A TC TRANSPLANT IN FRANCE

SHAWNN ANTIEAU VERSINO

From Traverse City to the award-winning vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape

By Madeleine Vedel

ave you met Shawnn?” Myriam Brémond of Cave St Charles in Châteauneuf-du-Pape asked me as I helped chop “H vegetables to add to our dinner of slow-cooked lamb roast in her home, tucked just below the old (new) castle of the pope. “Not as yet. Who is she?” I responded. “She’s my American friend. Our sons are in school together at the lycée. She’s married to Jean-Paul Versino, of Bois de Boursan. And she comes from Michigan, I think from that city where you live, Traverse…??” “What! How is it I’ve never met her?” I’ve been visiting and tasting with friends and guests in Châteauneuf-du-Pape for nearly 25 years, and have been to over 50 of the local wineries – I’ve lost count. So how did I miss meeting Shawnn? I quickly remedied this lapse, inviting her to join me and my first group at a special lunch at the Cave St. Charles with Guy Brémond and his chef/partner Jean-Claude Altmeyer. Being from her home town I had a special interest in wanting to know Shawnn’s story, and along with it, the history of Domaine Bois de Boursan, the Versino family’s arrival in the area, their progressive acquisition of vineyards, opening of the winery (1955 with only 5 hectares), and their preference for continuing to make wine in the traditional “Châteauneuf” style. When Shawnn graduated from Traverse City High School in 1989 she didn’t have a plan for what came next, so she enrolled at the local junior college, Northwestern Michigan College. While taking classes there she got a part-time job at the family run Chateau Grand Traverse winery up the road on Old Mission Peninsula. The creation of Ed O’Keefe, a widely-traveled man who persuaded that the peninsula had the potential to make great wines, the winery was planted in Alsatian and Rhine Valley vinifera varietals. O’Keefe was an early pioneer in growing Riesling and Gamay in the area, and in addition to the time he spent in Germany learning about wine-making, he brought in German specialists both to run his cellar and to intern. It was at CGT that Shawnn discovered a love of wine. There she worked in the tasting room and bottled under Operations

Shawnn Antieau Versino

Manager Terrie McClelland. Her newfound passion led her to enroll in the Hotel & Restaurant Management program at the University of Arizona. Back in Michigan for the summer, she sought out the local restauranteur well-known in the region (and beyond) for his excellent wine cellar: Wes Westhoven of the Rowe Inn in Ellsworth, one of the first farm-to-table, culinary destinations in Northern Michigan.

At the Rowe Inn, sommelier Kurt Van Sumeren took Shawnn under his wing and included her in restaurant tastings, pairing wines for special wine dinners, and encouraged her to make good use of her employee discount to sample some of the restaurant’s impressive cellar.

Among those wine pairing dinners was one for the young vintner, Jean-Paul Versino of the Domaine Bois de Boursan. Michigan importer JC Mattis of J&R Distributors brought Jean-Paul and his colleague Bernard Latour of the Domaine de l’Espiguette to the restaurant. Little did Shawnn and Jean Paul know that this would be but their first meeting.

When Shawnn decided to take off a few months from her studies to travel Europe on her own, she focused a good chunk of her time visiting wineries. The former CGT intern Oliver Asberger guided her around his German homeland, and the importer/distributor, JC Mattis furnished her with addresses for many of the wineries he worked with. Introductions in hand, Shawnn toured Germany, Bordeaux, Champagne, Spain & Hungary and, of course, the Rhône Valley.

Upon learning of her upcoming visit to the region, JeanPaul invited her to stay with him and his family. Over dinner and a few glasses of wine, Shawnn shared her desire to become a sommelier. Did Jean Paul know of a program with a good reputation? That would accept international students? “There’s the Université du Vin at Suze la Rousse just up the road, about a half hour’s drive from here,” he replied.

Enrolling in this prestigious school’s one year program was life-changing, and tough. Shawnn had only two years of beginning French at university when she started the program, but she made up in perseverance for what she lacked in linguistics. Accepting Jean-Paul’s offer of the spare bedroom in his apartment, Shawnn helped out by cooking. Jean-Paul proved the ideal roommate, encouraging and helping where he could, including pulling out the Bescherelle grammar book that every Frenchman keeps handy, from middle school on. “Here, learn these ten verbs tonight” he’d say, and guide her in their usage and pronunciation.

In her class of 24, Shawnn was one of three international students. Beyond herself, there was a man from Japan and a woman from Poland; but she was their first American to complete the program, with the only concession made for her lack of French mastery being permission to write her final “memoire”, a thirty page term paper, in English. She chose the period of American history that still baffles the French: Prohibition. One can imagine the paper making the rounds of that faculty of wine experts, curious to understand how a nation could inconceivably choose to ban alcohol.

Jean-Paul Versino

“It was quite incredible.” Shawnn says of the Université du Vin, “Being able to try so many different wines at one sitting. At the end of every day, we had 10-12 wines that we tasted blind. Incredible to be able to taste so many things, to learn about the different regions. We would have a test every 2-3 weeks where we had to try to assess the grape varietal, region, year, and every time there was a Châteauneuf-du-Pape I would find it and pinpoint the year – but only with Châteauneuf-du-Pape,” and with a self-deprecating laugh, “Hence why I am here.”

Over that year, what had been a friendship blossomed into a couple. “I moved over there to go to school, and never really came back.” She says. However, having promised to work the summer season at the Rowe Inn, Shawnn did return to Northern Michigan for three months, before gathering her belongings and flying back to France to join Jean-Paul and his family for the harvest of 1997.

What one might expect (if this were a movie) would be an idyllic scene amidst the early light of fall mornings, turned out to be more than a bit depressing. 1997 was one of those more-than-difficult years when a storm passed through just at the height of the harvest, and rot-inducing mist sat upon the vines. From perfect maturity to covered in powdery mildew in a day. The only worse year in recent history was 2002, when there was literal flooding in the vineyards.

The Versinos have a system of grape selection during harvest: the pickers each go out with two buckets (all the grapes are handharvested in Châteauneuf-du-Pape by AOC rules); the good/clean bunches go into one bucket, the lesser into the second. The first bucket becomes the family’s classic red cuvée, the second bucket goes to the family’s table wine and/or to the local négociant.

Shawnn had learned her lesson well in how to handle the grapes during the earlier Syrah harvest, and the more precocious Grenache grapes. Confronted with the moldy Mourvèdre grapes her first instinct was to toss them all into the second bucket. Jean Paul stayed her hands, showing her how to salvage what was possible, removing the moldy sections from the rest, so that even if only a small amount, the year’s wine would have those notes of sous-bois and rusticity the Mourvèdre contributed.

Thankfully, 1998 was one of the most beautiful vintages of the century.

Today, Shawnn is the full-time partner and collaborator with her husband and his family at Bois de Boursan. They taste the years’ wines together, determine the exact blend of the classic cuvée (though Jean Paul has the deciding vote), work together to sell and distribute, and labor side by side during harvest. When you visit the winery, Jean-Paul - a fluent English speaker - describes the labor intensive, pesticide & herbicide free (the winery is one of the first to adopt organic methods in the region) methods he favors in caring for his vines, as well as the traditional vinifying and aging his wines go through in his cellar. The crew even stomp on the grapes and make use of a very old standing press where grapes are interspersed with mats.

Jean-Paul Versino

Shawnn Antieau Versino

Though a number of neighboring domaines have invested in all the newest equipment, stainless steel, cooling systems and more, working towards a more “international” style, Jean Paul continues to vinify as his father did, aiming to extract richness and nobility from his grapes, with minimal intervention. The Domaine’s vinification tanks are concrete, embedded into the earth, accessible from above at the entry to the cellar, and below ground. Once both the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations completed, the wine is transferred to the 50 plus year old large oak casks where the wine ages for a minimum of 18 months. For over-flow and the special cuvée there are a handful of 2-6 passage small oak casks in use.

Three wines are made for sale, the yearly production of a white (a blend of Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne and Bourbelenc), a vibrant wine, vinified in stainless steel, about 6% of production (which translates to so few bottles that they tend to sell out by September each year); the Rouge Tradition, structured and earthy, red fruit notes in its early years, representing the majority of the production; and the special “Cuvée de Félix”, a wine made only during the best of vintages, deep and rich with notes of cocoa and black fruit. These are wines to age, to drink with meals of game and meat stews. The second bucket “table wine” is only for - literally – the family table.

When asked, Shawnn is adamant that she wouldn’t change her life in Southern France for anything. In fact, her mother has moved over to live with her French family. “Living in France has been enlightening, but not an easy task. The people are so down to earth and always smiling, but don’t let that fool you. If you really want something you have to work for it. Everywhere you look is something old or beautiful that you want to take a picture of. And the food and wine… don’t even get me started!”

And, in a land where families are close and businesses hereditary, she and Jean-Paul hope their son Alexis, just now finishing high school, will carry on the family business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Madeleine Vedel was introduced to the world of wine by her parents, who had a small, but prized wine cellar. While married to a French chef in Provence, she ran food and wine tours for nearly 20 years. She is currently based in Mancelona, honing her cheese, chocolate and pastry skills and happily consuming both local and international wines within her budget.