Babass
Anjou, Loire Valley, France
Sébastien Dervieux, known as Babass, is a former rock musician who became a natural winemaker in Anjou, in the Loire Valley. After co-founding Domaine des Griottes in 2001, he established Les Vignes de Babass in Beaulieu-sur-Layon in 2011. He works with Chenin Blanc, Grolleau and Cabernet Franc, farming without chemical inputs and making wine without added sulphur. Groll'n'Roll captures that independent spirit through the local Grolleau grape.
Les Vignes de Babass grew out of Domaine des Griottes, which Sébastien Dervieux founded with Patrick Desplats in 2001. When the partnership ended in 2011, they divided the vineyards and went their separate ways. Babass and his partner Agnès now tend a little over four hectares together.
Their vines grow in one continuous area, on clay and decomposed schist over schist subsoils. Many were planted in the 1950s and 1960s. They work the soils without fertilisers and propagate replacement vines by layering existing vines. Apart from help with pruning and a small harvest team, Agnès and Babass do the work themselves.
In the cellar, fermentation takes place in fibreglass tanks, without temperature control. The Chenin Blancs are directly pressed and aged on their lees; the reds undergo whole-cluster maceration. No sulphur is added. Groll'n'Roll is their Grolleau cuvée — an expression of their independent spirit and their belief in wine as a living reflection of each vintage.
