Ab Initio

14 May, 2022

Last year, in June, I attended my first wine fair. It took place in Clisson, a small town in the Muscadet, near Nantes. Thomas and I were to stay with Yoann Gillot, one of the organizers – Thomas had gone to wine school in Amboise with him from 2016 to 2017. When we arrived we met Emmanuel Roblin, who was sitting at a garden table in front of the house with Yoann and his father. Emmanuel, introduced to me as »Manu«, had also been a classmate of Thomas’s (and Yoann’s). Manu had brought a bottle from the Domaine de l’Ecu. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I had just read about this domaine in the English wine magazine Noble Rot that I had subscribed to! I showed the brilliant publication to Manu. It turned out that he worked at the domaine, actually, and together with the winegrower, -maker and owner, Fred Niger, was responsible for the wines – exclusively aged in amphorae! (About the usage of amphorae in winemaking I had first read in Alice Feiring‘s fascinating book »For the Love of Wine: My Odyssey Through the World’s Most Ancient Wine Culture« which I had taken with me on my first trip to Thomas’s in September 2020).

More or less exactly one year later, on 10 May, 2022, I’m going back to the Muscadet – to visit Manu. Thomas recently told me about Manu’s new project on the phone. Manu’s new domaine, which he founded together with Claire and Fred Niger, the owners of Domaine de l’Ecu, 50/50, is called Ab Initio – at Ab Initio Manu is solely responsible for the wines. »Martin, you have to try Manu’s wines. He was just visiting me, his Gamay is incredible.« Two weeks later I received an email. »Hi Martin, following my visit to Thomas two weeks ago, I’d like to discuss with you the possibility of a future partnership between you and our company AB INITIO. I really enjoyed meeting you in Clisson. Best regards, Emmanuel Roblin.« I immediately called Ab Initio, spoke first to Manu and then to Claire. We made an appointment for 10 May.

After a three-hour drive, I park in front of the domaine at 11.15 a.m., fifteen minutes later than planned. I get out, walk to the entrance and stop when someone behind me calls »Martin!« It’s Manu. We hug. He leads me through the impressive, tidy work, storage, labeling and shipping halls of Domaine de l’Ecu, Ab Initio’s landlord, so to speak, and takes me to the first floor, where the managing directors Claire and Fred Niger sit. I say hello to Fred, the winemaker I met for the first time at the aforementioned fair in Clisson. He immediately apologizes: He still has to do finish something in his office and then needs to go to a radio station, an interview is pending. I think about how upset he had gotten at that fair in Clisson about a winemaker who offered really terrible wines to try. Fred was angry, the whole morning, especially his palate, had been ruined for him. He regrets that, apart from a few peculiar words like ›Schützengraben‹ (trenches), he no longer speaks German, although he learned it at school for eight years. I feel the same way with my French, although I’m often quite surprised at what comes to light – (only) when I’m here in France. Claire later introduces herself. She, among other things, takes care of the sales and logistics of the domaines. Claire comes from an old family of winemakers from Saint-Émilion, one of the main Bordeaux red wine regions. We chat about the work in the vineyard, which she misses now that she mainly does administrative tasks. But maybe, she hopes, this will change in the future, she really would like to be closer again, to the wine, on the creative side, and would rather bother less with customs formalities. Sometimes she longs for the good old documents that you could fill out by hand and then get stamped by the officials – the internet has complicated a lot, there are more forms rather than fewer! But, what can you do: Formalities, taxes and papers are also part of the business, and if you don’t take care of them properly, you won’t be able to work as a winemaker for long. Many people who dream of becoming a winemaker cannot imagine what has to happen before the wine is bottled, not to mention what else has to happen to the bottle before it is sold in a shop or on the internet, before it is actually consumed. She asks me how long I’ve actually been in business and I tell my story, which I’ve told a lot lately: It all started with »Substance« by Julien Pineau, in May 2020. Then: The first harvest at Thomas’s. Then: Selling his first vintage. Later: Returning to the Loire in June 2021, more clients, my second harvest, pressing my first wine and so on and so forth. I also mention my work as a music supervisor. Claire has a very good idea: I should definitely celebrate my hundredth film, for which I will probably be working in the next year! Meanwhile, Manu is preparing the tasting: We will taste all six cuvées at the bar in the entrance area of the winery, four of them spent their time in amphorae (in this case the bottles wear a wax cap), two of them in underground concrete or inox vats.