A Languedoc & Kentucky Couple Break The Minervois Mold For Winemaking

03.09.2023 - 10:39 / forbes.com

Raised in the U.S. state of Kentucky and college educated in the state of Rhode Island, John Bojanowski spent one senior year college term studying in Poland. This was just before the fall of the wall separating eastern and western Europe in the late 1980’s.

Mesmerized by the experience, he returned to the U.S., completed his thesis in critical literary theory, and decided he wanted more.

‘I said—I’m going back to Poland. But teaching English paid $100 a month in Poland at the time, so that wasn’t an option for paying off my loans. I decided to find a company that wanted someone to travel to Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the wall came down, and so having been in Poland appeared maybe to be useful.’

Bojanowski found a job working for a manufacturer of power supplies for computers. He was based in Paris, and for almost five years traveled extensively to Eastern Europe. During this time he met his wife to be Nicole, who grew up in Saint-Marcel-sur-Aude in the Languedoc region of southern France, close to the city of Narbonne. She was working as an export manager for wine cooperatives.

‘She wanted to make her own wine—a grand vin rouge. To do that she was very specific—she was going to plant Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes at altitude on white limestone gravel.’

Sophie took John to visit the small village of Saint-Jean-de-Minervois in southern France. The beauty of vines and landscape drew him in. The couple have now lived in this village for over a quarter century, raised a son, tended 8.5 hectares (21 acres) of grapevines and now fashion vintages from 18 different grape types. They sell their wines throughout France and the U.S. under their Clos du Gravillas label.

At first, winemaking was a challenge.

Nicole obtained an agricultural diploma and then picked grapes during a harvest in Burgundy. John, meanwhile, learned to drive a tractor and also toiled at a harvest in southern France. As we walked through fermentation and barrels rooms, adjacent to their dwelling, he recalled the experience.

‘We bought this place in 1996. We were basically looking for a house that needed to be renovated, and this also had outer buildings. This room was a stable, and everything else was in ruins. We poured concrete, put in electricity, and that was our winery. We had two fermentation tanks. Red grapes that came in were destemmed and then crushed in these red 90 liter buckets. Then the buckets were lifted up to the mezzanine floor with a mason’s winch, and after that I ran upstairs and dragged them over and poured them into tanks. Labor intensive. A lot of effort, but it worked. It’s also a very gentle way of getting grapes into tanks.’

During their first harvest, the couple reduced the quantity of grapes by thinning