Louis Latour Agencies

My favourite wine: Laurent Chevalier from Henry Fessy

31 October 2014

Laurent Chevalier is a winemaker and in charge of Domaine Henry Fessy. His first vintage was 2009 when he started in style, winning an International Wine Challenge Trophy for his Brouilly. Since then he has continued his brilliant work crafting delicious wines and managing Henry Fessy's growing domaine.

Laurent Chevalier loves working with wine.  “Wine is a bottle of magic, a mystery; it can change through the years.  A lot of people take credit for wine, the winegrower, the farmer, but every year is different.  The wine we make is the result of teamwork, but the results you get ultimately come from the vine. ”

“The 2012 vintage was a really interesting vintage.  2009 to 2011 were easy vintages, nice crops, and perfect quality.  You would have to be a bad winegrower not to produce a good wine.  There is more originality in the 2012.  It was much more challenging but we succeeded.”

“Brouilly is the wine of Domaine Fessy.  Our premises are in the Brouilly appellation where we have almost six hectares.  Every vintage of Brouilly has plenty of fresh fruit, strawberry and raspberry.  It’s a really super wine, easy to drink with plenty of different foods, spicy foods, light lunches and charcuterie.  It’s very versatile, and not overpowering, so you can enjoy the taste, without it masking the food.   And in Beaujolais, do as we do and chill the wine a little. “

Laurent loves the uncertainty, the complexity, the challenge.  “The most challenging aspect is the wine growing. Wine growing is a bit like being a doctor, you have a live thing, it is complex and you have to control it, but you cannot control the climate.  So you have to adapt the way that you drive your vineyard to get the best quality grapes.  In a vineyard, you plant a vine for 20 years at least, so you are always looking to the future. It’s a long term job.” 

Laurent is a team player and leads from the front.   “During the harvest or winemaking process for about 4 weeks, I work 14 hours a day.  I select the wine block to be picked and drive the harvest team to the vineyard. 

At the winery I taste through all the tanks whilst they are fermenting to be sure we don’t have any trouble.  At end of the harvest, when the tanks are full, this can take an hour.  It’s classic winery work.”

Leading, supporting, and trusting his team, it’s about learning to let go.   “We start hand picking about 8am.  Usually I will go to visit the team in the vineyard to see how they are progressing.  Harvest is always a tiring and stressful time, but it is also the best time of year.”

It’s also about knowing when to stop.  “We have a very nice tradition in Beaujolais. At 9am we stop everything and have a break, a glass of wine, some charcuterie and a big breakfast. It’s good for team building and sometimes the team have started at 5 o’clock the morning.”

Having grown up in a family of winemakers and wine merchants, Laurent studied viticulture and viniculture at agronomic school in Montpelier before working as a wine consultant in Roussillon and then in Provence. Being on call to trouble-shoot and problem solve for 25 wineries during the busy harvest periods, Laurent learned fast about all aspects of winemaking, in a job he describes as very fulfilling.

“At Henry Fessy I discovered a very important thing, a long term view of life and family ideals.  For me this is so important in the wine industry.  There aren’t many wine companies that can do this.  I know we are going in the right direction with a family estate and a good working environment.  It is a very good team.