Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon and the challenge of a generation

BY: JENS - PETER NEBSBJERG PHOTOS BY: NICOLAI HØJLUND OG PR

Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, Chef de Cave at Louis Roederer, embarked on a mission two decades ago to revolutionize the house. His approach challenged the status quo by emphasizing the importance of crafting wines right from the vineyards, rather than just in the cellars.Acknowledging that the key to producing exceptional wines lay in changing viticulture and creating more terroir-driven wines, the quest led Lécaillon to adopt organic and biodynamic methods. Despite facing skepticism, Lécaillon remains steadfast in his commitment to quality and artisanal production - pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the world of Champagne.

“I said “okay”, but I want the full job.” answered Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, when he was asked to become the Chef de Cave at Louis Roederer back in 1999. He wanted to be in charge of the vineyards also, not just the cellars. A radical new idea in the conservative Champagne industry, but a constellation necessary to bring his vision to life. “I want to craft it right from the vineyards, because that's where I will mostly print my wines. And I was thinking that the challenge of my generation was to change the viticulture, was to get more terroir-driven wines.” Lécaillon sees the extension to the vineyards as the natural next step to improve Champagne overall. Generally, the champanoise winemakers have achieved much in the cellars; the vineyards are what’s left in the pursuit of higher quality. “The generation before me has done a lot of work in winemaking: To make good quality wines from, sometimes, average quality grapes. The challenge of my generation was to keep that winemaking knowledge but really build the ingredient side, to make the most beautiful grapes. Because if you make beautiful grapes - the winemaking would be easy.”

Dreams And Reality

“My dream would be in permaculture but I know I can not be. It's not possible.”

“34 years ago I spent time with the father of permaculture, Bill Morrison, which for me is the best school. Because it's the story of a balanced ecosystem. In fact, here it is not possible. It’s possible if you own all the land around you. You create your ecosystem. Like we do in Napa Valley at Diamond Creek. We create a river, the cascades, the water- flow, the flowers, the atmosphere, the bees, everything is created. We create it, and we live in it.”

“Here, in Champagne, we have one plot next to the other and another guy on top - I cannot control the ecosystem here. I cannot put sheep, cows or whatever. It's not possible. So, I had to find another way. A way to inject energy from outside of the ecosystem to create the direction I wanted. In a biodynamic system you inject biodynamic compost 500 - Maria Thun compost

- all your preparations inject some bacteria, some mushrooms, some life - so you regenerate. “

An regeneration is exactly what Lécaillon sees as the main task with still just 2% of Champagne being organic, and a longstanding use of herbicides and pesticides. “So, the key here in Champagne is not to create an ecosystem, it is to regenerate the ecosystem. Which have been farmed in monoculture with a lot of pesticides.

You need to regenerate everything here to recreate the diversity. Biodiversity. And among the tools you havebiodynamics is the strongest tool.”

At Louis Roederer they work organic, biodynamic and conventional in their large vineyard holdings. Being organic and biodynamic is still seen as an obscure choice in Champagne and Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon even has to argue his choices among his own workers. Yet he sticks relentlessly with it.

”It can only improve quality because you get wine with less pesticides. Wine is fun. Wine is beautiful, but it should not be polluting anything…the footprint of wine should be zero except the glass.”

Reflecting on the human role in nature Lécaillon believes we have a choice: “It is your position as a human in the ecosystem. Do you want to be dominant, or do you want to be part of it? You don't stop following the ecosystem because nature is sometimes not nice. This is organic farming. Or are you above, saying you are mankind, and I can control the ecosystem? Biodynamics is a school of humility more than a school of dominance.”

The First Biodynamic Fruit

Two parallel chains of events helped Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon convert a large part of the Louis Roederer estate. The first involves a renowned biodynamic consultant, while the second centers on Pascal Leclerc, the former proprietor of Leclerc Briant, whose

Cumiéres vineyards now can be tasted in the Brut Nature Starck collaboration.

“When I started in biodynamics in 2000, Pascal Leclerc was already biodynamic. And he came to me and said: “I want to sell some fruit, you are doing trials, do you want to buy my fruit?” I went to his plot in Cumiéres and he had seven hectares there.”

“And so, since 2000, I was making wine from this estate of Cumiéres. Pascal unfortunately died in 2011. And when he died his sister started to sell a little bit, we bought two hectares and then the daughter took over Leclerc Briant and two years later, she stopped. So, we bought Leclerc Briant and we sold the brand to the American couple, you know, Denise Dupré and Mark Nunelly and we kept the land. So, in fact, I have been making wine from the Cumiérers plot since 2000.”

Trial

“I have three trials in the vineyards. I have three plots and I cut them half and half 20 years ago. One half is biodynamic, one half is organic. One is in Aÿ, one in Avize and one in Verzenay. But the oldest one is in Avize because when I started to do the biodynamic conversion in 2002, I used a consultant whose name was Pierre Mason. He was a consultant for Dominic Lafon and Anne Claude Leflaive in Burgundy. He came to me and asked; ‘where is the plot where you have the most problems?’ and I said it's here, in Avize.”

“When you walk in the vineyards and you go in the middle with the organic on the left and the biodynamic on the right. They were planted the same day. They have the same history - only the preparations are different.”

“In Avize the difference is obvious because we are virus infected [yellow fan leaf] in this place. So, the organic are very small growth and all the biodynamic are full growth. They have the virus but it looks like they have an extra energy that makes them live with the virus. You compare the yield of both solutions; we have 20 to 30% more crop in the biodynamic than we have in the organic.”

“They are big plots: two hectares are organic, two hectares are biodynamic in three places. And every year, I ferment the wine separately and I bottle them separately and we look at the long term.

We were five tasters. [Tasting triangles: 2 equal and one apart] Five found the difference.

Two preferred the organic and three preferred the biodynamic. This is a proof in the glass. If you are five to be able to recognize it the glass, there is a difference.”

& ERROR

Implementing organic and biodynamic viticulture on such a broad scale is bound to create challenges along the way. Lécaillon recalls the biggest loss they have suffered throughout the conversions: “In 2012 we lost 10 hectares. We started the conversion in 2002 and it went well. We went full speed and jumped from 40 to 65 hectares, meaning we had 25 hectares in full conversion mainly in Côte des Blancs. The three first years from conventional to organic your wines are very weak because they have been protected by the chemicals for so long. They still have lots of fertilizers in the soil, so they keep growing in the old way, but they don't have the protection of the old way, they are sensitive. After three or four years they reduce their speed of growth - the vigor is less. They become more balanced and more resistant thanks to less vigor.” With great sympathy and admiration for the plant he states: “I always compare it to a heavy smoker. Rare are people who have such a strong character that they say, okay? I will stop smoking tomorrow. How many people do that?”

Lécaillon recall a conversation, which was almost as a point of no return: After the winter in 2012 it was time so assess the past year. The loss constituted a strong argument to give up the uncompromising approach. “When I sat with the family [the owners of Louis Roederer] they asked me: ’what are you going to do?’ And I told them: ‘We are at 65 hectares. Now, I go to 85 hectares.’ They looked at me and said, ‘what are you doing?’ And I said ‘I think we got the point’ and now we are at 125 hectares!”

The Challenge From The Vineyard

The new reality in the vineyards have required Léciallon to adapt in the cellar as well – the one thing he thought he, and the region overall, had a hold of after so many years. “What's interesting is that I didn’t expect the next challenge. There was the challenge to go into the vineyard and grow your fruit to the taste you wanted. But then I didn’t expect that 20 years later I would have to relearn winemaking because you don't do the same fermentation of biodynamic and conventional fruit.”

In the next magazine, the interview with Jean-Baptiste Lécaillons continues. We discussed his changed cellar practice as well as the increasing influence of global warming.