Bordeaux winemaker brews Sauvignon beer

A Bordeaux producer is carving his own niche by brewing what he claims is the only fruit beer produced using Sauvignon Blanc grapes grown in the region.

“We’re good aren’t we?’”, asks his friend. “Yes not bad!”

La Biére des Vendanges 2015, literally “beer harvest”, is produced by Thomas Le Grix de la Salle, winemaker and export manager at Château Verdus in the Entre-deux-Mers region of Bordeaux, from Sauvignon Blanc grapes grown at his family’s estate.

With Belgian ancestry, the idea for the unusual brew came from his love of beer and ambition to produce a “very simple” beer that was “fun and not serious”.

“I love beer and microbreweries are just booming at the moment”, said Le Grix de la Salle speaking to db at the HK wine and spirits fair last week. “I had a very good influence from a Swiss winemaker who made a beer using Chasselas grapes. Chasselas is a very neutral grape and a bit like Chardonnay in that it changes so much depending on where it’s grown, but it has no aromatics. Chasselas is fine, but I wanted to focus on an aromatic grape.”

The winery’s third vintage, the 5.5% amber fruit beer is made using Verdus’ Sauvignon Blanc grape juice and was first brewed by the Brasserie Entre Deux Bieres, a local brewery close to the winery. From this year it will be produced by another local brewery, Brasserie Mascaret, with the 2015 vintage resulting in 6,000 bottles of La Biére des Vendanges 2015.

“I had the idea to adapt it to grapes grown in Bordeaux but I didn’t have the equipment or the expertise and it’s not the same as winemaking”, explained Le Grix de la Salle. “You don’t use the same yeasts so I had to hire someone to do it. You don’t use sulphur in beer so bacteria is a problem. Yeast is a problem, and so we had to figure out how to get around the bacterial troubles which wasn’t easy. I wanted a refreshing beverage but it was difficult to to get the balance between the acidity, alcohol and aromatics of the Sauvignon Blanc, but finally we did it. We made the first batch in 2013.”

In keeping with the current trend for craft beer and quirky labels, its bottle features a cartoon depiction of two men in a pub having a conversation with one asking “we’re good aren’t we?’”, to which his friend replies “yes, not bad!”

Thomas Le Grix de la Salle, winemaker and export manager at Château Verdus

Another example of the producer’s break from tradition, Château Verdus has already launched a “New World-inspired” range called Crosswinds in partnership with a producer in the Languedoc in a bid to simplify French wine, which Le Grix de la Salle believes can be too complicated for the average consumer.

The beer is currently only sold locally, mainly to local wine bars where Le Grix de la Salle appears to have found a niche.

“They never say no”, he says. “They love the concept because its very easy to explain to their customers.”

While currently produced on a small scale the winemaker hopes to expand its operation in the future.

“This beer talks about our dynamism and wish to be in the front of thing and to create new ideas to sell, but it is still on the wine side for me”, he said. “I think the concept has a great future.”