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PIONEERING WORK & AN AVANT-GARDIST PHILOSOPHY
The Benedictine monks of Cluny created the Château des Bachelards vineyard around 1100. Bachelards is the southernmost monastic vineyard in Burgundy. Triply certified organic FR-BIO-15 and biodynamic Demeter and Biodyvin, the wines are part of this lineage. The vines are in one plot around the château surrounded by a clos and our agroforestry project. This allows us to benefit from a unique and privileged biotope.

Fiche technique du domaine

Winegrowers/ Alexandra de VAZEILLES
Château des Bachelards
Lieu-dit Les Bachelards
69820 FLEURIE

Tel : +33 6 89 15 80 46
+ 33 9 81 49 47
www.bachelards.com
Region/ Beaujolais
Appelation/ Fleurie - Moulin à Vent, Saint Amour
Entry date SIVCBD/ 2020
Biodyvin's Label/ Biodyvin certified
Code Adhérent/ 192
We are the organic and biodynamic pioneers of the Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent and Saint-Amour appellations. We are committed to producing a wine that respects the terroir and the environment, and from my point of view, there is no other solution than our organic and biodynamic farming method. Our soils have been chemically free for over 14 years and this changes the style of wines. Indeed, the wines of the region are often standardized by chemically weeded soils and then yeasted. In bling tastings few professionals recognize our wines’ appellations because our style is unique and chemical-free. The wines of Château des Bachelards are characterized by the combination of the elegance of Burgundy and the delicacy of the Rhône Valley. Our soils are alive and so are our wines. Today chemical farming (so-called reasoned or conventional) serves no other purpose than to lower production costs to the detriment of quality and taste, and at what price for our planet and humanity?
Regarding the cellar and vinifications, Bachelards does not do carbonic, semi-carbonic or thermovinification macerations, which are the so-called Beaujolais winemaking methods born in the 1970s. In my opinion, this is a negation of the terroir in addition to the use of chemical products. At the Château des Bachelards, we do not use any artificial yeast either. The wines have their own identity, they are unique, and indigenous to Bachelards. The estate does not buy grapes.

The Château des Bachelards is a pioneer in Fleurie and rewrites the wines of the region:
- Agroforestry in the vines for the balance of the biotope and biodiversity
- Ouessant sheep for their sole presence and for soil fertilization
- Bees from nature and a vegetable garden in permaculture
- The château's herbalist attic for our biodynamic herbal teas
- High trellising with acacia stakes because we look for aromas complexity
- Very high density (10,000 plants per hectare) and low yields to increase density and quality
- Very old vines in massale selection because Bachelards plants are unique
- Manual harvest and gravity reception, to avoid damaging the fruit
- Indigenous yeasts only, otherwise the wines are technological and they are not from the place
- Aging from 18 to 20 months because our terroir requires it, proof of its greatness
- No chemicals of any kind, no carbonic or thermovinification macerations
- Member of Renaissance des Appellations, the group of the most qualitative biodynamic farming wineries around the world, member of the Abbey Wines group, labeled Demeter and Biodyvin, labeled Vignobles et Découvertes, winner of the Wine Tourism Trophy
- Le Clos des Bachelards is the only “Monopole” in Fleurie and one of the few in Beaujolais
- The Bachelards style is easily recognizable from my first vintage. I have defined a style specific to Bachelards and its terroir.

MONKS WERE NEVER MISTAKEN
Over the centuries, the monks created the Burgundy vineyard by identifying the best terroirs and defining the various clos. The vineyard of Château des Bachelards covers 12 hectares, including 7 hectares in Fleurie in one plot around the château, all surrounded by a clos / walls, farmed like a garden in addition to plots in Moulin-à-vent and in Saint-Amour. The grape variety, the various gamays, is indigenous in Beaujolais; an ampelographic research is underway at the château. The gamay is Chardonnay’s brother and Pinot Noir son.

FLEURIE: VISION & AMBITION FOR AN EXCEPTIONAL TERROIR
Farming my vines and producing my own wine is something intimate. I do not have any Beaujolais family roots. To me Bachelards is a choice of superior terroir quality as I classify Fleurie granite soils among the greatest French terroirs. Until the end of the 1970s the prices of wines from Fleurie, Moulin-à-Vent, Saint-Amour were higher than those of Gevrey-Chambertin, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Margaux. Today the wines of the 1950s and 1960s can be tasted wonderfully and offer density, complexity and freshness, proof of the grandeur of their respective terroirs. Our soils are 350 million years old and made of granites, feldspars, schists, mica schists, quartz, gneiss etc. Our terroirs are common to the appellations of the northern Rhône, Côte Rôtie, Condrieu and Hermitage. The vineyard is planted with very old vines (60 to 100 years) of Gamays, Viognier, Chardonnay and Syrah in massal selection on Riparia Gloire and Viala.

ALEXANDRA de VAZEILLES: MY PASSION IS MY JOB
I graduated from Northwestern University Kellogg's MBA in Chicago – finance, marketing and strategy – as well as in viticulture and oenology from Bordeaux and Beaune campuses. I worked and lived in the United States for 15 years. Before acquiring my own vineyard allowing me to fully express myself and realize my dream. I was trained by the greatest wineries including Château Latour in Pauillac - Premier Grand Cru Classé 1855, at Domaine de Montille in Volnay and at Domaine Roulot in Meursault.

At Château des Bachelards, I broke the codes of the region and defined a style from the my first vintage bearing in mind that biodynamic farming is key, as well as my vision and my ambition for my terroir. I chose this terroir on my own, one January morning under the cold winter, I did not inherit it, my parents were not winegrowers, it is my choice and it changes a lot of things. I had to fight to be able to live off my passion. Cultivating your vineyard and making your own wine is something intimate. Wine is an invitation to inspiration, to dream, to travel because my wine is the expression of a unique place. There is a spiritual dimension between Man and Earth that makes his interpretation and style unique. In this I join the daily work of the Benedictine monks who founded Bachelards and produced their wine there for eight centuries.
This is my interpretation of each vintage of the place called Les Bachelards, which is a unique place. This is also what makes my job so fabulous. The peculiarity of great wines is that they are unlike any other and can age quietly for 20 years. The palate of my wines is velvety, the tannins are silky and the length interminable. I thank Mother Nature for these first seven vintages and we are redoubling our efforts in the quest to develop our grand vins. Indeed, making a good wine is easy, making a grand vin is constant attention and the result of renewed intuitions, a vision of the vintage, an ambition for my land, a intimate relationship with my terroir.



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