CA-BOIT-LIBRE

I came across a bottle of Damien Bastian at a sommelier friend of mine. It was a "Mon Blanc" 2018; I was touched by chasselas, yes chasselas! Paf, a beautiful slap! Everything I like: freshness, oxidative touches, roundness on the attack and tension on the finish... In short, it made me want to know more, and here we are on his land on a beautiful October morning in 2020. Between two confinements...

Damien Bastian was born in Annemasse, and comes from the world of horticulture. He has many years of experience (even if he is only in his early forties today) in growing vegetables and developing complex systems on the subject in Chad. On his return, he worked in the restaurant business in Geneva and then really came into contact with wine. There, he decided to work again in nature in general, and in natural wine in particular. He then worked for a well-known Savoie-based winemaker , Dominique Lucas.

Then in 2017, he settled on 75 ares of chasselas vines in the Marignan appellation (Savoie) less than 1km from Lake Geneva. His Winery is called " Ça Boit Libre ", a play on words to talk about freedom but also about the independence of his region ("Savoie Libre"). Obviously such a surface area does not allow him to live on it and Damien continues to work in 2018 and 2019 as an agricultural worker for Anne & Jean-François Ganevat, famous Jura winemakers. Two years working back and forth to work his vines in parallel and above all to enrich his experience in the elaboration of natural white wines... , 

In 2020, Damien Bastian, the adopted grandson of a well-known agricultural engineer in the region, André Goddard (in 1973, he was one of those who launched the "Vin de Savoie" appellation), took over the vines from Jean-Marie Chappuis (Les Vins de Carra) who retired in 2019. The latter will be convinced by Damien's project and also by the fact that the latter is the grandson of André Goddard... On 3.2 hectares are mixed red and white wines. For the whites, the Swiss chasselas rub shoulders with the typical Savoyard Grape variety . For the blacks, the Pinot rubs shoulders with the Gamay.

Not far from there, he found a place to live in a very old building (Winery de Marsaz), more than 200 years old, and located a few meters from the Swiss border, away from the city. A nice and parallel world. It is in this old wine cellar, abandoned since 1967, that Damien Bastien has just settled for his first 2020 harvest. Our charming and exciting tasting will allow us to taste the 2020s on the chasselas, the highs, the gamay (several parcels), the pinot noir, the 2019s and some 2018s. We are very enthusiastic about all the wines tasted that day. There is strength, energy, tension, salinity.

We are delighted to make you discover this work on vintages 18 and 19! And what can we say about our impatience to discover the outcome of the maturing of these wines on 2020 that we have just discovered still in the maturing process.

Thank you Damien for your welcome and for this wonderful first allocation!