These days the kind of establishments where you normally drink natural wine are perceived as modern, quirky bars perched up in the city, in a gentrified town or in the comfort of your own living room, thanks to some sort of Amazon-inspired same day delivery service.
What we must not forget though, especially when swiping past those cloudy bottles of pink ‘glou-glou’ on Instagram, is that natural wine movement is so much more historic than your Instagram feed is suggesting.
FYI - not pre Covid-19 historic, I’m talking pre 1980s historic.
Having already spoken about the ‘Godfather of Natural Wine’ - Jules Chauvet, and just how instrumental he has been in pinpointing the true meaning of natural wine in a previous blog, it’s time I shine some (well deserved) light on his disciples, the four wise men who spread the word far and wide of his ‘hands off’ approach towards natural wine.
Labelled by renowned US wine importer Kermit Lynch as ‘The Gang of Four’ in the early 80s, the gang of four were based around the Beaujolais village ‘Villié-Morgan’ and consisted of four absolute wine making legends; Marcel Lapierre, Guy Brenton, Jean-Paul Thévenet and Jean Foillard (later joined by Jacques Neauport).
Marcel Lapierre is considered to be the figurehead of ‘The Gang’ thanks to his direct mentoring from the man himself, Jules Chauvet. Jules took a young, inexperienced Marcel under his wing like a father would with his son around the year 1981 and despite the industrialised direction the world of agriculture was heading towards, Jules taught Marcel everything there was to know about the magnificence of terroir-focused, unadulterated, real wine.
Jules’ teachings on what are now well recognised wine making techniques such as reviving indigenous grape varieties, malolactic and carbonic maceration are widely recorded as what truly changed Marcel’s perspective on what it means to produce natural wine.
Unfortunately Chauvet passed away in 1989, 18 months before Marcel Lapierre was able to produce a fully recognisable, stable natural wine in homage to his mentor in their local region of Beaujolais.
But the Godfather of natural wine’s passing did not occur in vein, Marcel was spreading his word and had repurposed his education on the art of what it means to produce a proper natural wine to three of his close wine making friends in Beaujolais; Guy, Jean-Paul and Jean.
For more than three decades, Marcel Lapierre held firm to his convictions and built a community of like-minded vignerons based on an understanding of soil, plant and wine microbiology.
Much like how those four innovators who went by ‘The Beatles’ would obsess for days on end over every last chord during the production stage of their music, the gang of four would stay up all night having endless discussions on the theory and philosophy of natural wine.
During their early days, the rebellious gang would taste wine constantly, working tirelessly towards their shared goal of achieving consistency in Jules Chauvet’s new methods of producing wine.
As you can tell, the gang of four’s late night meetings and endless tasting of wines certainly prevailed. In my opinion, they should be considered as four trailblazers and legends as their impact on the world of wine can still be felt to this very day.
Here we are in the 2020’s where natural wine now has a massive foothold in the wine industry, continuing to grow on an upward trajectory in an impressive fashion, whether you are on board with the concept or not.
Considering how popular natural wine has become since the likes of Marcel Lapierre and Jules Chauvet took it upon themselves to spread the word of what’s essentially just going back to basics in wine production, I personally don’t think they are championed enough.
What they are, is pioneers, they are innovators who were willing to take a risk and do things differently at a time when being rogue was not in fashion.
If you really appreciate natural wine for what it represents… you should check out some of my older blog posts and get yourself fully up to date on the origins of natural wine.
Enjoy your week!