Bea's dream Beatriz Papamija landed in Chinon in 2019, just after the harvest. In her suitcases, her husband Etienne Leblanc, three children, and a mad desire for natural wine and autonomy. But above all an energy to wake you up Gargantua and all his clique. The Kixhaya Clos No, don't look, the name of this new domain is not an obscure reference to Rabelais. The Chinese are certainly past masters in the art of arranging it in all the sauces, but not this time. To christen her sleeping estate, Beatriz - call her Bea - tapped into her roots: kixhaya is a compound word in the Nasa language, the Native American people of her Colombian grandfather, of two words meaning "vine" and "water." delicate way to evoke the origin of his pretty accent. Colombian, she met her husband Etienne Leblanc in Spain, and they created their family in England. An architect specializing in renewable energy, Bea has always wanted to work the land, but “in Colombia it was not possible”. "In architecture school, we were told 'architect is not a profession, but a way of life'. I only really understood this sentence when I became winemaker. » The course "I wanted a job where you do the whole process," Bea explains. And that's the wine. You can be in the vines and touch the plant. And there is winemaking, and finally marketing, it's a lot of trades in one. The couple wanted to change their lives, leave the city for the countryside. Etienne is from Pas-de-Calais, "no way" for Bea. Same for the South, "too arid". “I discovered the Loire and I fell into the pot. It's amazing this diversity, this richness! A BPREA in Montreuil-Bellay later, here she is as a winegrower. Le Clos Kixhaya is indeed a couple's adventure: Bea and Etienne are pursuing this dream of autonomy, of a self-sufficient little Eden. For the wine estate, Etienne manages the administrative and financial part, but it is Bea who makes the wines, and who gives the LA. And it is worth remembering this, for all intents and purposes. "I can't help noticing that I have to prove every day that I'm a winemaker. While Etienne, who has no does neither training nor internships, he sets foot in the vineyards, and that's it, he is a winemaker in the eyes of the world..." sleepy house To find the vines, it took a stroke of luck and a lot of audacity. Their 4.5 hectare "clos", surrounded by partly collapsed walls, came with a house, just opposite. Finally, a house... A tufa ruin, with brambles all the way to the roof and just enough past splendor to make you dream. While waiting for the big works, the little family settled in the caretaker's house and everyone, including the grandparents, got down to the titanic task of waking up this sleeping beauty. The vines: cabernet franc only So there it is very simple: Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Franc and more Cabernet Franc. Do you grimace? "I also dreamed of having lots of different grape varieties," Bea recalls. But, that's not possible. And the more I discover Cabernet Franc, the more I am amazed by all that can be done with it! “Bubbles, rosés, light reds, less light reds… Everything suits him. "And me, slips the winemaker, I'm a little irresponsible, I test everything including things that should not be done like maceration in whole bunches..." On the ground side, think "sands" and limestone all the way down. In other words: freshness and little depth. The plot is on the left bank of the Vienne (the historic slopes of Chinon are more on the right bank). The conversion to organic was immediately launched, as was the soft pruning of the vines, a technique that is intended to be more respectful of the vines and therefore more sustainable. A small area of vines has been uprooted, and Bea wants to replanting gouais, an old historical white grape variety of the region. “To avoid freezing, we prune as late as possible, and in pairs to go faster. It is our only protection. For everything else, Bea does the work, perched on her very small tractor that she has carefully chosen so that she can repair and handle it alone. #autonomy The wines: freshness and delicacy With her Cabernet Franc and her single plot, Bea makes five different cuvées: - a pet'nat', a white wine (black), a rosé and two red wines. - The Blanc de Noir is made with grapes harvested earlier, to guarantee acidity, in direct press. - Les Grappes cuvée (one of the reds) comes from the youngest vines; the grapes are pressed very slowly after a ten-day maceration; and the wine is aged seven months in vats before bottling. "For me, it's the purity of Cabernet," says Bea. - For the other red, the Le Clos 2020 cuvée, the grapes are destemmed by hand, macerated for 40 days and trodden, for a richer and more structured, but still delicate material. "It doesn't exist, but we did a fermentation maceration. When we went to the press, the juices were dry, except in the grapes. » - In addition to the Cryptochrome rosé, there is finally the Amphores cuvée. "I don't really wanted, amphoras, but not those in terracotta, too porous, nor in sandstone because they come from China. The ones I chose come from Italy, it is a mixture of clays, with the porosity of a barrel. This gives a chalky texture to the wine, a warm and cold side at the same time, an almost mineral structure. » It was during her training that Bea discovered the "miracles" of modern oenology. "When I learned that you could use up to 400 products to make wine, I was shocked," she recalls. You don't pay all this attention to the raw material and then put chemistry into it! “, she is still surprised. Extracted with gentleness and delicacy and as few machines as possible, matured with patience, all of its wines have so far been sulphur-free. Text and Photos: Julie Reux