC (who won our indie of the year writing competition 10 years ago). In the UK, they’re imported by Les Caves de Pyrene. They’re also imported by La Rousse Wines in Ireland and into three Canadian provinces: Alberta (Metrovino), Quebec (Planvin) and Ontario (GCU Fine Wines).
Grenache Blanc, as a varietal wine and in blends, makes for distinctive wines that can often be rich, savoury and mineral, which age well and are wonderful with strong food, and our members have access to our nearly 2,000 tasting notes for Grenache Blanc varietals and blends from 10 countries.
All photos kindly provided by Clos du Gravillas. The top photo of John and Nicole is by Hervé Leclair.
