VGS Château Potelle
A vineyard where power, balance and finesse are one !
VGS Château Potelle is a young family property in Napa Valley founded in 1980 by Jean-Noël Fourmeaux.
”I have come very often since the 1970s for my work but it was not until 1980 that I decided to buy 10 acres of land to plant. I saw that the Napa wines started to improve, to be refined and I told myself that there was a potential to make very good wines. At that time there was an extraordinary dynamic reach from the pioneers of Napa. Everyone was looking for beautiful terroirs, knowledge of grape varieties… in short it was great ! There were only 52 wineries, we all knew each other, we were all friends and we helped each other. I then said to myself that there was something to do and so I started.”
Today Jean-Noël produces two ranges of wines, the first from his own vines and the second from sourced vines on Napa but also in Sonoma. Let’s go together to meet him.
Why make wine ?
Jean-Noël Potelle: I didn’t always do that, initially I was a development strategy consultant but I always had a taste for wine. When I got married my parents gave me some money. With that I built up a cellar… When I arrived in the early 1980s I saw an opportunity but I don’t regret it. I love it, I am passionate about wine. There are two things that pushed me to become a wine grower. First of all, I consider that wine is a constantly renewed pleasure. It’s like a piece of art, we never finish enjoying it. Depending on the state of the moment, emotions will be appreciated in different ways. For me wine is that, the same bottle of wine will not give the same emotions to each tasting. I like to make wine because I have a vivid imagination and because I like to go to the end of things. For example : when we made our Fourmeaux wine which won at the Napa Auction. Of course we were very happy but the next day I said ‘Ok tomorrow we will start all over again and start in a radically opposite way’. That is to say that instead of taking a base A we will take a base B and we will reconstruct the wine to see if we have understood everything about this wine. Wine is something beautiful that expresses itself, that lives, that has a personality, a soul. All this means that the same wine will be highlighted in a barrel from cooper A or, conversely, completely extinguished in a bar- rel from another cooper. It’s a bit like us with friends. Some will pull us up, others down… some will bring out a certain aspect of our personality which, on the contrary, will be less visible when we are with others. Wine is all that and at the same time so much more too… There is so much in it that you have to be absolutely certain that you have worked everything you can. Wine is above all a school of humility. This is not a school of self-righteousness, it is really to take note of humility.
Where does the name VGS Château Potelle come from ?
J-N.P.: It is the name of a family castle in the north of France (near Lille) that we have owned for over 900 years. There we do not make wines there, it is simply a place for vacations, family reunions… I took this name because it represents me and my values.
Regarding VGS, one day a taster asked me how I evaluated my wines. I replied: ‘Good Shit vs. Bad Shit’, He then replied : ‘You’re right, it’s a Very Good Shit, since it stayed’… The next day I had a lot of visitors who came and said to me ‘We want some Very Good Shit !’.
I find that this name also represents us quite well because despite the fact that we make good wines, that we have been two years in a row the most expensive wine of the Napa Auction nobody is interested in us. After the Napa Auction records we had no press calls… We are completely under the radar and yet each year we have significant growth.
What is the signature of your wines ? J-N.P.: The common dough is linked to the environment of Napa Valley, it is the fruit and the lightness. All my wines have a lot of acidity because I am one of the highest vineyards in Napa so we have a natural acidity which is quite pronounced. This allows me to have dynamism in my wines that others do not necessarily have. Generally when we think of American wines we think of heavy, alcoholic, powerful and ultimately clumsy wines. I absolutely don’t want that kind of wine.
What makes the specificity of your terroirs ?
J-N.P.: My vineyards are located on Mont Veeder, it’s my 36th harvest there. Potelle is indisputably a mounting vineyard. Here in Napa there are big differences between the mountains. Mount Veeder is a mountain located west of Napa. It separates the Sonoma from the Napa. It is to the west but also very southern. That is to say that if we speak in terms of latitude I am between the city of Napa and Younthville. As we know, the further south you go, the colder it gets. So I combine two factors : the elevation and proximity to the bay of San Francisco so I have a colder climate. I have on average between 10 and 15°F difference with the Valley floor. The only exception is during the nights of August when we have an inversion, we get hotter than the Valley. More exactly at night our temperatures drop less than in the Valley. They will go down to 50/52°F At night while we here will stay at 58°F on average.
On Mt Veeder we have volcanic soil, so with a lot of slate. In the Valley there are 38 different types of soil. Thanks to my different plots I have 37 ! Actually the only thing I don’t have is clay. This is what makes the main difference between Mt Veeder and Howell Mountain. These two mountains produce very good wines.
The difference of the slate compared to the clay is that on the slate the roots are forced to descend deeply to draw the water / nutrient because it is a very draining subsoil. There is also a difference in production, there we will be on average on 4 tonnes / acre while on Mt Veeder we will be around 2 tonnes / acre. I also have a vineyard on Moon Mountain in Sonoma, which is also a cold terroir.