Med abbey wine the toast of Cannes film fest
Source: Agencies |
July 27, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A GROUP of southern French monks adhere strictly to the centuries-old rules of their monastery as they pray and work in a small community. But with modern marketing techniques they are lifting the wines they make to must-have items on exclusive tables in France and abroad.
The 20 or so monks of the Lerins Abbey on a small island in the Mediterranean near Cannes make about 30,000 bottles of wine per year, in between their regular religious duties.
The monks have been making wine on the islet since the Middle Ages, living in a monastery founded in the year 405 by Saint Honorat.
Over the centuries, the island and the abbey have seen many changes. They have been raided by pirates with the monks taken away, they changed from Benedictines to Cistercians and the monastery was closed by the French king in 1788 when there were just a few monks left.
Revolutionary soil
The island was nationalized during the French revolution and the monastery sold to an actress who lived there for 20 years. The bishop of Frejus bought the island in 1859 and 10 years later, Cistercian monks started a new community, using its ideal climate for growing vines to make wine.
In the 1990s, however, the monks decided to overhaul their wine-making process for better quality and marked five different "terroir" areas on the island.
The abbot, Father Nicolas, took the decision under influence from Jacques Chibois, a top chef at his restaurant La Bastide de Saint Antoine in Grasse, not far away from Cannes and the Lerins islands.
Brother Marie Paques, the bursar or business manager in modern language, had a wine-making education in Hyeres, near Toulon on the Mediterranean coast, before he entered the order.
"According to Saint Benedictus, a monk is only really a monk when he lives off the fruit of his work," he said. "We live modestly from our wines and liquors." The monks' ambitions are not modest, they strive for excellence in their wine and not just in wines but excellence as a goal in life, in relations with people and with nature.
Hand-picked
Every year, the grapes are plucked by hand and Brother Marie oversees the wine-making process with the help of oenologists Michel Novelle and Alain Valles.
The vineyard, located in the central part of the island, is made up of eight hectares. The clay and limestone soil, which is silt-laden and sandy, is particularly rich in organic plant matter. The sea also adds to the singularity of the wines.
All the manipulations are done by hand and the monks use neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers in order to preserve the ecosystem on the island.
Despite the silence of the religious order, the wines have started to make noise on the French mainland since the famed Martinez hotel in Cannes served the wines during the Film Festival there.
Their chef, Christian Sinicropi, married the wines of Lerins to his menu for the jury dinner on May 10 which he dedicated to the chairman Robert de Niro with names of dishes named after his films, with marinated poultry as a starter and filet of seabass as main course.
The wines are also sold in Paris.
The 20 or so monks of the Lerins Abbey on a small island in the Mediterranean near Cannes make about 30,000 bottles of wine per year, in between their regular religious duties.
The monks have been making wine on the islet since the Middle Ages, living in a monastery founded in the year 405 by Saint Honorat.
Over the centuries, the island and the abbey have seen many changes. They have been raided by pirates with the monks taken away, they changed from Benedictines to Cistercians and the monastery was closed by the French king in 1788 when there were just a few monks left.
Revolutionary soil
The island was nationalized during the French revolution and the monastery sold to an actress who lived there for 20 years. The bishop of Frejus bought the island in 1859 and 10 years later, Cistercian monks started a new community, using its ideal climate for growing vines to make wine.
In the 1990s, however, the monks decided to overhaul their wine-making process for better quality and marked five different "terroir" areas on the island.
The abbot, Father Nicolas, took the decision under influence from Jacques Chibois, a top chef at his restaurant La Bastide de Saint Antoine in Grasse, not far away from Cannes and the Lerins islands.
Brother Marie Paques, the bursar or business manager in modern language, had a wine-making education in Hyeres, near Toulon on the Mediterranean coast, before he entered the order.
"According to Saint Benedictus, a monk is only really a monk when he lives off the fruit of his work," he said. "We live modestly from our wines and liquors." The monks' ambitions are not modest, they strive for excellence in their wine and not just in wines but excellence as a goal in life, in relations with people and with nature.
Hand-picked
Every year, the grapes are plucked by hand and Brother Marie oversees the wine-making process with the help of oenologists Michel Novelle and Alain Valles.
The vineyard, located in the central part of the island, is made up of eight hectares. The clay and limestone soil, which is silt-laden and sandy, is particularly rich in organic plant matter. The sea also adds to the singularity of the wines.
All the manipulations are done by hand and the monks use neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers in order to preserve the ecosystem on the island.
Despite the silence of the religious order, the wines have started to make noise on the French mainland since the famed Martinez hotel in Cannes served the wines during the Film Festival there.
Their chef, Christian Sinicropi, married the wines of Lerins to his menu for the jury dinner on May 10 which he dedicated to the chairman Robert de Niro with names of dishes named after his films, with marinated poultry as a starter and filet of seabass as main course.
The wines are also sold in Paris.
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