Axel Prufer – Introduction
Axel Prufer was born and raised in East Germany but moved to France as a young man to take up a career in wine making. He produces delicious wines naturally with as little intervention as possible – many of his wines have no added sulphur.
In fact, on a visit to Axel’s winery we tried one of his cuvees which had been bottled without sulphur and one that had been bottled with minimal amounts of sulphur and the result was simply amazing. The one without sulphur stood head and shoulders above the other for freshness, vitality and flavour.
Prufer has been described as a ‘darling of the natural wine bar movement’. He is a quiet, thoughtful and engaging young winemaker who is totally committed to producing non-interventionist wines.
We visited him in the mountains behind Beziers and were fascinated by the lengths he goes to in ensuring that his grapes are healthy and his wines are pure. Every sentence he utters is the result of deep thought.
We discussed the problems of grapes grown in monocultures such as in Chablis and Champagne and then crammed into Prufer’s small truck to bump our way up hillsides through thick forest and then for the final part of the way by foot until we reached his remote vineyard surrounded by forest. There is absolutely no chance of spray-drift here!
Because the forests are the natural habitat of wild boars, Prufer collects human hair from the hairdressers in the local village and spreads it around the boundary of his vineyard. He says that the boar pick up the human scent from the hair and avoid the vineyard. The vineyard is a picture of health with spiderwebs everywhere and an amazing biodiversity on display.
All this is for nothing of course if the wine doesn’t taste delicious. Prufer only uses natural yeast to ferment his wines and he adds no sulphur at all (we put a ‘Contains Sulphites’ warning on the label because some sulphites can be naturally produced during the wine making process). This gives them a liveliness that is most appealing.
Prufer uses tanks made from stainless steel or fibreglass or large, old barrels that impart no oak flavour. The tanks have ‘floating’ lids so that no air can get at the wine if he does not have enough to fill a tank.
Axel only produces small quantities of wine due to the low yields from his vines so there is not much available in this shipment.
To find out if we currently have any of Prufer’s wines go to our Buy Natural Wines page.
Le Temps des Cerises La Peur de Rouge 2024
Predominantly from a beautiful stone-walled vineyard and a vineyard full of tiny star-shaped fossils called Etoile, La Peur du Rouge now also has a little Chardonnay and an undetectable (we think) row of Viognier from the new vines purchased in 2022.
As usual it has a period of carbonic maceration before bottling and the resulting wine is quite golden from the colour picked up from the skins.
There were four passes through the vines so as to capture acidity (and 12,2% ABV), each macerated and pressed separately (after between 5 and 10 days of maceration).
Axel does like to experiment and the last. It is intensive work and the yield is very low – 31 hectolitres of wine from 3 hectares of vines or not much more than 10 hectolitres per hectare.
Price: $64
Le Temps de Cerises La Peur du Rouge Pet-Nat 2021
This is a slightly sparkling wine made in the pet-nat style from Chardonnay and Clairette by Axel Prufer. It is a delightful wine that is refreshing on a warm summer’s day. The two grape varieties complement each other as they do with his still version (La Peur du Rouge) as well.
You will notice that he hasn’t completely embraced the changes in terminology in France where wines not covered by a regional or local appellation are labelled now as Vin de France. At the start of the French writing on the label you will notice that it begins with the old “Vin de Table” (table wine) designation.
In addition, the bubbles on the label identify this wine as the pet-nat as he also has a still Peur du Rouge as well as the pet nat.
Price: $60
Le Temps des Cerises Jalava 2024
Jalava is the cuvée made from the final pass through the Cinsault vines, about 20 days after La Capitulation and from the stoniest part of the vineyard.
It then has a longer maceration (approximately 2 weeks). It’s dark enough to just call it a red wine and, even though Cinsault is thin-skinned and does not have a lot of tannin, it has quite a lot of structure at the back of the pallet.
The flavours are savoury and restrained. It would be beautiful with grilled lamb. It is much lighter in colour than the 2023 vintage we sold recently but has slightly more alcohol (11.2% ABV compared with 10.8%).
The flavours are more blackcurrant than the pomegranate in La Capitulation.
Price: $64 for 750 mls and $123 for Magnums
Le Temps des Cerises à Oìli Oìli Oilà 2024
à Oìli Oìli Oilà 2024 is also from the same vineyard as La Capitulation and Jalava but from the 2024 vintage.
It’s typically, including in 2024, the middle pick and from the middle of the vineyard. It’s picked about 10 days after la Capitulation and 10 days before Jalava and had 10 days of maceration.
The pomegranate flavours are more pronounced than in La Capitulation and there is also more morello cherry. It’s a fraction darker in colour, although still pink rather than red, with a silky texture. It’s not a rosé but it is not a red wine.
Food is not essential to fully enjoy this wine but a drinking it in a park would be good. 10.3% ABV.
Price: $53 (SOLD OUT)
Le Temps des Cerises La Capitulation 2024
This wine is made each year from the first pass through Axel’s Cinsault vines, from the side of the vineyard with the most soil. It also has the shortest maceration (5 days of carbonic maceration).
It is therefore quite a light red wine.
The cuvée began life as a Brutal but he changed the name when he realised it was going to be made each year (the Brutal project is all about exceptions not typical wines). Therefore we are able to display this catchy label again for the 2024 vintage. You can see the vintage displayed in very small type in the section at the bottom of the label underneath the red background.
The ABV is an amazingly-low 9.6% (which you can also see at the bottom of the label) and as usual there is a noticeable amount of dissolved CO2 (if you are a regular reader of our newsletter you will know that we are fans of using CO2 as a preservative in wines as it does its work as a preservative without the problems that some people have with added sulphur). It is a joy to drink as usual!
Price: $56 for 750 ml and $107 for Magnums
Le Temps des Cerises Avanti Popolo 2024
Since Axel Prüfer added 7 hectares to his estate late in 2022, Avanti Popolo is now from his new vineyards. They are currently in conversion to organic and each year he adds a little more colour back into the label to signify progress in the vineyard. Once the vineyard is fully organic the label will revert to the original colour. It is at 60% for this vintage.
It is a quite a different blend of grapes from previous wines we have had with this name apart from the 2023 we released a few weeks ago, which is from the same new vineyards (with a more faded label) and is similar. The 2024 vintage includes Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Alicante Bouschet, and Grenache Noir.
The Alicante Bouschet (red juice), Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon were directly-pressed and used to infuse most of the Syrah, which was destemmed. A subsequent pick of Syrah was fermented using carbonic maceration.
After pressing, aging was in two large tanks – one fibreglass and one wooden – but there is a strange twist in this cuvée, a legacy from an experiment Axel made in 2022.
In 2022 Axel experimented by leaving 4 demi-muid (400 litre) barrels filled with Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon (one for each variety) outside. These were grapes not juice! He removed the heads of the barrels, filled them with grapes, then put the heads back on the barrels. They spent 12 months outside. The juice from subsequently pressing these grapes spent two years in a stainless steel tank and was then added to this 2024 vintage (12 hectolitres in 85 hectolitres). If you taste some wood in this wine that is the reason. It is also the reason why there are far more tannins than is usual in one of Axel’s wines. It is a rustic wine that will be better enjoyed with food.
Price: $47 for 750 ml and $85 for Magnums
Le Temps des Cerises Un Pas de Côté 2024
Made from the same vineyard each year, on the wild, gravelly causse, this wine is considerably more alcoholic than most wines Axel makes. It is 15.8% ABV.
Picked in mid October, it did not finish fermenting before winter and then stopped with still 25g/l of residual sugar. It continued fermenting again when the weather warmed producing more alcohol.
It is, says Axel, more like a traditional Roussillon wine. The alcohol is of course detectable but balanced. Somehow its joyful juiciness keeps it in check. It too is quite different from most of Axel’s wines though.
We would recommend pairing it with food, possibly meat from a grill.
Price: $64 for 750 ml
