Fred Gounan & Caroline Billet - vignoble de L’Arbre Blanc
Saint-Sandoux – Auvergne
Vignoble de l’Arbre Blanc, in Saint-Sandoux, holds a very special place in our hearts, and has done so since our first encounters with Fred Gounan and Carotte Billet. We have fond memories of Fred in his beloved Lotus 6 arriving in Chassignolles with bottles of his first wines to taste. These were from his young Pinot Noir vines and also, at that time, Gamay d’Auvergne (Vinzelles, what a wine!). This moment was one of our first realisations of what the wines of Auvergne could be and we quickly grew to love them.
Fred’s family have been the custodians of this special part of Puy de Dome for generations and Fred himself for the last two decades. In 2022 they began the process of handing over the reins to Julie and Jacob Ottosen von Rosen. Since 2023 the young Danish couple have been tending the 3 hectares of vines and bottling the last vintages that Fréd and Carotte had in the cellar. In 2024 Julie and Jacob made their first wines from these vineyards in Saint-Sandoux. These will be bottled and released in time, and we are very excited.
From an early visit to Saint-Sandoux in 2011
When we arrived at “Gounanville” in Saint Sandoux, a town in the chain of extinct volcanoes that form the backbone of the Auvergne, the extravagantly mustached Fred was tinkering with the chassis of the Lotus 6 he had crashed soon after (though not because of) our Fête du Vin in Chassignolles.
The Gounan family has been in Saint Sandoux for generations. Fred’s father had apple orchards as many people in the area once did. Sadly these orchards have now been replaced with the ubiquitous wheat and so have most of the vineyards. Fred and Caroline’s two small plots of Pinot Noir stand alone on the basaltic western slope of the valley in whose trough runs the A75 opposite the hill of Corent (home of Patrick Bouju and François Dhumes). Off to the north Fred points out a patch of vines that his neighbour has left to run wild, next to that he shows us some Pinot Gris and Sauvignon that he planted in 2010. The two plots of Pinot Noir, one higher and one lower, are both planted en lyre, a system that enhances leaf and fruit exposure to the sun (much needed in the moderate climate of the Auvergne) and, as Fred assures, acts as a cosmic funnel. The funneling seems to work, Fred’s vines are beautiful and the ground around them rich with other plant life - testament to his and Caroline’s work.
Fred ferments in huge oak vats separating his upper and lower parcels. After fermentation the two parcels are moved into oak barrels and kept separate. As the wines age Fred chooses which barrels will go into his Petites Orgues and his Grandes Orgues. For the white Fred macerates the whole berries of Pinot Gris in the pressed Sauvignon Blanc for nearly a year before moving to barrel.
Fred and Caroline have since moved away from using wood for ageing and now use only large stoneware vessels.