SINCE he was in his teens, winemaker Frédéric Brochet has been consumed with a passion for wine. In fact, he describes himself to be a “wine geek.” He made his first label for a family-made Gamay when he was a child, and he started keeping a catalog of all the vintages that his father made in their half-a-hectare vineyard when he was 14 years old.
By then, he was already tasting wine—not drinking them—but learning about the nuances of wine varieties that are readily available to him. It wasn’t surprising that he specialized in oenology in university. In 1995, when he was just 22, on his first year of his doctorate in oenology, he launched his own brand, Ampelidae.
Ampelidae is the marriage of old-world winemaking tradition and modern technology. The Loire Valley, where Brochet’s vineyard is located, is well known for its Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc grape varieties. What Brochet has done is combine age-old knowledge about winemaking; namely, the management of his vineyard—now a vast 225 hectares, compared with his father’s backyard plot—and the processing of wine using modern-day technologies. What he produces is a contemporary wine created from the enjoyment of today’s wine enthusiasts.
What is special about Ampelidae is that it is totally organic and vegan. In managing his vineyard, nothing synthetic or man-made touches the ground nor in the final process of blending wines. And since his vintages are vegan, he doesn’t use animal byproducts in the fining of wines, that process where the liquid is clarified into its purest form by removing whatever impurities there might be in wine before it is bottled. And for that, he has received appropriate certification from regulating bodies in the European Union and the United States, proof that his vintages are the real deal.
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What I am using are new techniques that are not seen even in new-world winemaking countries,” Brochet said. “It is all very upscale. While I have no research and development team to speak of, I do a lot of tests and experiments to complement this high-end technology. This technology will be useful in the future.”
What pushed Brochet to create his own wine? While his grandfather and his father saw winemaking as a hobby, he saw it as his life work. And he practices his advocacy for the environment in the way he grows his grapes. Trust a geek to be ahead of the time.
He recognizes the effect of global warming on winemakers worldwide. Although he may be using modern methods in developing his wines, the management of the vineyard is still up to nature: the weather, the quality of the soil and the quality of the grapes.
“A lot of things have changed since my grandfather’s time. He only had access to a few pickers, and he had limited facilities to make his wine. But today, a lot of things have changed. The plants have changed. They have become better. But climate change has affected the growth of the vineyard.”
He pointed out that there was a chill during this year’s summer months.
“We all thought that we would have a bad harvest, but in September, we had really warm days, which helped the grapes to ripen well, so that we had enough for a good harvest.”
Ampelidae is quite popular in Europe for its organic and vegan qualities. In fact, it is the No. 1 organic wine in Scandinavia.
True to his advocacy for the environment, Brochet said the wines are brought to Scandinavia in bulk and bottled there to cut down on freight cost.
“If we shipped the wine in bottles to Scandinavia, the glass adds to the weight of shipping. This way of shipping reduces the carbon footprint of our wines,” he added.
Aside from Europe and the United States, where Ampelidae is beginning to get noticed, the wine brand is now being sold in 32 countries, including Japan, China, New Zealand and Tahiti. It is now also available in the Philippines.
Brochet is confident about the Philippine market, because he considers it to be the most promising in Asia.
“From what I have seen, Filipinos are good in living. They are fond of food. They like the pleasures of life. They are friendly. The market is new to wine, but there is an interest in it,” he said.
“I was talking to a wine dealer from Quebec who explained that the market in the Philippines was like the market in Quebec 25 years ago. But in about five to six years, this market will catch up to the level that Quebec is in now. It’s a market that’s very open. It is learning very quickly.”
The health fad worldwide will also have an effect on the sales of organic wines worldwide. And this would also be of interest to wine drinkers in the Philippines.
“People now are very conscious of their health. This will be part of the way people with look at the things that give them pleasure. And in this way, the interest in organic wines is growing,” he explained.