The Story:

There are traditional producers who make wine the traditional way; there are natural wine producers who, whether from environmental conviction or from belief in their taste, work hard to make wine with the minimum of intervention, with an accordingly different flavour profile; then there is Jean Pascal Taix, and he does both.

One half of his range is entirely typical for this area; white blends, such as chardonnay-viognier and red blends with syrah, grenache and cinsault. The other half of his range is all natural wine; it includes an orange wine, a natural white, a natural red, and a natural rosé all under the brand ‘Thalia’, and even a ‘Petillant Nature’ (‘Pet Nat’) for short.

This last (a carignan noir, vermentino and viognier blend) – Price Band C - is really worth it: bubbles upon bubbles in a mousse in your mouth, and just enough flavour. This would be a fantastic party wine, bottled under capsules, like beer bottles. The orange wine, meanwhile, (Thalia- vermentino- viognier – Price Band C) is also full of life; properly grand mouth-feel without losing its natural wine characteristics.

Of the traditional wines, I thought his whites were particularly worth noting; the CR blend (Price Band C), properly yellow in colour, led by Chardonnay, but with viognier and a touch of clairette for support, carries a lovely chardonnay nose, but holds its balance throughout. The clairette comes from a tiny line of vines planted by his grandfather, which he still nurtures, even though it’s old and not very productive. The CR Red (Price Band C) isn’t bad either, with a lovely hint of caramel in the mouth: a typical syrah-grenache blend.

For the future, Jean Pascal will continue to make both styles of wine. Not only does he like both, but he thinks there’s consumer demand for both. That said, he has noticed that even his more traditional restaurant customers are saying that their consumers increasingly want the natural wines from his range.

The wine world’s decision about the future for natural wine is a fascinating question, but Jean Pascale shows that you don’t need to make a choice. You can do both.