Burgundy’s Southern Frontier: Beaujolais’s Distinctive Crus, Chiseled Wines, and Domaine de Vernus’ Pursuit of Place and Precision – Six Bottles from the 2022 Vintage ($269)
In literature, a character study is a critical examination of a single character to understand not only their significance to a given narrative, but as a way of better understanding the work as a whole. This week, we will undertake a similar focus on a lone, but phenomenal Beaujolais winemaker (Guillaume Rouget of Domaine de Vernus) in order to see how a single talented vigneron can exemplify the moods, the changes, the whims of a region where a diverse terroir remains committed to a single grape variety, Gamay. We are offering a sample of winemaker Guillaume Rouget’s interpretation of the 2022 vintage in some of the region’s top Crus.
Rouget brings with him the proper pedigree: The grand-nephew of Henri Jayer (the Burgundian innovator known for making some of the most critically acclaimed and expensive Pinot Noirs in the world), he was trained to the vine from childhood, first by his father Emmanuel Rouget and then at the École des Vins de Bourgogne in Beaune. When Rouget decided to join forces with Domaine de Vernus owner Frédéric Jametton in Régnié-Durette, it was to pursue a shared goal: Producing elegant, racy wines that display the intense fruitiness of Gamay along with age-worthy structure that can develop complexity over time alongside the best Burgundies.
A true renaissance man in Beaujolais, Rouget’s handling of various top Crus may not be ‘Beaujolais Nouveau,’ but it is very much the new Beaujolais.
The 2022 vintage overcame a few unique challenges, and we urge you to compare and contrast these bottlings to their counterparts from the 2020 and 2019 vintage, also available from us outside the scope of this week’s 6-bottle package.
Guillaume Rouget with father Emmanuel Rouget, Domaine Emmanuel Rouget in Vosne-Romanée and Flagey-Echézeaux
Between 1960 and 1984, Beaujolais Nouveau grew from 5% of the appellation’s sales to 52%, leaving a generation of wine drinkers with the idea that term ‘Beaujolais’ was synonymous with bubblegum-scented mist rising from a glass of quaffable but desperately simple red wine. Despite the technicality of being an appendage of Burgundy, nothing could be less Burgundian than a candied-fruit, tannin-free gulp that is aggressively uniform from label to label and reaches its gustatory peak within a month of its release.
All this is result of a marketing coup wherein the fermentation technique that produces these identifying aromas (known to the wine world simply as ‘carbonic’) was used to promote a wine to enjoy without overthinking, an affordable and delicious (if not sumptuous) path to wine appreciation. Full carbonic is a modern process in which whole clusters of grapes are carefully put in tanks dosed with carbon dioxide and sealed up; over days, or at the most a few weeks, an anaerobic fermentation takes place inside each individual grape. In semi-carbonic (a method more typical for Beaujolais) CO2 is not pumped into the fermenter, but supplied by fermentation of crushed grapes at the bottom of the tank.
Although a new generation of winemaker is intent on moving away from the bubblegum bondage of the recent path, they are also confronting the existential question of what the public expects from a Beaujolais. How closely identified with ‘fruity and frivolous’ is the name, and of even more importance, what is the true nature of the Gamay grape when these floating and congenial aromas are left behind in the fermentation vessel?
Of course, true Beaujolais lovers never abandoned the Crus, and had no reason to be seduced by the parade of glug-glugs. And in response, a new generation of Beaujolais winemaker has a response, and that is to explore the potential of their pet grape when treated to techniques more in keeping with their cousins to the north in the Côte d’Or.
The ultimate challenge is to create wines that are less fruity, more structured, darker, denser and will improve with age without losing sight of the sheer joyousness that is Gamay’s most endearing characteristic.
Beaujolais Unearthed: Geological Riches
The biggest error a Beaujolais neophyte makes is an expectation of one-dimensional predictability. To be fair, the mistake easy to make based on the region’s reliance on Gamay, a grape that elsewhere may produce simple and often mediocre wine. In Beaujolais’ terroir, however, it thrives.
In fact, this terroir is so complex that it nearly defies description. But Inter-Beaujolais certainly tried: Between 2009 and 2018, they commissioned a colossal field study to establish a detailed cartography of the vineyards and to create a geological snapshot of the exceptional richness found throughout Beaujolais’s 12 appellations.
Beaujolais may not be geographically extensive, but geologically, it’s a different story. The region bears witness to 500 million years of complex interaction between the eastern edge of the Massif Central and the Alpine phenomenon of the Tertiary period, leaving one of the richest and most complex geologies in France. Over 300 distinct soil types have been identified. Fortunately, Gamay—the mainstay grape, accounting for 97% of plantings—flourishes throughout these myriad terroirs. In the south, the soil may be laden with clay, and sometimes chalk; the landscape is characterized by rolling hills. The north hosts sandy soils that are often granitic in origin. This is the starting point wherein each appellation, and indeed, each lieu-dit draws its individual character. There are ten crus, the top red wine regions of Beaujolais, all of them located in the hillier areas to the north, which offer freer-draining soils and better exposure, thereby helping the grapes to mature more fully.
The Landscape of Beaujolais: A Patchwork of Hills and a Palette of Ten Crus
Beaujolais is a painter’s dream, a patchwork of undulating hills and bucolic villages. It is also unique in that relatively inexpensive land has allowed a number of dynamic new wine producers to enter the business. In the flatter south, easy-drinking wines are generally made using technique known as carbonic maceration, an anaerobic form of closed-tank fermentation that imparts specific, recognizable flavors (notably, bubblegum and Concord grape). Often sold under the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages appellations, such wines tend to be simple, high in acid and low in tannin, and are ideal for the local bistro fare. Beaujolais’ suppler wines generally come from the north, where the granite hills are filled with rich clay and limestone. These wines are age-worthy, and show much more complexity and depth. The top of Beaujolais’ classification pyramid is found in the north, especially in the appellations known as ‘Cru Beaujolais’: Brouilly, Chénas, Chiroubles, Côte de Brouilly, Fleurie, Juliénas, Morgon, Moulin-à-Vent, Régnié and Saint-Amour.
Each are distinct wines with definable characteristics and individual histories; what they have in common beyond Beaujolais real estate is that they are the pinnacle of Gamay’s glory in the world of wine.
From Thunder to Lilt: Beaujolais in Two Acts – The Structured 2020 and the Vibrant 2022
Beaujolais—like the rest of France—spent the 2020 growing season shaken by Covid. The weather remained relatively free of debility, however, beginning with a mild and frost-free spring that developed into a hot summer without hail or disease. The biggest worry producers encountered was drought, which cut yields. Even so, by harvest, the majority of grapes were in fine health with rich, ripe flavors. These low yields made concentrated, complex wines capable of improving with moderate cellar time, which means that they are likely peaking now.
2022, on the other hand, began with a chilly winter that saw some icy lows. April, especially, delivered harsh winter frosts. Fortunately, most of the nascent buds managed to skate through the frosts unscathed and May brought unusually warm, dry weather that ensured a successful flowering and fruit set. June presented Beaujolais with collection of violent storms, although considering the dry conditions of the previous month, this was not entirely unwelcome.
A fiercely hot and dry July then marked the beginning of rainless summer. Although there are plenty of advantages to a hot, dry summer (arid conditions keep vines berries clean from rot and disease and pushes the grapes to phenolic ripeness), yields were again—as in 2020—reduced. The quality of the fruit, however, was fantastic as the intense heat concentrated the juice, making for some very rich, flavorful wines.
Quantity is limited, and perhaps 2022’s biggest challenge for Beaujolais houses was producing enough wine to fill demand.
Domaine de Vernus
After thirty years in the prosaic world of insurance brokerage, Frédéric Jametton decided to do a rakehell turn on his career trajectory. Having been born in Dijon and lived in Burgundy for most of his life, he had become an enlightened wine lover. Not only that, but his former profession brought him in contact with numerous members of the wine community. At the end of 2017, he realized that the time had come to invest in a winery.
Initially looking in the south, he became convinced that the heat spikes brought on by climate change made it unsuitable for the long haul, and after discussions with his friend Guillaume Rouget of Flagey-Echézeaux (who agreed to come on board as a consultant) Jametton settled on Beaujolais, piecing together 30 acres of vineyards acquired from 12 different proprietors, and is gradually restructuring parcels with a view to more sustainable farming.
Winemaker Guillaume Rouget, left, with Frédéric Jametton, Domaine de Vernus
Thanks in part to Rouget’s influence, vinification is conducted along Burgundian lines, with around 70% of the grapes destemmed and fermented in stainless steel with élevage in recently-used, high-quality Burgundy barrels for some 10–11 months. Jametton’s ultimate goal, echoed by Rouget, is to offer a range of wines that brings out the best of the different terroirs while respecting the character and personality of each Cru and each plot.
With Rouget in charge of the vineyards and winemaking process, Frédéric remains at the management helm and spearheads marketing.
Régnié: A Cru of Contrasts, from Light and Lively to Structured and Age-Worthy
Many Beaujolais wines are best consumed in their youth, and this is a quality emphasized with gusto by Régnié, the youngest of the Beaujolais crus. In fact, it wasn’t until 1988 that a group of 120 wine growers lobbied to get the appellation officially recognized, pointing out the newcomer in the family has plenty to offer: Its favorable geographical location between its two brothers, Brouilly and Morgon, allows the production of wines of a unique fruitiness.
Often called the ‘Prince of the Crus’, Régnié’s terroir is distinguished by the pink granite soils found high in the Beaujolais hills. Here, at some of the highest altitudes in the region, vines are planted on coarse, sandy soils that are highly permeable and drain freely, an environment which is well suited to the Gamay grape variety.
Further down the slopes, higher proportions of clay with better water storage capabilities lead to a slightly more structured style of wine. The variation within the vineyard area allows growers to produce everything from fresh, light wines to heavier, more age-worthy examples of Régnié.
1 Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Régnié ($35)
As a granitic Cru, Régnié wines are often distinguished by powerful and elegant floral notes. Vernus’ 2022 was crate-harvested from 42 year old vines, entirely destemmed and subject to alternating grape-treading, pump-over and délestage—a technique through which fermenting wine is drained from the skins and seeds into a separate vessel, then pumped back over the cap of the pomace; this process helps extract color, flavor, and tannins while also softening the wine by minimizing harsh tannins. Fermentation is on natural yeasts. The wine is resplendent with sour cherry, wild raspberry and underscored with earthiness.
5280 bottles made from 3.4-acre parcel.
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Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Régnié ($34)
From vines with an average age of 40 years. 100% destemmed with three weeks of fermentation time on native yeasts followed by ten months maturation, half in oak barrels and half in stainless steel tanks. The wine has a lively acidity behind notes of sour cherry kirsch with hints of agave and pepper.
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Domaine de Vernus, 2019 Régnié ($80) 1.5 Liter
From the spectacular and intense 2019 vintage, this wine is in magnum, allowing for a slower maturation process in the cellar.
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Chiroubles: The Rooftops of Beaujolais
Granite is notorious for its strong erosion effects on soils and Chiroubles finds a perfect balance with light, sandy soils that remain moist throughout the summer; the climate tends to be oceanic, though with a Mediterranean and Continental touch.
Chiroubles is relatively tiny, with fewer than a thousand acres under vine, but it is a mouse that roars. This is due mostly to elevation: Chiroubles vineyards are the highest in Beaujolais, with some planted 1500 feet above the Saône River valley. Taking advantage of extreme diurnal shifts between the warm days and cold nights, the same soils that produce Fleurie to its immediate north here build wines that are lighter and fresher, often with pronounced floral characteristics.
2 Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Chiroubles ($37)
From the highest-altitude vines in Beaujolais the Verbomet (63 years) and Châtenay (36 years), both featuring terroir built on shallow granitic soil. The back-breaking work required to harvest on the steep slopes of Chiroubles produces an airy, intensely perfumed wine with silky notes of black cherry, plum and raspberry with a pronounced minerality and electric acidity.
6960 bottles from 2.67 acres of vines.
*click on image for more info
Domaine de Vernus, 2019 Chiroubles ($30)
From the highest, most granite-rich vines in Beaujolais; the altitude produces the kind of freshness sought by lovers of Beaujolais as these old vines rise above many of the effects of climate change. The wine is fermented 50% in oak barrels and 50% in stainless steel tanks for ten months and shows cassis, wild young raspberry, granitic minerality and a touch of smokiness.
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Fleurie: Pink Granite. Pure Grace.
Each of the Beaujolais crus wears its own face; where Morgon is bold and handsome and Saint-Amour is a fairyland of delicate beauty, Fleurie—covering an unbroken area of three square miles—represents Beaujolais’ elegance. The terroir is built around pinkish granite that is unique to this part of Beaujolais, with the higher elevations accounting for thinner, acidic soils that produce graceful and aromatic wines. Below the main village, the wines are grown in deeper, richer, clay-heavy soils and the wines themselves are richer and deeper and appropriate for the cellar. The technique known as gridding, which involves extracting more color and tannin from the skins of the grapes, is proprietary to Fleurie.
3 Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Fleurie ($42)
From Fleurie’s classic 53-year-old vineyards that stretch over many hills and valleys, then slope gently down to the Saône plain. The grapes are 80% destemmed, then treated to alternating grape-treading, pump-overs and délestage before spending ten months in oak barrels, 6% are new. The wine is especially lively, charged with herbs, cranberry and strawberry above an earthy mid-palate with moss and undergrowth.
4730 bottles from 2.8 acres of vines.
*click on image for more info
Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Fleurie ($38)
From vines with an average age of 51 years. 80% destemmed with three weeks of fermentation on native yeasts followed by ten months maturation in oak barrels, 6% new. The wine shows soft-bodied fragrance with concentrated notes of strawberry and rose petal above a vivacious acidity.
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Morgon: Beaujolais’ Boldest Cru Expresses Its Unwelcome Terroir in Its All Intensity
Morgon, on the western side of the Saône, may only appear on the label of a Gamay-based red wine; even so, the appellation allows the addition of up to 15% white wine grapes: Chardonnay, Aligoté or Melon de Bourgogne. Nevertheless, the wines of Morgon wind up being among the most full-bodied in Beaujolais, with the potential to improve in the cellar so consistently that the French describe wines from other AOPs that display this quality by saying, “It Morgons …”
The largest of the Beaujolais crus, the terroir is largely built around ‘rotten rock’ made up of decomposed shale, giving the appellation’s wines aromas of sour cherries with notes of violet and kirsch with delicate tannins that promise optimal aging.
4 Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Morgon ($42)
Morgon is known for its intensity, often requiring a little time to open up; given this, it reveals notes of white flowers and undergrowth. From vines whose average age is 67 years, the wine was aged for ten months, 80% in oak barrels and 20% in stainless steel tanks. This beautifully structured wine shows black cherry, currant, and plum along with licorice and chalk minerality.
9670 bottles from 5 acres of vines.
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Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Morgon ($110) 1.5 Liter
Same wine in magnum, allowing for a slower maturation process in the cellar.
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Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Morgon ($40)
From vines with an average age of 65 years. 80% destemmed with three weeks of fermentation on native yeasts followed by ten months maturation in 80% oak barrels and 20% in stainless steel tanks. This structured Morgon is a benchmark for the region, marked by intense pepper note, raspberry, peach and plum with a hint of garrigue and wood smoke.
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Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Morgon ($96) 1.5 Liter
Same wine in magnum, allowing for a slower maturation process in the cellar.
*click on image for more info
5 Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Morgon ‘Grands Cras’ ($60)
Grands Cras is a south-southwest facing hillside lieu-dit whose terroir is built from decomposed schist and granite soils, producing wines with a rustic character. With vines averaging 71 years old, Grands Cras produces wines easily capable of improving for a decade. The wine displays a creamy structure and a powerful palate with silky tannins, with aromas of blackberries, crisp Damson plum, wood-spice and stone on the finish.
14,220 bottles made from 6-acre parcel.
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Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Morgon ‘Grands Cras’ ($53)
Grand Cras, ideally situated at the foot of the Côte du Py, ranks among the appellation’s most famous climats. The deep soil is made up of granitic alluvium that allows grapes to maintain Burgundy-level tannins while retaining the fruitiness typical of Beaujolais. With an average vine age of 71 years, the fruit is hand-harvested and 80% destemmed, following which the wine spends ten months in oak. A rich, cherry-driven profile with hints of kirsch, fresh tobacco and menthol.
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Moulin-à-Vent: Terroir Forged by Adversity
Moulin-à-Vent is to the ten crus of Beaujolais what Moulin Rouge is to Parisian cabarets: First among equals. Of course, that equality is a matter of taste—some consumers prefer floral Fleurie and charming Chiroubles to the full-bodied, tannic-structured Moulin-à-Vent and it’s no secret Georges Duboeuf sells a hundred thousand cases of Beaujolais Nouveau a year.
Forgetting the forgettable and concentrating on the myriad styles of Cru Beaujolais, nowhere is the evidence of terroir—the site-specific contributions of geology, sun-exposure and rainfall—more obvious than in Moulin-à-Vent. Although each appellation works with a single grape variety, Gamay, the results range from light, glorified rosé to densely layered, richly concentrate reds that rival Burgundian Pinot Noir cousins from the most storied estates.
Moulin-à-Vent is unusual for a number of reasons, and among them is the fact that there is no commune or village from which it takes its name. Like the Moulin Rouge, the appellation is named for the ‘moulin’—windmill—that sits atop the hill that overlooks the south- and southeast-facing vineyards. The most outrageous reality of the Cru, however, is that the wine owes its structure and quality to poison: Manganese, which runs in veins throughout the pink granite subsoil, is toxic to grapevines and results in sickly vines that struggle to leaf out and produce small clusters of tiny grapes. It is the concentration of the juice in these grapes that gives Moulin-à-Vent a characteristic intensity unknown in the other crus of Beaujolais, where manganese is not present. It also gives the wine the foundation of phenolic compounds required for age-worthiness; Moulin-à-Vent is among a very select few of Beaujolais wines that can improve for ten, and even twenty years in the bottle.
6 Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Moulin-à-Vent ‘Les Vérillats’ ($83)
‘Les Vérillats’ stand at the very top of an old granitic mount at around 900 feet elevation where the topsoil is so thin that trellis stakes cannot always be fully anchored. Terroir is very specific here, known locally as ‘gorrhe’—a thin, acidic soil lacking in nitrogen but containing high concentrations of potassium, phosphorous and magnesium. The wine shows aromatic notes of puréed raspberry, dried hay and graphite with a subtle layer of dried herbs giving added dimension and complexity.
2650 bottles made from 1.4-acre parcel.
*click on image for more info
Domaine de Vernus, 2022 Moulin-à-Vent ‘Les Vérillats’ ($210) 1.5 Liter
Same wine in magnum, allowing for a slower maturation process in the cellar.
*click on image for more info
Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Moulin-à-Vent ‘Les Vérillats’ ($71)
Les Vérillats is characterized by well-drained, sandy soils derived from pink granite, which are atypical for the Moulin-à-Vent appellation. These soils, along with the vineyard’s location in a corridor of drying winds, contribute to the wine’s concentration and structure.
*click on image for more info
Domaine de Vernus, 2020 Moulin-à-Vent ‘Les Vérillats’ ($180) 1.5 Liter
Same wine in magnum, allowing for a slower maturation process in the cellar.
*click on image for more info
Notebook …
Is Beaujolais on a Path Towards Premier Cru Recognition?
Of all the ‘subdivisions’ in wine, lieux-dits (named places) are perhaps the most poetic. Having earned their reputation for quality, often over centuries, they are individual plots of exceptional terroir named with love and respect—after a family, a natural landscape feature or a historical event. Among more than six hundred recognized lieux-dits in Beaujolais is La Chapelle des Bois (The Chapel of the Woods), La Tour du Bief (The Tower of the Reach) and La Martingale—whose translation is self-evident.
As in the rest of France, these names have often appeared on Beaujolais wine labels, not necessarily as a legal indicator of quality, but as an informal nod to those in the know. It’s an optional honor, and although lieux-dits are registered, they do not have to conform to specified body of regulations such as crop yields and minimum sugar content. Those sorts of mandates belong to a separate system of classification, one that includes Premier and Grand Crus, the jewels of the Côte d’Or.
Lieux-dits of the “Beaujolais hillside” identified on the 1869 Budker map, Bibliothèque Nationale de France
Beaujolais’ mosaic of soils was brought to light in 2018 when an unprecedented nine-year study revealed more than 300 types descended from fifteen geological formations. This is one of the reasons that Beaujolais wines are unique, not just from one AOP to another, but also from lieu-dit to lieu-dit.
Now a movement is afoot in Beaujolais to elevate the classification some of these revered plots beyond named-vineyard status to Premier Crus. As you might imagine, this is a monumental undertaking. First, a winegrower has to approach the National Institute of Origin and Quality (INAO) with proof of the vineyard’s aspirations: Are there references to the lieu-dit in the historical archives? Does the wine display characteristics that are unique in the AOP, and does the winegrowers already mention the lieu-dit on their bottles in order to more finely define their terroir? If the answer is yes, the interested party then submits an application to the INAO and awaits their evaluation.
Growers in Fleurie, Brouilly, Moulin-à-Vent, Côte de Brouilly and Juliénas have already submitted such applications and data collection continues in the other Beaujolais Crus.
Patience is understood to be a virtue, as it often takes a decade or more for the upgrade in status to be approved… or not.
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Posted on 2025.07.12 in Cote de Brouilly, Saint-Amour, Moulin-à-Vent, Fleurie, Beaujolais-Villages, Regnie, Chenas, Côte-de-Brouilly, Chirouble, Morgon, France, Beaujolais, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
The Grammar of Grapes: Jean-François Mérieau’s Wines Embody Touraine’s Diversity While Celebrating Each Grape’s Identity: Accessible Yet Layered, Local Yet Distinct. * Five Bottles, $99 (Three Reds, One White, One Sparkling)
Finding new ways to express old vines is the Eldorado of modern winemaking, and with multiple generations tending the family vineyards, where many of the vines are over one hundred years old, Jean–François Mérieau has had a jump start. A biodynamic approach didn’t hurt, either:
“2023 marks an important milestone for the estate,” he says, “with the organic certification achieved on all vintages. This step is the fruit of a long-standing commitment to produce quality wines while respecting the environment.”
The history and terroir from which Jean–François so eloquently draws is located in the heart of the Cher valley, nestling in the hills above Saint-Julien-de-Chédon in AOP Touraine. The estate began in the ashes of World War II, when his widowed great-grandmother Georgina began producing wine on her own. Georgina’s daughter Paulette and her husband Jean looked after the estate’s economic development. It was their son Jacky, Jean-François’ father, who brought the 86-acre Touraine estate (planted Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin, Pinot Noir, Côt, Pineau d’Aunis, Gamay, and Chardonnay) to international attention.
After studying in Bordeaux, Jean-François began his professional career at Châteauneuf-du-Pape and in Sancerre and South Africa; he took over the family estate in 2000.
Although the largest segment of Touraine is given over to Sauvignon Blanc, Jean-François’ experiences abroad and at CdP have convinced him to expand his range to include to red and sparkling wines in order to highlight the diversity of his soils and to showcase his skills as a winemaker.
Touraine’s Singular Pluralism
Touraine’s weakness is its strength; often regarded as a hodgepodge AOP, stretching over seventy incongruous miles between Bourgueil to Blois in the east. But any French wine region where land remains affordable becomes a lodestar for experimental winemakers, generally young and eager to break with convention, which in Touraine’s past life often meant a lot of second-rate Sauvignon Blanc. Of course, the viticultural school in Amboise was also a lure for new talent, and as you travel up the Cher river, the concentration of avant-garde vignerons grows proportionately.
To understand the concept of ‘Singular Pluralism,’ one has to reference a different Touraine—sociologist Alain Touraine (August 1925-June 2023) who was the research director at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He coined the term ‘Singular Pluralism’ to explain modern societies characterized by a growing separation between rationalized environmental action (driven by economic and technological forces) and the formation of individual moral identity or communal feelings regarding the same.
In Touraine, this idea can be extrapolated to include the AOP’s growing diversity, exhibiting multiple identities, interests and communal coexistence. New energies continue to suffuse the region, an offshoot of the natural winemakers of the 1990s like Thierry Puzelat and Christian Chaussard. To this day, the town of Montrichard remains a nucleus for pét-nat.
Unusual grape varieties like Romorantin and Fié Gris also fueling the innovation while winemakers like Jean-François Mérieau are applying experience and foresight to wines built from old standbys, giving credibility to his view that Gamay belongs among the small roster of ‘noble grapes.’
Below the Surface: Touraine’s Diverse Soils Shape Distinct Wines
The vineyards of Touraine grow at the crossroads of oceanic and continental influences, and likewise, the soils are as varied as the breezes, being predominantly limestone, sand and siliceous clay from the Paris Basin, while the terraces bordering the Loire and the Vienne contain deposits of pebbles smoothed to roundness by the action of the water. Such variety supports a cornucopia of grape varieties and multifarious styles—easy-drinking white, red and rosés and sparkling wines along with sweet wines that will bend your mind as they crumble your molars. Whether red, white or shades between, Touraine wines are always vibrant with acidity and delicate, precise flavors.
Jean-François Mérieau
A Vigneron of Many Voices
Cher is sunny, and no apologies to the ‘I Got You, Babe’ crowd. Named after a tributary of the Loire, the Cher runs just south of Montlouis-sur-Loire and converges with the main river at Tours. The Loir-et-Cher Department provides the majority of fruit used in Touraine AOP wines; 80% of the white wines are made from Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc as well as Grolleau Gris, with lesser roles played by Pinot Gris, Melon de Bourgogne, Folle Blanche and Arbois Blanc. The red and rosé wines are produced from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Pineau d’Aunis and Merlot. Meanwhile, the oak forests around Bourges is used for the production of barrique barrels. The wood is perfect for Touraine’s middling clout, with fine fibers lending only mild tannins.
Jean-François Mérieau
Based in Cher’s historic town of Montrichard, Jean-François Mérieau works alongside three generations of his family to produce mineral-rich whites, racy and savory reds, Méthode Champenoise sparklers and sweet wines. Much of his winery is subterranean, built within a cave carved during the 14th century to mine stone for local walkways. The structure on top that houses many of fermentation tanks (referred to as ‘new,’ by Jean-François) was used by Americans soldiers during World War I; some of their inscriptions remain on the walls.
Jean-François and the team
Despite the age of the facilities, the wines reflect both the superb Touraine terroir and Mérieau’s exquisite mastery of modern thinking. His Sauvignon Blancs come from the best slopes overlooking the river Cher where they benefit from the rich clay and limestone subsoils. These wines age for five months on lees, providing rounder structure than is usual for the area; he showcases the varietal’s aromatic profile and exotic fruit notes while maintaining an underlying brightness and acidity. His Chenins are racy iterations tinged with apple and minerality; his Rosé of Pineau d’Aunis is exuberant, fresh and gregarious while his old vine Gamay and Malbec are delicious delights with lingering finishes. His sparkling wines are also standouts—vintage Touraine with little dosage.
In addition to his estate wines, Jean-François operates as a négociant, buying fruit from several neighbors to make varietal wines under the Hexagonales label.
Sauvignon Blanc: Loire Precision
Having originated in Bordeaux, Sauvignon Blanc’s westward journey was inspired. As blending fanatics, Bordelais whites often contain both Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon, a combination that takes the edge off the acidity, as does a bit of barrel time. Although 12 AOPs in Bordeaux are approved for the production of Bordeaux Blanc, Pessac-Léognan and Graves tend to be the most reliable.
In the Loire, climate and terroir, with the tiller in the right hands, Sauvignon Blanc as a monovarietal reaches heights that are arguably not duplicated elsewhere. Sancerre and Fumé Blanc are the most familiar, but in Touraine, when the ludicrously generous, legally allowable yields (65 hectoliter/hectare) are restrained, this sensitive and a fairly delicate grape strongly reflects the terroir where it is grown. As a result, these wines tend to be rounder, richer, weightier and more aromatic than their cousins from Sancerre.
1 Jean-François Mérieau ‘L’arpent des Vaudons’, 2023 Touraine ‘Sauvignon Blanc’ ($19)
An ‘arpent’ is an antiquated land measurement term that predates the French Revolution; it equates to about 4/5ths of an acre. Jean–François uses this term to refer to several small parcels of 60-year-old, southeast-facing Sauvignon Blanc vines, the source of this cuvée. Hand-harvested, and fermented on natural yeasts, the wine rests on its lees for seven months in stainless steel tanks. It shows pronounced notes of freshly cut grass with gooseberry and lime.
Gamay: A Touraine Interpretation of a Beaujolais Classic
Far from its spiritual home in Beaujolais, Gamay from the Loire can be vibrant, polished, tense and nervously exciting. It accounts for about 20% of Loire’s red wine production. In the Touraine, it is generally released as an aromatic display of ripe raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant perfumed with subtle notes of violet and white pepper. When blended with Côt—as is often the case in Touraine—the wine is offered a tannic supplement that allows it to age longer and develop tertiary tastes of leather and dried cherries.
2 Jean-François Mérieau ‘Bois Jacou’, 2023 Touraine ‘Gamay’ ($19)
100% Gamay from vines between 10 and 60 years old grown on clay/limestone and chalk. The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, fermented on natural yeast and allowed a semi-carbonic fermentation in stainless steel. The wine is waxy and complex and features jammy blackberry and ripe cherries above a balanced, acidic finish.
Côt: Malbec’s Lighter Mood in Touraine
Côt, of course, is a regional name for Malbec—a grape which in France’s southwest produces tight, tannic wines that may be tough to appreciate on release and need a span of bottle-time to mellow. Malbec is the foundation of the famous ‘Black Wines’ of Cahors.
In Touraine, the grape shows a brighter face and a lighter soul; these wines are juicy and fruit forward with an acidic profile underscored by minerality.
3 Jean-François Mérieau ‘Cent Visages’, 2023 Touraine ‘Côt’ ($23)
Cent Visages means ‘100 Faces’; it refers to Jean-François’ 100% Côt cuvée drawn from a single vineyard in St. Julien de Chédon where the 50-year-old vines are an old Massale-selection planting. Cent Visage is hand-harvested, destemmed and allowed ambient yeast fermentation in concrete tanks, followed by manual punch downs through 42 days of maceration. The wine opens with a bouquet of sweet cherry and plum and evolves into a full-bodied palate with chewy tannins and high acidity—baking spices, truffles appear on a lengthy finish.
Pinot Noir: A Delicate Thread
Pinot Noir is a grape whose reputation has been staked in a single region—Burgundy, and plantings outside this hallowed appellation have rarely matched the paradigm. And in the Loire, which is not physically far from Burgundy, Pinot Noir plantings are scant compared to the main red varieties of Cabernet Franc and Gamay. Even in the areas where it can be found—Sancerre, Cheverny and eastern Touraine—it remains a bit player.
Still, with deft handling, Touraine’s Pinot Noir examples can be ethereal and transparent, allowing the region’s unique terroir to shine through with subtle hints of chalk and flint complementing fruit-forward cherry and strawberry notes.
4 Jean-François Mérieau ‘Valala’, 2023 VdF Loire-Touraine ‘Pinot Noir’ ($17)
‘Valala’ is Jean-Francois Mérieau’s brainstorm project wherein he produces affordable wines from sustainably-farmed parcels owned by friends. The Pinot Noir comes from a parcel of chalky clay-limestone soils in Saint Pourçain. It is fermented and aged in tank, preserving the crisp and crunchy raspberries, spicy herbs and orange peel. typical of Pinot Noir grown in the Loire Valley.
Chenin + Chardonnay: A Dual Act
Chardonnay is a grape of such diversity that plantings can be found in virtually every viticultural region on earth; Chenin’s ubiquity is the result of naturally high yields, making it ideal for bulk wine production. Blending the two has been the norm in South Africa for many generations, where Chenin is the most planted variety and Chardonnay is not far behind. South African Chenin-predominant wines enjoy the depth and complexity Chardonnay brings to the table, while Chardonnay-dominant wines are given a lift of acidity from the Chenin.
In the Loire, Chenin is responsible for some of the finest sweet wines in the world, but when picked with acids high and blended with equally high-acid Chardonnay, it forms the base for sparkling wines that can rival those from nearby Champagne at a fraction of the cost.
5 Jean-François Mérieau ‘J’Ose – Les Fines Bulles’, 2019 Brut Touraine ‘Chenin, Chardonnay’ ($21) Sparking
J’ose Les Fines Bulles means ‘Josephine’s Bubbles;’ it is a Méthode Champagne sparkler made from 80% Chenin with the remainder Chardonnay. It is aged sur-latte for 24 months before disgorgement, followed by an additional 12 months in bottle. Les Fines Bulles is a reference to the fine bubbles, which rise through a succulent palate with summer peach on the nose and hints of fresh bread. It is difficult to name another vintage Méthode Champagne that delivers as much for the price tag.
Notebook …
Chenin Finds Favor in a Warming Loire
If the climate hands you lemons, it may be times to rethink grapes. In regions where warming trends are playing havoc on many stand-by varieties in their traditional stomping grounds (wine pun intended), even a slight rise in temperature and small decrease in rainfall changes the game considerably. Chenin is no stranger to the Loire, of course, but areas that did not produce top-shelf wines from the grape are finding that longer hang-times and judicious cellar manipulations can tame the sharp acids that have long prevented Chenin from becoming a true rival to Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Not only that, but unlike these two familiar grapes, harvesting Chenin later does not seem to significantly decrease the ‘freshness’ quality so prized by tasters. Barrel-fermented and cask-aged Chenin are poised to take their due place on the world’s wine stage; a small upside to a global disaster.
‘”Les Vins des Coteaux de la Loire” – Coteaux de Touraine’ (Atlas de la France Vinicole L. Larmat) by Louis Larmat (1946)
The New Geography of Wine: France Confronts a Changing Climate
Late frosts, hailstorms, repeated heatwaves and historic droughts—the plagues of winemakers in 2024 make the plagues of Egypt look like a kindergartner’s runny nose. There is adaptability and there is impossibility, and these challenges have caused winemakers not only to re-evaluate their techniques, from trellising to site selection, but to revamp the entire industry.
“The nature of the French wine industry is going to be completely different by 2050,” says Nathalie Ollat, an expert on winegrowing at French agricultural research institute INRAE. “And the precise nature of that change will be determined in part by the results of the experiments going on throughout the country. We could have irrigated vineyards in the south, others that have disappeared, as well as long-forgotten grape varieties brought back. Perhaps certain regions will go from using one variety of grape to several varieties. And maybe we’ll have entirely new vineyards in entirely new places on top of that.”
Meanwhile, despite the numerous negative impacts of climate change, warmer temperatures have proven advantageous for some French winemakers. Along with a vineyard’s soil and the expertise of its agronomist and winemaker, heat and rainfall are crucial to the final product. Warmer days help grapes mature properly and develop an optimal amount of sugar, resulting in higher-scoring wine. While critic opinions are subjective, there has been a consensus in these scores over the years, and top wines tend to come from years with warmer, drier summers, cooler, wetter winters, and earlier, shorter growing seasons—conditions that climate change is expected to make more frequent.
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Posted on 2025.07.09 in Touraine, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire | Read more...
Sancerre Sheds Its Clichés: Stéphane Riffault’s Wines Speak in Texture, Tension and the Dialect of Place. * Six-Bottle Set, $249 (Five Whites, One Rosé)
A communion with the soil is the most important relationship a winemaker will ever forge, and nowhere is this demonstrated more reliably than in Sancerre, where three distinct soil types produce a split-personality of wine characteristics. This may be something of well-kept secret, as the name ‘Sancerre’—even to experienced wine drinkers—often exists as a single, all-encompassing concept limited to crisp, bone-dry, citrus-scented Sauvignon Blancs.
Sancerre, as it happens, is a wealth of subtleties from commune to commune, vineyard to vineyard, lieu-dit to lieu-dit, just as it is in Burgundy.
Elie’s 2024’s Producer of the Year is Stéphane Riffault, owner of Domaine Claude Riffault, one of Sancerre’s most innovative young winemakers. He works 33 different parcels and eight different lieux-dits spread across four Sancerrois villages. Riffault’s bottled overview of Sancerre’s triumvirate of soils, as well as his mastery of balancing minerality and wood is a feat rarely duplicated anywhere else in the appellation.
This week’s package showcases the result of Riffault’s 2023 harvest. Throughout the ’23 growing season, the combination of heat and late-summer rain in late and sun in early autumn allowed grapes to reach full maturity. The wines are extremely rich and fruit-forward, with tropical flavors appearing with the usual notes of citrus and green apple.
In addition, our ‘Recent Arrival’ is another remarkable expression of Sauvignon Blanc, Pouilly-Fumé, this one from opposite side of the Loire—Sancerre is on the left bank of the river and Pouilly-Fumé is on the right. The wines from Domaine du Bouchot tap into our search for essential ‘sunshine’ wines; refreshing thirst-quenchers filled with crisp and bright flavors that call for sips on a summer patio.
Sancerre: The Distinctive Character of Its Sauvignon Blanc Emerges from the Soil.
Rumors that Sancerre is synonymous with Sauvignon Blanc have been greatly exaggerated. That said, no credible wine scholar will deny that the stars aligning between Sancerre’s terroir and the blonde scioness of the Val de Loire is a remarkable gift to us all. Just as the Loire River runs through the heart of France, Sancerre pierces the heart of summertime and Sauvignon Blanc grown among the brush, gravel and layers of Cretaceous soils provides an unadorned synthesis of the scents we associate with the easy season: Cut grass, Meyer lemon, tart hedgerow berries and petrichor—the incomparable aroma of raindrops on stone.
80% of the grapes grown in Sancerre are Sauvignon Blanc, so it is no wonder that this varietal dominates the market, especially in the United States. But nearly 20% is Pinot Noir, and it’s a fact that prior to phylloxera, Sancerre was best known for its red wines. Not only that, but in that not-so-distant past, the whites were rarely made from Sauvignon Blanc, but from Chasselas, which is still grown in small pockets.
When the diabolical little phylloxera louse decimated the vineyard of Sancerre (along with much of Europe) they were replanted with Sauvignon Blanc, which was more responsive to the requisite remedy—American root stock.
One thing did not change: The almost clichéd emphasis Sancerre places on purity. This is a result of two factors: First, the region is relatively far north, so a hallmark of nearly all Sancerre—red, white or pink—is its bright acidity—preserved in the grapes by cool nights and temperate days. The pH of a wine determines its mouthfeel, and the higher the acidity, the more sizzling is the sensation of freshness and clarity on the palate, often described as ‘purity.’
Of equal importance, very little oak is used in the maturation process of wines from Sancerre, and the flavors associated with oak—butter, clove, vanilla and caramel—however desirable in Burgundy—tend to mask some of the fruit-driven notes. It’s one of the reasons that oak-free Chablis is considered the purest incarnation of Chardonnay, and likewise, the neutral barrel or stainless steel/cement aging of Sancerre’s Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and occasionally Gamay offers the best results for preserving the natural flavors inherent in the juice.
Soil Matters: A Sancerrois Trilogy
Every cliché-driven wine writer on the planet will tell you that in order to make superb wine you must begin with superb grapes, and every conscientious winemaker on earth will tell you that to grow those grapes you need superb soil. And few appellations the size of Sancerre (roughly 7000 acres) are more narrowly defined by three unique variations on that theme, and this is a point of pride for Sancerre’s winegrowers.
First, are the silex soils, which extend southward from Saint-Satur to Thauvenay. Silex soils contain flint (‘silex’ is what the British call this sedimentary form of quartz); such soils form over millennia as limestone erodes to dust and much harder stones are left in its wake. Flint leaves an interesting imprint on Sauvignon Blanc; the wines are elegant and finely-etched with distinctive citrus and herbal notes, but most prominent is the spark/smoke character that the French call ‘pierre à fusil’—literally, gunflint. The smoky minerality that is so prized in tasting notes is far more evident in silex soils than those chalkier wines grown in limestone—silex wines attain a nearly indefinable quality of precision, like the edge of an arrowhead.
Next is the Kimmeridgian marl found on Sancerre’s westernmost hills (as well as in Chablis Grand Crus and many great Champagne terroirs). It is a mixture of limestone and clay that formed eons ago as the final resting place of the famous comma-shaped oyster, Exogyra virgula. Their fossilized shells (quite visible in many stones from the region) left the soils rich in calcium carbonate. Amazingly, wines from this prehistoric graveyard produce wines in which the now-evaporated sea—in the form of a briny undertow, or saltiness—can clearly be tasted. Kimmeridgian marl is known locally as ‘terres blanches’ because the chalky clay turns white in dry periods.
Sancerre’s Oxfordian limestone soils are perhaps less heralded but they are arguably more important because they produce the bulk of the ‘entry-level’ early-drinking Sancerres that—in the public perception—may better typify the region. That is not to say that, in the right hands, they cannot produce wines of great subtlety, as proven by Stéphane Riffault, whose Sury-en-Vaux estate sits (in part) on a ribbon of Oxfordian. These are stone-filled soils, but unlike silex soils, there’s little flint and unlike Kimmeridgian, there is little clay. Instead, the rocky subsurface is filled with two distinct types of stone, caillottes, which are sizable pebbles and Griottes, which are much smaller. Oxfordian limestone tends to run north-south from Sainte-Gemme down through Bué and below.
Domaine Claude Riffault
Le Métronome*
*From ‘Our 25 Domaines of the Year,’ Guides des Vins 2020, Bettane+Desseauve:
“When you think of Sancerre, you absolutely have to mention Stéphane Riffault. Measure, attention and reflection forge high-flying and stylish cuvées; each reflecting the personality of its terroir. Everything here exudes excellence.”
When Stéphane Riffault took over Domaine Claude Riffault from his father Claude, he brought with him a tool kit earned in a number of contrasting appellations, having studied and trained with Olivier Leflaive in Burgundy and at Château Angélus in Bordeaux. This broader view informed the core, hands-on education he received from his father at the domain. Among the rather ‘un-Sancerre-like’ methods he brought to the estate was hand-harvesting and extensive sorting before the crush; Stéphane’s wife Benedicte leads the harvest team while Stéphane manages the sorting and press during harvest.
Meanwhile, among the conclusions at which he arrived on his own is that sustainability is key to the future. As such, all 33 of his vineyard acres are organic (Ecocert, 2016) and biodynamic (Biodyvin, 2021).
Stéphane Riffault, Domaine Claude Riffault
All good winemakers seem to be equal parts dirt-farmer and metaphysical philosopher, and Stéphane is no exception: “Being a winegrower and winemaker demands commitment, risk and continual self-questioning,” he maintains. “You have to know how to adapt in order to stay dynamic. Improvement requires perpetual movement, and what drives me is the creation of wines of texture; wines that are singular and true to themselves.”
Although most of the Riffault’s holdings are planted on the soft limestone soil called ‘terres blanches’, he farms a handful of parcels on caillottes and silex; thus, he has developed a keen understanding of the qualities that each unique terroir brings to an individual wine. He employs oak moderately to add length to his already-precise, site-expressive and highly delineated bottlings.
All his parcels are vinified separately, and (except for the rosé), all are bottled unfiltered.
Sancerre’s Lieux-dits: Parsing the Parcels
As someone trained in Burgundy (and whose brother Benoît is the winemaker at Domaine Etienne Sauzet in Puligny-Montrachet), you might expect Stéphane Riffault to have a particular affinity for lieux-dits—those unique parcels of vineyards so singular in expression that they have their own names. This is absolutely the case, and there is more: The Crus of Burgundy may be well-mapped and understood, but far less so are the vineyards and lieux-dits of Sancerre. Riffault considers them among France’s finest terroirs, able to produce great white wines not of stature and complexity, but of individual identity. As such, he is making it his mission to champion eight parcels among the 33 plots he currently works as part of an exacting showcase stratospheric Sancerres seen from a near-microscopic perspective.
1 Domaine Claude Riffault ‘Les Denisottes’, 2023 Sancerre White ($48)
Les Denisottes is a three-acre plot located near Riffault’s Sury-en-Vaux estate and is composed of three individual southeast-facing plots at nearly a thousand feet in altitude. The vines (between 40 and 50 years old) are rooted in deep Kimmeridgian limestone. The juice fermented spontaneously and was aged on lees for 14 months in multi-layer wooden barrels with sporadic bâtonnage and no malolactic fermentation, producing a wine loaded with citrus zest, green apple tartness and a distinct flinty minerality.
2 Domaine Claude Riffault ‘Chailloux’, 2023 Sancerre White ($48)
Les Chailloux is a unique site in the village of Sury-en-Vaux. While silex soils are common in the neighboring Pouilly-Fumé and the eastern edge of Sancerre, it is fairly scarce in the northwestern part of Sancerre. Stéphane Riffault farms about three acres of vines in this lieu-dit, which produces concentrated and opulent wine, yet racy and intensely saline and capable of aging gracefully for many years.
3 Domaine Claude Riffault ‘Les Chasseignes’, 2023 Sancerre White ($48)
Les Chasseignes is an east/southeast facing lieu-dit that sits at nearly 900 feet in altitude. Planted on gravelly limestone soils, the wine opens with a greenish, refreshing bouquet and gains considerably in complexity upon aeration, becoming round and elegant and finishing with savory notes.
4 Domaine Claude Riffault ‘Les Boucauds’, 2023 Sancerre White ($38)
Sourced from several plots situated in the lieu-dit of Les Boucauds, this cuvée employs close to 50% of the Sauvignon Blanc planted on the estate. Drawn entirely from terres blanches soils – marls and clays over Kimmeridgian limestone – this wine represents a pure expression of this site as well as the deft winemaking of Stéphane Riffault.
The 2023 Boucauds is a blend of both Burgundy barrels (several from Etienne Sauzet in Puligny-Montrachet) and larger oak formats. Because of the deep clay and limestone soils, Les Boucauds always has great mouthfeel and depth, as opposed to Stéphane’s silex and caillottes parcels which are more linear and austere in their youth. Sourced from several Les Boucauds plots, this cuvée employs close to half of all the Sauvignon Blanc planted on the estate.
5 Domaine Claude Riffault ‘Mosaïque Calcaire’, 2023 Sancerre White ($35)
In 2018 Stéphane Riffault made the decision to release a village-level Sancerre after additional plantings on limestone terroirs that he has undertaken over the last decade. It also includes some fruit from Les Boucauds and Les Chasseignes along with eighteen other parcels. Like all good Sancerre, this wine is supple and nearly succulent, filled with tropical notes besides the melon and pear foundation. It is rich, but remains light on its feet behind gentle acidity.
6 Domaine Claude Riffault, 2023 Sancerre Rosé ($35)
La Noue is a six-acre of Pinot Noir grown on clay limestone and marl. Divided into seven plots and ranging in age from 10 to 60 years old it is the source for both Riffault’s Noue Rouge and his rosé. In particular, the rosé is a combination of juice bled off the Sancerre Rouge after a 6-12 hour maceration combined with direct press Pinot Noir. Cherry and citrus dominate the nose, while ripe strawberry notes appear on the palate.
Notebook …
Kimmeridgian Kinship: Sancerre and Chablis’ Common Ground
Brothers from another mother or sisters from another mister; either way, the land beneath Sancerre and Chablis springs from the same prehistory. Classified in the middle of the 18th century by French geologist Alcide d’Obigny while he was working near the English town of Kimmeridge, he identified a unique layer of dark marl and called it ‘Kimmeridgian.’
Still, as in siblings, there are distinct differences in the DNA of English Kimmeridgian and French Kimmeridgian. The French layer is a relatively uniform chalky marl with thin limestone containing rich layers of seashells. This is because strata formed from the post Jurassic period continued to be deposited in the shallow sea areas which once covered part of France. The way these layers interact is key to the reason that French Kimmeridgian soils produce some of the world’s most heralded wine. The marly soil provides good structure, ideal water-retention and is easy to cultivate while hard limestone Portlandian contains numerous fossil fragments and, having been repeatedly shattered by frost, offers good aeration and ideal drainage along gentle slopes.
Chablis is a significant part of the Kimmeridgian chain; mid-slope vineyards in Chablis match almost perfectly to the Kimmeridgian outcrop, with the soft, carbonate-rich rock being covered by Portlandian limestone and supported by other limestone deposits. Sancerre, meanwhile, sits on top a fault ridge; the eastern side has a layer of Cretaceous soils while the west side is covered with brush and gravel slopes. Further west the best vineyards sit on the classic Portlandian-Kimmeridgian soil combination, producing a classic example of ‘terroir’.
THE RECENT ARRIVAL
Pouilly-Fumé: The Other Face of Sauvignon Blanc
When the red-headed step-child is a sun-kissed blonde, it may get more notice. Scarcely ten miles distant from AOP Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé has always had its own starstruck fans who prefer the appellation’s meaty smokeshow to the more austere Sauvignon Blancs of Sancerre. Same grape, similar cool, continental climate and limestone-clay hills slashed with bands of clay-flint silex—although Pouilly-Fumé flavor profiles tend to emphasize the flintiness.
Wherein lies the difference? They may seem subtle, but are magnified when exploited by a winemaker’s know-how. First, elevation: Sancerre is grown on slopes while Pouilly-Fumé vines are grown on flatlands, so the harvest happens earlier as grapes reaches optimum ripeness sooner. Sancerre generally undergoes shorter lees-aging (usually 3-4 months) while Pouilly-Fumé remains on its fine lees for around 6-8 months, depending on vintage. Lees, the fine sediment of dead yeast cells on the bottom of the barrels, give extra texture and complexity to wine.
But the real reason that Fumé never really reached the cult-status of Sancerre may be mundane and down to sheer happenstance: Priced slightly lower, Sancerre became a bistro favorite and as such, it’s fame was secured. And it is also possible that entry-level consumers confused Pouilly-Fumé with similarly named, but Chardonnay-based, Pouilly-Fuissé from Mâcon.
In any case, now that we’ve tugged Fumé from the smoke and into the spotlight, enjoy the marvelous incarnations of Antoine Gouffier.
Domaine du Bouchot
The Quiet Radical of Pouilly-Fumé
Fives-Bottle Set, $199 (Four Whites, One Orange)
Named ‘The Discovery of the Year’ by La Revue du Vin de France in ‘The Guide of the Best Wines of France 2022,’ we hope that Domaine du Bouchot becomes your discovery of the week.
When his roots in the Nièvre came calling, 30-year-old Antoine Gouffier took heed. In 2018, he took over Domaine du Bouchot’s 26 acre estate from the widely respected Rachel and Pascal Kerbiquet. Located on the southwestern side of the municipality of Saint-Andelain, the estate had developed a reputation for earth-friendly winemaking. Gouffier followed the Kerbiquet’s tradition of sulfur-free vinification with native yeasts. Certified organic by Demeter the following year, Gouffier has begun a conversion to biodynamics.
Domaine du Bouchot is a tiny property in St. Andelain in the southern part of Pouilly Fumé, close to the Loire River, and formerly run by Rachel and Pascal Kerbiquet who describe themselves as ‘organic activists.’
Antoine Gouffier, Domaine du Bouchot
In 1985, the couple planted two plots on old farm land that once specialized in wheat, but where the Kimmeridgian limestone soil was ideal for vines. Facing southwest, the two plots—the ‘Côte des Pres’ and ‘Fouinelles’ vineyards—are now 35 years old. In 1995, they planted two more parcels, ‘Vaurigny’ and ‘Papillons,’ on Portlandian soils.
In 2018, Antoine Gouffier purchased Domaine du Bouchot, and considers Rachel and Pascal Kerbiquet to be his mentors. Of course, Antoine’s knowledge of the area was already profound as his family—the Minets—own the neighboring vineyards. He believes in minimal intervention, using indigenous yeast and (primarily) stainless steel for fermentation. He is also experimenting with amphorae while producing three different Pouilly-Fumés, a Pouilly-sur-Loire made from 100% Chasselas and a VdF called Orange, a 100% Sauvignon vinified on the skin during five months.
Antoine Gouffier has set out on a biodynamic course to showcase orange wine made from Sauvignon Blanc and to revitalize interest in Pouilly-Fumé and Loire’s somewhat less ubiquitous grape variety, Chasselas. This package shows just that.
1 Domaine du Bouchot ‘Terres Blanches’, 2023 Pouilly-Fumé (34 $)
* 2023 saw variable weather conditions in the Loire encompassing both rain and heatwaves, and producers worked hard to hold back mildew and acid rot; it was a challenging vintage.
The first organic wine from the appellation, the grapes clusters saw full sunlight when possible by leaf removal. The name pays homage to the white Kimmeridgian limestone that lends a beautiful minerality to this wine. Harvested at full ripeness and fermented on indigenous yeasts, the wine has no added sulfites and is bottled with only light filtration. It shows citrus blossom, supple peach and crushed seashells and a long, saline, fresh lemon finish.
2 Domaine du Bouchot ‘MCMLV’, 2022 Pouilly-Fumé ($44)
MCMLV refers to 1955, the year this acre of Sauvignon vines were planted. The southeast facing vineyard is situated on a slope of well-drained marl which yield concentration. The grapes are harvested by hand and vinified after two days of skin-contact followed by 18 months of maturation, half in wooden cask and half in stainless steel tank. Bottled at the estate during a waning moon. The wine shows floral and fresh green herb notes behind the ripe gooseberry and citrus nose leading to a complex, dense and long finish.
3 Domaine du Bouchot ‘Caillottes’, 2022 Pouilly-Fumé ($38)
‘Caillottes’ refers to shallow, rock-filled soils capable of creating pronounced aromatics; wines from vineyards with caillottes are often the first wines ready to drink, and may have less potential for bottle aging. This one shows a fresh nose of grapefruit sorbet and green grass with hints of blossoms and minerals. A silken, almost creamy mouth-feel counters the vibrant acidity.
4 Domaine du Bouchot ‘Mon Village’, 2022 Pouilly-sur-Loire ($38) White
As a Pouilly-sur-Loire, this wine is not Sauvignon Blanc, but 100% Chasselas. The harvest is done by hand, the yeasts are indigenous and the wine is made with as little pumping as possible. Aged on its fine lees in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks, the wine is bottled in the spring after a very light filtration. It is light, tidy and focused showing quince, apples, apple peel and carambola, while hints of lime blossom, chamomile and dried herbs buzz in the background.
5 Domaine du Bouchot ‘Orange’, 2022 VdF Loire-Centre ($45) Orange
* Heralded by many producers as one of the best vintages of the decade, 2022 was a warm and sunny year throughout the Loire that resulted in perfectly healthy fruit with excellent balance.
‘Orange’ wine, of course, refers to its color, not its place of origin. It’s an ancient technique as well as a current fad—white wine produced from white grapes (in this case Sauvignon Blanc) that have been allowed prolonged skin and stem contact, thereby extracting the characteristic amber tint and a unique flavor profile, which often involves slight oxidation. Bouchot’s example shows nutty, smoky currant, lime zest and briary nettle—its aromatic pungency coincides with a silken-textured, very pure palate.
Notebook …
Tasting the Difference: Spring in Sancerre, Summer in Pouilly-Fumé
What a difference a river bank makes—or does it? Although situated on opposite sides of the same river (Sancerre on the left bank of the Loire and Pouilly-Fumé on the right), enough distinctions exist in their styles to have earned each its own AOP— white Sancerre in 1936 and Pouilly-Fumé in 1937. But it is not always easy to tell them apart in blind tastings—both are dry white wines made from Sauvignon Blanc from appellations only ten miles apart, and both express linear purity and ability to age with grace. Although the soils are slightly different, with more flint in Fumé and more limestone in Sancerre, the characteristic gun smoke that gives Fumé its name also appears with some regularity in Sancerre. The primary differences may be the intent of the winemaker.
Sancerre generally is leaner of body preserves the vibrant acidity of the grape alongside, with refreshing and crisp lime flavors alongside notes of green grass. In short, it has a profile one might associate with spring.
The flinty character of silex soil allows for an accumulation of heat, leading to early ripening. Pouilly-Fumé tends to be a rounder wine, richer in body and displaying flavors that toward more stone fruits and ripe apples, along with the classic smoky notes. It is a wine more easily identified with the summer.
Loire-Centre Vintage Overview
Weathering 2023: A Winegrower’s Balancing Act
The winter of 2022/2023 was relatively mild in Sancerre and rolled into an equally benign spring, and although a few vines were touched by frost, it was nothing cataclysmic. Budburst was largely successful, and the gently rising temperatures proved idyllic for flowering, with yields promising to be high. June then brought a bout of hot, humid weather aggravated by frequent rain and disease pressure ran high; producers had to frequently spray and those who weren’t vigilant lost yields. That said, the heat pushed the grapes to phenolic ripeness signaling an early harvest.
Although a heatwave struck mid-summer, nights were cool, proving ideal for preserving the acidity and aromatics crucial to Sancerre, and despite a few large storms, the harvest was mostly picked fuss-free.
The 2022 Harvest: A Year of Rain, Resilience, and Ripeness.
Directly from the journal of Jean-Paul Labaille, owner and winemaker at Thomas-Labaille in Chavignol:
“Following the terrible frost that impacted our crop in 2021, it almost feels like 2022 was blessed from above. While it’s true that drought and hail impacted many vineyards this year and that the heavy rainfalls in June made it very challenging to work the soils, in the end the vines were balanced and we did not suffer the same amount of hydric stress felt by so many other regions. We even had some light rain in August and at the very beginning of harvest, giving us grapes of great quantity and quality. We began on September 5th, interrupted once on the 7th by a hail storm that touched the Northwest of the appellation. In Chavignol there were zero impacts. Qualitatively, we are in for a good vintage. The fermentations have been going well, with pH levels between 3.2 and 3.3, permitting us to keep a good amount of freshness. The alcohol will end up between 12.5 and 13.5, maybe as high at 13.7 on the Monts-Damnés. 2022 really reminds me of 2018, which is very promising!”
The Twin Years of 2019 & 2018: A Double Benediction
The back-to-back vintages 2018 and 2019 represent something of a climactic miracle. Even as a stand-alone, 2018 is considered to be one of the most exceptional vintages seen in the region for half a century. Taken together with a spectacular 2019, they are twin towers of triumph.
2018 began with fantastic spring that allowed for successful flowering and fruit set without any of the usual problems that normally occur with rain, hail or frost, and a hot summer developed the ripe semi-tropical flavors associated with the best Sauvignon Blanc. 2019 was a bit cooler, but produced grapes where the coveted acids that reign in aggressive fruit notes.
Tapping the source directly, Vacheron comments, “2018 and 2019 are very similar in the way they are constructed, even if the alcohol is slightly higher in 2018. The two vintages tend to show that it is possible to make wines that have good freshness despite low acidities because the minerality superseded the acidity. 2018 is without a doubt a vintage that will mark people’s memories, and will remain a reference in Sancerre. It’s the kind of vintage that helps grow a heightened generation of wine makers within their appellations.”
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Posted on 2025.06.26 in Sancerre, Chablis, Petit Chablis, Pouilly-Fumé, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Loire | Read more...
Provence’s Life Beyond Rosé: Visionary Producers See Potential in the Full Diversity of Southern Grapes and Terroir to Make Magnificent Red and White Wines.
This week’s selection is a trip through sun-kissed, lavender-scented Provence, home to a unique array of southern wines. Though almost exclusively associated with rosé, some of it lackluster, the region is increasingly focusing on quality as the fashion for dry and more serious rosé gathers steam. Provence has always been a cauldron of innovation, but only in such small quantities that much of it never leaves France. The reds in particular are ripe for discovery, seeming to fuse the best elements of Bordeaux with those of the Rhône. Our featured producers represent winemakers whose vinous roots reach deeply into the past and others who have an eye on the future. Both are portraits of Provence’s memorably rich and quintessentially French experience.
Provence’s Winescape: A Living Portrait of the Mediterranean
Few places on earth match Provence for aesthetics; from the crystalline sparkle of the Mediterranean Sea to the vine-clad hillsides and rolling pastures, it encapsulates the romance of Southern France. Bound by the Rhône River on one side and the sprawling elevations of the Côte d’Azur on the other, the terrain is not only storybook-charming, but delivers a range of wine-friendly terroirs protected from the Mistral winds that blow in from the north.
There is one natural feature found in Provençal seascapes that encompasses the rustic beauty found in the limestone hills and is reflected, note by note, in the wines—particularly the reds. Called ‘garrigue’ it is a collective term for the wild lavender, juniper, thyme and similar shrubs that grow wild throughout the appellation. ‘Garrigue’ is a term used frequently in Provençal tasting notes, and like ‘Herbes de Provence; refers to a sum of these minty herbal flavors—the essence of the experience.
Palette: Into the Provençal Hills with Altitude
The palette of Provence may suggest many things—the blues of Provençal skies and the Mediterranean, the greens of olive groves and cypress forests, the lavenders of garrigue.
But ‘Palette’ is also the name of a small appellation in the hills east of Aix. Covering the communes of Meyreuil, Le Tholonet and Aix-en-Provence itself, it encompasses 106 acres of limestone-rich elevations in the shadow of gleaming white Montagne Sainte-Victoire—an 11 mile ridge a that gives its name to the sub-appellation of Sainte-Victoire.
Palette becomes a palette in the spectrum of allowable grapes, 16 white wines and 15 reds, easily rivaling the massive encépagement of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Whites, reds and rosé ooze seamlessly from these calcic slopes.
Château Henri Bonnaud
Palette
Stéphane Spitzglous spent his boyhood dreaming about making wine at the Bonnaud estate. As Henri’s grandson, Stéphane used to ride with him on the tractor as soon as he was old enough to hang on. “Even before being passionate about wine, I was passionate about the earth,” he says. “If you look around at these landscapes, you will understand why I could not move away despite my grandfather’s recommendations. And those long days, sitting on the wing of his tractor, coming and going to the sound of the old engine, were my music.”
Stéphane Spitzglous, Château Henri Bonnaud
One of only three producers based in the tiny AOP Palette, the Bonnaud property’s 27 acres at the foot of Montagne Sainte-Victoire is blessed with a specific clay-limestone soil type called ‘langesse.’ So fecund is this earth that Henri Bonnaud also raised corn and wheat, reserving only vine-friendly sites for his wines. Since he did not consider farming to be a viable profession for the future, he urged Stéphane to forget about winemaking and stay in school.
Is it possible to have the best of both worlds? Stéphane thinks so. In 1996, after having earned a degree in Physics, his grandfather relented and handed him the keys to the tractor. He spent the next eight harvests in the local cooperative producing ‘garage wines,’ finally releasing his first vintage of Château Henri Bonnaud in 2004.
He dedicated the bottling to his grandfather, who passed away in 2001.
Having converted to organics in 2010, Stéphane says, “Our plots are located in a natural amphitheater, protected from the Mistral winds by the Langesse and Grand Cabri hills, and by the Cengle and Sainte-Victoire mountains; benefits from a microclimate. Our red-wine vines see an ideal sun exposure from sunrise to sunset while a few plots of north-facing land allow a perfect exposure for a slow maturation of our white grapes, and many are drawn from vines over sixty years old.”
Château Henri Bonnaud, 2019 Palette Red ($39)
A blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache and Vieux Carignan grown in Calcaire de Langesse soils, hand-picked and fermented on natural yeast with daily punching of the cap and pumping over which allow for the gentle extraction of complex tannins. The next 18 months are spent in barrels (50%) and big casks (50%).The dominant fruit notes are spiced Morello cherries and Crème de Cassis along with earthier tones of garrigue and minerals.
Château Henri Bonnaud ‘Vieilles Vignes’, 2019 Palette Red ($53)
A Mourvèdre, Grenache and Vieux Carignan with an elegant and plush texture showing flavors of raspberry, cranberry, and strawberries lifted by exotic spices. The tannins have settled in and wrap the fruit in velvet leading to a bright floral finish.
Château Henri Bonnaud ‘Vieilles Vignes’, 2023 Palette Rosé ($40)
Stéphane’s 2023 ‘Vieilles Vignes’ Rosé was awarded France’s Guide Hachette des Vins ‘Coup de Cœur.’ The cuvée originates from the estate’s oldest Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cinsault and Syrah vines in the pure limestone soils directly eroded from Sainte-Victoire’s mountainside. The grapes are hand-picked, sorted, and destemmed before being aged in French demi-muids and foudres for eight months. The wine shows watermelon and rich strawberry jam up front and matures into peach pie and finishes with an intriguing note of mocha.
Château Henri Bonnaud, 2023 Palette White ($36)
A blend of Clairette Blanche, Ugni Blanc and Grenache Blanc, the wine displays a powerful and complex nose with roasted notes, spices, citrus and exotic fruits; the palate is a harmony between white fruits, passionfruit and subtle notes of vanilla and sweet spices.
Château Henri Bonnaud ‘Vieilles Vignes’, 2023 Palette White ($53)
Made from old-vine Clairette Blanche, Ugni Blanc and Grenache Blanc. After destemming, the grapes are sorted, then undergo cold maceration before being fermented in barrels, where they age for 8 months. The wine shows aromas of the fermentation made in barrels. The aging lasts 8 months. The nose shows hawthorn, acacia and coconut with notes of brioche and candied fruits, flavors that are echoed throughout the palate.
Château Simone
Palette
Despite the impeccable reputation of estates like Henri Bonnaud, the story of Palette is pretty much dominated by the name ‘Simone.’ This winery owns roughly half of the vineyards covered by the appellation limits. The historic estate sits on limestone on the slopes of Montaiguet at elevations between 500 and 750 feet above sea level and has been in the hands of the Rougier family for two centuries, who hold a virtual monopoly on the wines of Palette.
Jean-François Rougier, Château Simone
“Rougiers maintain vinification methods developed and cherished over many decades,” says seventh-generation vigneron Jean-François Rougier. “All the grapes are hand harvested, destemmed, lightly pressed and fermented for 15 to 20 days in small wooden vats with only wild yeast, then put into small foudre to rest on the lees. The white is predominantly Clairette, with small amounts of Grenache Blanc and Ugni Blanc, and a dash of Bourboulenc, Muscat Blanc, Picpoul, Furmint and Sémillon. Fermentation takes place at a relatively warm 68 degrees and ages for one year in 20–30 hl casks, then one year in older barrels. Our reds strive for elegance and great depth. It is primarily composed of Grenache and Mourvèdre but its special character reflects the presence of a mélange of other grape varieties, albeit in small proportion, including Cinsault, Syrah, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Castet, Manosquin, Théoulier, Tibouren, Picpoul Noir and Muscat de Hambourg. The rosé, incidentally, is the exact same blend.”
Jean-François’s great grandfather (the original Jean) rebuilt the vineyards in the aftermath of the phylloxera scourge, using selection massale cuttings, and established an organic farming regime for soil and vine health decades before it was a trend. This affords Jean-François an extraordinary array of old vines from which to draw fruit; most are over sixty years old.
Jean-François’s approach in the cellar is every bit as classic, and he is especially proud of his flagship white wine: “Key factors in our Vin Blanc is expansive richness coupled with mineral-tinged freshness, which is due to a high proportion of Clairette and the inhibition of malolactic fermentation by our frigid 16th-century cellars. Clairette is typically seen in only a supporting role elsewhere, but is the star of the show at Simone, contributing nuance and depth reminiscent of great white Burgundy.”
Château Simone, 2015 Palette Red ($95)
Made primarily from Mourvèdre and Grenache, the wine has developed beautifully, having gained complexity and tertiary aromas. Still evident are black cherry/plum above a subsurface of dried florals and damp forest floor. The tannins, once forward, have also integrated well.
Château Simone, 2017 Palette White ($98)
Made primarily from old-vine Clairette Blanc, Château Simone’s white wine has a unique character due to the estate’s high-altitude, north-facing amphitheater and limestone soil. Golden with maturity, the wine is unctuous and rich, overflowing honeydew and peach.
Bandol: Distinctive by Nature, Contained by Hills
It may be impossible to find a region where the winemaking pedigree is more impressive; Phoenicians were fermenting grapes here 2500 years ago, long before the Romans showed up and named the wine ‘Massilia.’ As the late-afternoon Bandol heat sends wafts of violet, black pepper and thyme into the air above an azure sea, it’s easy to see why this seacoast resort town has been both a destination and a home since prehistory.
About an hour’s drive east from Marseille, the microclimate that sets Bandol apart from the rest of Provence is the result of altitude and its natural amphitheater; the vines are planted on steep hills where the soils are composed of limestone, red clay and silica sand and the vines are protected from the harshest winds by the natural bowl formed in the low coastal mountain ranges between La Ciotat and Toulon. This combination of features makes it ideal for ripening finicky, late-budding Mourvèdre, which might otherwise be challenged by the proximity of the Mediterranean.
Domaine des Trois Filles
Bandol (La Cadière-d’Azur)
Audrey Arlon, current winemaker at Domaine des Trois Filles is one of the filles. The estate was named for her and her two sisters (Léonie and Justine) by their parents. Now, after having learned the craft and honed her skills at Domaine Ott and Domaine du Gros ‘Noré, Audrey has taken over her family’s vines in La Cadière-d’Azur.
Léonie and Audrey Arlon, Domaine des Trois Filles
“We farm 22 acres of old, goblet-trained vines co-planted with rye, fava beans, clover and radish sprout in between the rows,” Audrey explains. “This begins the process to combat global warming and keep the soil healthy. In the spring, we fold the cover crops into the earth to protect the soil while keeping humidity and maintaining a low temperature in the increasingly hot weather of Southern France. Giving natural aeration to the roots and better development of earthworms, we can to limit the spread of weeds, create greater biodiversity, and promote microbial life in the soil.”
Trois Filles is a family affair, and with the three sisters at the helm, it presents some interesting challenges. Audrey admits that it can be a struggle to balance the demands of motherhood with winemaking: “There are times, such as harvest, that require one’s full and undivided attention. And yet, from a physical point of view today, the evolution of the equipment allows us to force ourselves less, so we can do almost anything.”
Domaine des Trois Filles, 2020 Bandol ($35)
75% Mourvèdre, 20% Grenache and 5% Cinsault from goblet vines grown on a clay-limestone hillside. Hand harvested into crates, gently macerated with native fermentation in stainless steel and aged in barrels for 18 months. A muscular core of earthy dark fruit is highlighted by classic leather, garrigue, underbrush and sweet black raspberry notes.
Domaine Marie Bérénice
Bandol (Le Castellet)
The first time Lyle Railsback, wine importer at France+Western tasted a bottle of Domaine Marie Bérénice, he exclaimed, “This Bandol Rouge has the aromas of Mourvèdre as thrilling as anything in Provence. And as exciting as older, cellared examples of Bandol can be there is something so captivating and primal about drinking a Bandol red on release, in its youth.”
Damien Roux, Domaine Marie Bérénice
As Domaine de Trois Filles was named for the daughters of the original owner, so is Domaine Marie Bérénice a tribute to Damien Roux’s daughter. Marie Bérénice was born into a long line of grape growers in Bandol, although historically the family sold their fruit to other estates. Damien, who made wine for another winery in the area, decided to begin releasing under his own label. The family farm, between the villages of La Cadière and Castellet and only a stone’s throw from the fabled beaches of Saint-Tropez, consists of 35 acres of clay and limestone terraces, where the work, done by hand, is certified organic.
In the cellar, Damien vinifies using wild yeasts and relies on long macerations. He ages his reds in large foudres for eighteen months before bottling without any fining or filtration.
Domaine Marie Bérénice, 2021 Bandol ($35)
90% Mourvèdre and 10% Grenache. Pie spices and leather lend a savory profile while the fruit is filled in with vibrant notes of cranberry, blackberry and cassis, with cedar, and tobacco appearing on the finish.
Domaine Marie Bérénice ‘Les Faremberts, Cuvée Simone’, 2021 Bandol ($39)
90% Mourvèdre, 10% Grenache, the wine underwent a long maceration followed by 18 months in large oak barrels. A great, old-style Bandol showing cedar box, baking spices, blueberries and leather.
Domaine Roche Redonne
Bandol (La Cadière-d’Azur)
Founded in 1979 by Henri and Geneviève Tournier, Roche Redonne is situated among the Bandol foothills surrounded by olive groves and garrigue scrub just outside the pretty village of La Cadière d’Azur. The 30-acre vineyard is farmed using organic methods and the vines now average more than 40 years, with the youngest vines at 20 years and the oldest at 60 years. The yields are kept low, and in fitting with the appellation laws, the steeply hilled vineyards is harvested by hand.
Guilhem Tournier, Domaine Roche Redonne
Domaine Roche Redonne ‘Cuvée Les Bartavelles’, 2019 Bandol ($69)
‘Bartavelles’ means ‘Royal Partridges’, and there is certainly a noble delivery here: 95% Mourvèdre and 5% Grenache grown on blue marl base with a layer of clay on top, the wine displays a fruity nose with a touch of smoke; the palate is filled with cherry compote and sweet spice, with a full and textured finish of superb length.
Domaine de la Bégude
Bandol (Le Castellet)
Located at the highest point in Bandol (1400 feet) La Bégude was once a stopover inn on the road from Marseille to Toulon, a shelter for the night where you could find ‘beguda’—the local Provençal wine with a name drawn from the Catalan language.
The Roulleau family purchased Domaine de La Bégude in 2022, making them only the fifth family to own the estate since the Middle Ages. Appointing Laurent Fortin as Managing Director. According to Fortin, the goal in overseeing the estate is “To keep the same pioneering spirit while daring to break the codes to offer a unique vision of wine in the heart of this exceptional vineyard.”
Fortin, who has managed Roulleau-owned Château Dauzac since 2016, says, “The Roulleau family fell in love with this site, these exceptional terroirs set in the garrigue and these wines with strong personality. We are following in the footsteps of the Tari family to make La Bégude shine at the top of the Bandol appellation. The challenge is exciting, in the continuity of Château Dauzac, to build a family group of inspired vineyards.”
Domaine de la Bégude
The synergy between the Tari and Roulleau clans has been immediately apparent, both in viticultural dynamism and in the spirit that shares the common value of respect for nature and biodiversity. Under the Tari family, Bégude was a place of natural agro-forestry, home to the International Conservatory of Mourvèdre, which farms an exceptional vine collection of 150 Mourvèdre varieties, the largest in the world. Going forward, the intention is to reinforce and maintain this collection.
The estate itself encompasses more than 1200 acres, of which 75 are under vine—65% Mourvèdre, 25% Grenache and 10% Cinsault, now at an average age of 25 years. The vineyards sit at elevations exceeding 1300 feet, and as such, are among the highest in the appellation. The plan is to increase the cultivation to 100 acres over the next few years and to continue to produce Bégude’s hallmark rich, acidic, fruit-driven wines that develop in the cellar with elegance. The Roulleaus are proud to age their own wines in the old chapel of Miséricorde of Conil, dating from the 7th century—a vestige of the presence of the Abbey of Saint Victor on the estate.
Domaine de la Bégude ‘La Brulade’, 2017 Bandol ($96)
Mourvèdre 95%, Grenache 5% grown in ferruginous sandstone over limestone. The grapes were double sorted, completely destemmed and allowed a long maceration with regular manual punching down for optimal phenolic extraction. Fermentation occurred on the grapes’ natural yeasts and malolactic fermentation carried out during the aging in French oak tuns. Cedar dust, cut cigars, blackberries and a wild mix of dried Mediterranean herbs appear on the nose and linger into a licorice-tinged finish.
Domaine de la Bégude ‘Cadet de la Bégude’, 2020 IGP Méditerranée ($25)
* Although it covers only the eastern portion of France’s Mediterranean coast (as well as Corsica), the IGP Méditerranée title also goes a considerable distance inland. It extends over ten departments (including the two on the island of Corsica) as well as covering smaller parts of Isère, Loire and Rhône.
34% Mourvèdre, 33% Cinsault, 33% Grenache, this wine underwent total destemming, fermentation by the grape’s natural yeasts and long maceration before aging in stainless steel. Medium-bodied and supple, the wine shows underbrush and sweet black raspberry notes on the nose.
Domaine La Bastide Blanche
Bandol (Le Castellet)
Michel and Louis Bronzo purchased Bastide Blanche in the ‘70s in the belief that the terroir could produce a wine to rival those of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. With that in mind, the brothers planted Carignane, Cinsault, Clairette, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah. Vintage 1993 proved to be their breakaway year, putting both Bandol and themselves on the wine map. The estate is located in the foothills of Sainte-Baume Mountain, five miles from the Mediterranean Sea on land that is primarily limestone scree.
Michel Bronzo, right, Domaine La Bastide Blanche
Bastide Blanche has been certified Biodynamic since 2020. According to Louis Bronzo, “True to our terroir, all our wines are organic and Biodyvin certified. To preserve nature and protect everyone’s health, we work tirelessly to improve our farming practices. We owe the earth our loyalty, especially since we have blessed with our environment, at the foot of the Sainte-Baume mountain, just a few kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. Our soil is predominantly limestone, which is ideal for our dozen grape varieties.”
Michel adds, “As is required of Bandol producers, all our grapes are harvested by hand—a practice that makes it possible to finely sort the bunches during harvest and to better protect the fruit until it reaches the cellar.”
Domaine La Bastide Blanche, 2019 Bandol ($33)
Predominantly Mourvèdre (around 73%) with smaller contributions by Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah and Carignan, the wine is Bandol-big with crushed blackberries, raspberries and warm cherry pie. Lively, mouthwatering and concentrated with great mid-palate intensity.
Domaine La Bastide Blanche, 2024 Bandol Rosé ($29)
Bastide Blanche is said to produce one of the most food-friendly rosés in Bandol, being generally full and round with lots of palate cleansing acidity. A blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Cinsault, it offers a complex nose of floral a citrus with notes of Sichuan pepper and dried apricot.
Les Baux-de-Provence: On the Alpilles Range
Fewer places offer a more panoramic view of the Provençal vista—a spread of rugged farms, vineyards and olive groves—than Les Baux de Provence, a tiny hilltop village in the Alpilles hills. The Baux de Provence appellation was introduced as a VDQS in 1956 and promoted to AOP status in 1995. Besides the eponymous village, it covers seven other communes: Fontvieille, Maussane-les-Alpilles, Mouries, Paradou, Saint-Étienne-du-Grès and Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
Its proximity to Rhône must be noted to understand these wines; wedged between the Rhône delta to the south and Avignon to the north, the culture may be distinctly Provençal, but the wines are tinged with Southern Rhône—in fact, Châteauneuf-du-Pape is only 20 miles to the north. As a result, Les Baux wines are predominantly high-quality reds and rosés made from Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre tinged with aromas of mountains herbs, black olives, violets and blackberry jam.
Domaine Hauvette
Les Baux-de-Provence
Nestled among the foothills of Les Alpilles, amid landscapes made famous by Van Gogh, Dominique Hauvette served as a backdrop for Dominique Hauvette’s re-birth. Formerly a Savoie lawyer, she opted to leave the rat race, seek out more sunshine, indulge her passion for raising horses and the study of oenology. Thirty-some years later, Dominique now has 42 acres of vines and a low-tech and decisively non-interventionist stance which has earned her an international reputation for making benchmark natural wines.
Dominique Hauvette, Domaine Hauvette
She describes her situation and terroir like this: “Domaine Hauvette is two islands of vineyards within a 1.5 miles radius around the cellar; all the vineyards are on the northern side of the Alpilles, a white bright limestone mount culminating at 1,600 ft. Facing north, the microclimate is a little cooler, and strangely a little less affected by the Mistral that bumps over the Alpilles to blow stronger on the southern side. The terroir is mostly lacustrine limestone from the Cretaceous, full of fossils. Some veins of red clay run through certain plots. One specificity of the area is the “Terres Blanches” also called “Tuffeau”, which have nothing in common with either the Sancerre’s Kimmeridgian marls nor the Touraine Tuffeau. Here, it refers to compressed veins of this Cretaceous limestone so hard and impenetrable that it looks like cement. The first time I saw, I thought somebody had poured cement and covered it back with top soil! It requires a special tool to crack apart the layers when planting, but when I saw what it could produce, it became my favorite vineyard.”
Domaine Hauvette ‘Cornaline’, 2012 Les Baux-de-Provence ($54)
50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, proving that Dominique’s unconventional approach to winemaking pays great dividends. Garrigue, especially thyme and lavender, accent tertiary notes of fig, smoke and leather.
* 2012 will remain in Provençal wine makers’ memories as one of the smallest harvests in recent years, due primarily to early hail and prolonged drought. The grapes that survived were concentrated and of high quality.
Domaine Hauvette ‘Amethyste’, 2016 IGP Alpilles Provence ($98)
60% Cinsault, 30% Carignan and 10% Grenache, Dominique Hauvette considers this wine an homage to Cinsault, highlighting the fresh, low-alcohol styles that are increasingly in vogue in southern France. Amethyste was aged for a year in concrete eggs in order to maximize the minerality of the finished product, which displays great finesse with notes of cherry and garigue beneath velvety tannins and the wet-stone finish.
* 2016 saw an unusual scourge to compliment the drought; reports mention wild boars decimating vineyards, so apparently, this is not an annual phenomenon. In any case, the harvest was small, but excellent.
Côtes-de-Provence: The Omnibus Catchall
The massive Côtes-de-Provence sprawls over 50,000 acres and incorporates a patchwork of terroirs, each with its own geological and climatic personality. The northwest portion is built from alternating sub-alpine hills and erosion-sculpted limestone ridges while to the east, and facing the sea, are the volcanic, crystalline Maures and Tanneron mountains.
In fact, eight production areas make up the appellation: Bordure Maritime, Notre-Dame des Anges, Haut Pays, Bassin du Beausset, Sainte-Victoire, Fréjus, La Londe and Pier Eight production areas make up the appellation: Bordure Maritime, Notre-Dame des Anges, Haut Pays, Bassin du Beausset, Sainte-Victoire, Fréjus, La Londe and Pierrefeu. From these, four terroir designations are (currently) recognized, each producing wines with a pronounced typicity: Côtes de Provence Sainte-Victoire, Côtes de Provence Fréjus, Côtes de Provence La Londe and Côtes de Provence Pierrefeu. The majority of Provençal vineyards are turned over to rosé production, which it has been making since 600 B.C. when the Ancient Greeks founded Marseille.
Clos de l’Ours
Côtes-de-Provence
L’Ours translates to ‘bear’—the Brotons family identity and an affectionate nickname for their patriarch, Michel. In 2008, Michel and his wife Fabienne sold the family jewelry business in Marseille to pursue a winemaking dream in Provence, finding a 32-acre estate in a northern corner of Côtes de Provence planted to old vine Rolle, Clairette and Ugni Blanc, used for their white wine portfolio and Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cinsault and Carignan for their red and rosés.
Fabienne, Michel Broton and children Emilie & Fabien, Clos de l’Ours
The ‘clos’ in the name is entirely natural; the vineyards are completely enclosed by pine and oak forest. Organic farming practices were implemented in 2000 and they have been certified biodynamic and organic since ’21. Though the Brotons family has only owned the winery since 2012, they rely on Daniel Abiral, formerly of Domaine du Tempier, La Bastide Blanche, and Domaine de la Tour de Bon, to guide them.
Clos de l’Ours ‘Le Chemin’, 2019 Côtes-de-Provence ($36)
Meaning ‘The Way,’ this blend of 37% Grenache, 34% Mourvèdre and 29% Syrah was made with a minimum of intervention, wild yeast and no filtration. The wine shows dried raspberry and cassis behind firm acidity and integrated tannins.
Clos de l’Ours ‘L’Agachon’, 2019 Côtes-de-Provence ($36)
Half Cinsault and half Carignan from 65-year-old vines in the L’Agachon lieux-dit. Harvested by hand, the wine saw a three-week maceration in vats with light pumping over, then aged one year in oak barrels and another six months in vats. It shows aromas of ripe red cherries, ripe raspberries, black pepper and game fat appear with smoke and orange peel on the finish.
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Posted on 2025.06.21 in Bandol, Palette, Les Baux-de-Provence, France, Wine-Aid Packages, Provence | Read more...
A Burgundy Odyssey for Bloomsday Commomoration (June 16): Grégory and Antoine Gouges Weave a Winedark Tapestry of Seven Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Crus in Nine Packs of NSG Vertical Sets for the Paterfamilias- A Portrait in Youth and Age
Let the nihilists and conspiracy nuts have their doomsday; Bloomsday will remain our most personally significant wine-related holiday. Named in honor of Leopold Bloom, the protagonist and hero of James Joyce’s modernist masterpiece ‘Ulysses’ that follows Bloom’s existential meander through the street, brothels and drinking-holes of turn-of-the-century Dublin on (of course) June 16.
Ensconced within the smoky warmth of Davy Byrne’s pub, Bloom exclaims, “Nice wine it is. Taste it better because I’m not thirsty …. Mild fire of wine kindled his veins. I wanted that badly …. Glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed. Crushing in the winepress grapes of Burgundy. Sun’s heat it is.”
2025 marks the hundred-and-third anniversary of the release of James Joyce’s masterpiece, and a few venerable souls who purchased a copy on the day it came out are still trying to wade through it. Not everyone agrees on the genius of the work—a florid, stream-of-consciousness ramble through Ireland’s capital city over the course of a single day. Joyce fans celebrate this day to honor the peculiar genius of their favorite author. We prefer to reserve it for a celebration of our favorite Burgundies.
Catching Greatness in the Act: Domaine Henri Gouges Vertical Sets
This year we are focusing on the grand old estate of Henri Gouges and offer a number of vertical sets from some of Nuits-St-Georges’ top vineyards. The beauty and purpose of a vertical—same producer, same varietal, same appellation, different vintage—is to measure the effects of weather on terroir, and to gauge changes not only between production years, but on the evolution of wine in a bottle.
As wine lovers, we are also readers, and vertical sets are often the most intriguing way to understand the story of a winemaker and his/her wares; we can follow the plot gifted us by their skills and by nature’s editing.
An important note to remember when tasting Burgundy vintages is that maturation process rarely follows a typical path of youth/maturity/decline. Much more frequently it follows a sin curve with peaks and valleys. A disappointing Burgundy at the age of five has likely not passed its prime, especially if it is made by a producer with the reputation of Gouges. It should be pushed further back in the cellar—it has a good chance of opening up with a few more quiet years of rest.
These wines are, of course, available individually as well, at the prices noted.
Vintage 2022
Dry heat seems to be the new normal in Burgundy and the vines are adapting. As a result, the wines that emerge from the far end of a scorching season are able to retain delicate tannins along with freshness, fruitiness, finesse and elegance. Of course, it helped that there was a big storm at the end of June where nearly eight inches of rain fell; also, the extreme heat throughout the rest of the summer slowed the physiological ripeness in the vines as the sugar accumulation continued and the acidity was preserved. But in the end, the resilience of the vines is, and always has been, a hallmark of Burgundy.
Vintage 2019
Generally considered an excellent vintage, the 2019 growing season was preceded by a very mild winter than morphed into a chilly spring, with April seeing biting frosts that cut into yields. Flowering was uneven due to a cooler than average June and some bunches suffered from millerandage, which further nibbled away yield. Temperatures then warmed up rapidly, to such an extent that, by July and August, many of the vines were suffering from heat and drought stress.
The grapes that survived were small and richly concentrated, leading to a small, but notably expressive vintage with richly, refined fruit and the best examples likely to cellar well.
Vintage 2014
Burgundian weather during the 2014 growing season had its usual ups and downs with a mild, dry spring leading to an early budburst and flowering. Warm conditions continued through June, and all looked well until a violent hailstorm struck, battering sites in Beaune, Meursault, Volnay and Pommard particularly affected. The vineyards of Côte de Nuits tended to be less affected, but some still suffered losses. Yields were down across the board and July failed to bring better weather as conditions remained cool and wet with few days of real heat. Late July also saw another hailstorm strike. By mid-August, better weather began to prevail, and sunny days started to dry out the vineyards. This pleasant turn of fortune lasted through harvest, and the resulting vintage was smaller than usual, but the quality was high, with both reds and whites tending to be classic in character.
Domaine Henri Gouges
A Century of Stewardship and Strength
in Nuits-Saint-Georges
Considered by many to be Nuits-Saint-Georges’ top domain, the estate has been passed down through many generations and is, to this day, a family affair, with four Gouges at the helm.
Grégory Gouges has been the domain’s winemaker since 2003; Pierre today runs the business end with his cousin Christian, son Grégory, and Grégory’s cousin Antoine. The vineyards cover 36 acres, including seven of the best well-positioned Premier Crus: Les Chaignots, Chênes Carteaux, Les Pruliers, the monopole vineyard of Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges and nearly three acres each of each of the appellation’s most famous vineyards, Les Vaucrains and Les Saint Georges.
Antoine, Grégory, Christian & Pierre Gouges, Domaine Henri Gouges
photo: jean louis bernuy
Domain Henri Gouges is of the appellation, for the appellation and by the appellation; all properties are within Nuits-Saint-Georges. According to Grégory, “Our family had some vines, but mainly for their own consumption. Henri decided to dedicate himself to winemaking full time with the intention creating his own domain. He bought this building, the old police station. and lived here with his wife and children. He built the cellar, the winery and the stable for the horses. The majority of the vines he purchased are on the south side of Nuits-Saint-Georges; the vines in Les Chaignots were an inheritance in the 1970’s from a cousin. He focused on the southern part of the appellation, which he considered as the ‘real’ Nuits-Saint-Georges with wines of substance and power. He created a solid foundation and created the image of the domain. We have tried to keep it. There has been some evolution, but without becoming victims of fashion—just a slow evolution without losing our identity.”
Waxing philosophically, Grégory muses, “You can’t live in the past, but you can learn from history, especially if it is a history that have worked well. For us it is very important to stay on this road. It’s a road of quality wines, terroir wines, respect for nature and respect for the customer. It is something very honest, and we will continue like this.”
Tapestry of Terroir: The Winescape of Nuits-Saint-Georges
Like most things involving wine, ‘terroir’ can be as simple or complicated as you care to make it. At its most basic, terroir is a wine’s pedigree, its ‘sense of origin’, but then again, these basics involve such highbrow abstractions as geomorphology, bacterial genomes and mesa- and microclimates.
Nuits-St-Georges, with its centuries-old history of winemaking, is a grand example.
With the village of Nuits-St-Georges itself as the fulcrum, the robust appellation extends to the north as far as the border of Vosne-Romanée, while the southern section lies partly in Nuits-Saint-Georges and partly in Prémeaux. The wines from each section are unique in style and according to experts, with differences defined (in the main) by the lay of the land. The soils in the northern sector are built around the pebbly alluvium that washes down from up-slope, or in the low-lying parts, around silty deposits from the river Meuzin. In the southern sector the alluvia at the base of the slopes originate in the combe of Vallerots where there are deep marly-limestone soils, while at the top of the slope, the soil has nearly all eroded away and the rock is near the surface. In both regions, favored exposures are mostly to the east or southeast.
Producing predominantly red wine, Nuits-Saint-Georges bottles display the muscularity and breeding most sought after in Burgundy—the ability to improve with bottle age. When young, the wine display aromas of cherry, strawberry and blackcurrant, and when matured, leather, truffle, fur and game.
Vineyard Holdings
Bourgogne Régionale
So specific are the cru vineyards of Burgundy that régionale vineyards may exist in the literal shadow of more renowned domains, occasionally separated by hundreds, or even as little as dozens of feet. Régionale wines tend to be culled from vineyards located along the foot of more prestigious wine-growing slopes on limestone soil mixed with some clays and marls, where the earth is stony and quick-draining.
Unlike Bordeaux, where classifications are based on individual châteaux (capable of buying other vineyards and expanding), Burgundian label classifications are more geographically focused. A single vineyard, therefore, may have multiple owners, each with a small piece of the action.
The ‘Bourgogne’ label first appeared in 1937, and in 2017, a further classification permitted wines from vineyards located within the Côte d’Or to be labeled as ‘Bourgogne Côte d’Or’; it’s a great tool for a consumer looking to explore the wide diversity of vineyard among the Hills of Gold while maintaining a terroir-focused, climat approach to Burgundy.
Bourgogne Two-Bottle Set $106
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Rouge ($53)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Rouge ($53)
2022 Bourgogne-level wines are generally unfussy and non-pretentious, but in the hands of the Gouges estate, they display most of the depth of Village wines and beyond. The fruit profile here is remarkable rich with smooth, integrated tannins and a touch of grassiness in the acidity.
2019 From the bottom of hillside in the lieu-dit ‘Des Petits Chaliots’, the wine displays pronounced intensity, with a nose showcasing strawberry, red rose, cured meat, gravel, underbrush and white pepper, finishing with crushed-rock minerality. Having begun its developmental journey, it may not have the longevity of Cru wines, and will probably reach its peak sooner.
Nuits-Saint-Georges Village
Village—the quality level below Premier Cru—is the most affordable path to understanding the underlying ‘sense of place’ that is the Holy Grail of Burgundian wine ideology. Many of the qualities that are assigned to various Crus are recognizable this level, if in a slightly dilute form—Savigny’s meatiness, Volnay’s elegance, Vosne-Romanée’s spice and Meursault’s buttery nuttiness. Legal restrictions help to underscore this: Villages wines have a slightly higher yield allowances per hectare, but the grape varieties are restricted. Not only that, but even Grand Cru vineyard owners can declassify grapes when they see fit, and many of these end up in Village-level wines.
Village Three-Bottle Set $298
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($102)
2019 Maison Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($94)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges ($102)
2022 Blackberry and wild strawberry are laced with firm natural tannins that 20% new oak neatly sews up. Still possessing the austerity of youth, the rich mid-palate darkens and softens in the glass and leads to a gently sauvage—or rustic—finale.
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges makes this outstanding Nuits-Saint-Georges by blending estate fruit with neighboring organic vineyards and bottles it under ‘Maison’ Henri Gouges. A nose of wild blackberry drives the wine, which shows a touch of herb and musk that should become more pronounced with a bit more age.
2014 All the rough edges have been shaved off a solid effort that is approaching its tenth birthday, about the limit for improvement in a Village wine. The perfume of wood and fruit has morphed into a tertiary blend of earth and leather; the color is bricking-out and growing tawny. Look for traces of 2022’s brilliant cherry, but grown concentrated and slightly dried; at this stage, a Village wine is generally approaching its fullest glory.
Zone Vosnoise (The Northern End)
Zone Vosnoise is a local term that refers to the northern portion of Nuits-Saint-Georges just below the Les Damodes vineyard; it derives its name from the fact that it borders Vosne-Romanée’s Aux Malconsorts Premier Cru vineyard. The soil in this region is characterized by thin soil, cobbled silts, clay and scree; a combination that favors rich, full Pinot Noirs.
The Zone is prized for its Premier Crus, including the fabled climats of Aux Boudots and Aux Chaignots.
Premier Cru Les Chaignots
Unlike Bordeaux, where Premier Cru is the top of the heap, Premier Cru plays second fiddle in Burgundy, with Grand Cru as the ultimate expression of quality. That is hardly to discount the quality inherent in Premier Cru wines, which represents about 18 percent of Burgundy’s annual output. In total, Burgundy hosts 640 Premier Cru vineyards (also referred to as climats) in the Côte d’Or and Côte Chalonnaise.
Les Chaignots is a fifteen acre climat located mid-slope in the northern part of Nuits-Saint-Georges. The chalky soils are ideal for Pinot Noir; made up of gravel and small rocks with a low proportion of clay. There is good drainage here, ensuring that vines are not waterlogged. Rather, they grow deep root systems to access water and nutrients further in the ground. The vineyard’s easterly exposure works with the mid-slope position to ensure plenty of sunshine throughout the growing season. The elevation offers diurnal temperature variation to slow ripening and helping the grapes retain their acidity.
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $288
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots ($144)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chaignots ($144)
2022 Recovering from the frost damage of 2021, and untouched by June’s hail, Gouges 2022 shows balanced ripeness fine-grained tannins and a classic dark fruit profile. The vines that produced these grapes are more than thirty years old, and this is seen by the depth and concentration of the juice. The nose remains restrained and will undoubtedly open up profoundly in years to come.
2019 Ebullient with fragrance, especially fragrant bouquet of brambly red berry fruit with a dusting of dark chocolate, the wine is broadening and discovering a voice that will continue to grow louder with the passing of time.
Zone de Saint-Georges (Central)
With the town of Nuits-St-Georges itself as the fulcrum, the Zone Vosnoise lies above and Zone de Saint-Georges below. The southern vineyards, including their top climats, tend to produce rustic, rugged wines that are hard in their youth and earthy in their twilight years, wines that have been described in existential terms: “This is what I always imagined a mature Burgundy to be.”
Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux
First among equals of the smallest of Zone de Saint-Georges Premier Crus, Chênes Carteaux is a little more than six acres whose highest vines sit at just below one thousand feet in elevation. 20% slopes are relatively brutal for the region. As such, these wines tend to be lighter and brighter than most Nuits-St-Georges, displaying a classic minerality in its goût de terroir—literally, ‘the taste of the soil.’
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $252
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux ($126)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Chênes Carteaux ($126)
2022 A detailed and mineral-driven wine with a strong herbal presence, the sense of energy is palpable. Medium-bodied and slightly austere, the filagree tannins work alongside sharp, higher-altitude acidity that fan out in a long finish.
2014 Nearly a decade after harvest, this wine—having been well-made in a year with some difficulties elsewhere but wonderful at Chez Gouges—retains its ‘Pinoté’ of crisp cherry and stoney persistence. The bouquet is filled with sous bois and truffle and the wine expresses and impressively long finish.
Premier Cru Les Pruliers
Les Pruliers lies near the border of Nuits-Saint-Georges and Premeaux-Prissey in the southern part of the appellation. The name is a reference to the wild plum trees that grew on the plot before it was planted to vines. Pruliers faces due east, catching the morning sun and is on a moderate slope silty scree and gravel over limestone; the southern end has noticeably finer gravel than the north. The wines of Pruliers are fruit-heavy, with flavors pitched toward the black. While not heavy-handed in the slightest, these wines emphasize robustness over sleekness.
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $315
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers ($198)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Pruliers ($117)
2022 Cropped at 22 hl/ha (about half what is average for the AOP), drawn from vines where 80% are over 75 years old then matured in 25% new oak, the wine shows dense red fruit, taut and relatively fine middleweight flavors exuding a classic bead of minerality.
2014 From a birthplace of privilege—Gouges plot in Le Pruliers—the wine was created with wonderful perfume, fine length and body, and the structure for long aging. Thanks to minimalist concrete tank fermentations and moderate use of new oak, this wine was among the stars of the vintage and continues to evolve along a wonderful path.
Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges
Clos des Porrets is a monopole vineyard, meaning that it entirely owned by one family—in this case, the Gouges. Not only that but it is the anecdotal home of Pinot Gouges, a white-skinned mutation of Pinot Noir that Henri Gouges discovered. Although not walled in the traditional sense of a Clos, the climat covers about nine acres of the larger Les Porrets site. The Clos sits mid-slope where its southeast exposure affords it full sunlight in the growing season. The wines are, as a result, deep, dark, earthy and enormous in stature, but refined nonetheless.
Premier Cru Three-Bottle Set $396
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($135)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($135)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Clos des Porrets St-Georges ($126)
2022 Dark and brooding with tremendous potential. On opening, and allowing for breathing time, the wine displays rose petal, aloe and brambly black raspberry on the nose with a lot of nuance on the palate that is chomping at the bit to be released.
2019 Black cherry, earthy tree bark and dried herbs on the nose with black licorice appearing on the mid-palate. A wine that should easily stand the test of time.
2014 Still several years from peak, the wine still oozes with fruit acids—cherries, cranberries and currant especially and wrapped in a backbone of graphite and stone.
Premier Cru Les Vaucrains
Les Vaucrains is considered one of the top Premier Cru sites in Nuits-Saint-Georges. Perched near the top of the hill on the hill above the Les Saint-Georges Premier Cru site, which is perhaps (in an appellation without Grand Crus) the best. The 15 acre Vaucrains vineyard is on the upper slope of the Côte d’Or, just below the line where vineyard becomes forest. The soils here are the calcareous and rocky as the process of erosion has sent much of the nutrient-rich silts down the hill. The lack of water in this free-draining soil makes for concentrated berries and a small amount of clay in the soil contributes weight to the finished wine. In fact, the evineyard is named Vaucrains after a French term for ‘infertile.’
Wines from this climat offer the best of Nuits-St-Georges power and nuance, with dark cherry, velvet tannins, and elusive notes of milk chocolate.
Premier Cru Three-Bottle Set $684
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($252)
2019 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($234)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Vaucrains ($198)
2022 Stone dust shows on the nose along with the purity and precision of dark fruit with just a hint of smokiness. With 50-year-old vines on average, harvested at 25 hl/ha and 30% new oak, the wine has the structure for the long haul.
2019 With the influence of oak remaining characteristically discreet, the nose is filled with fresh aromas of cassis and plum liqueur with rustic earthy wisps. Tannins are suave but broad-shouldered flavors that persist through an impressive finish.
2014 This is a voluminous wine built for aging; the subtle application of wood allows the firm natural tannins to integrate with the cassis and blackberry notes as tertiary flavors of forest floor, bracken and wild truffles emerge.
Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges
Nuits-St-Georges contains no Grand Cru climats, and in their absence, of the 41 Premier Crus, Les Saint-Georges may be considered worthy of the upgrade. In fact, there is a movement afoot urging the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine to authorize the promotion.
Located halfway between Premeaux-Prissey and the village of Nuits-Saint-Georges, it is a mosaic of limestone soils containing enough clay to strike an ideal balance between drainage and water retention; the wines are a powerful testimony to the terroir, offering concentrated red fruit, soft tannins and notable depth in the finish.
Premier Cru Two-Bottle Set $969
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges ($720)
2014 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru Les Saint-Georges ($249)
2022 Black and red cherry with some plum and hints of roasted meat; textures are layered and the spice notes are already evident, showing hints of how exceptional it intends to become .
2014 The emerging spice box includes clove, cinnamon and thyme alongside dark chocolate, and oak vanilla. A wine so structured and massive that it may only be a third of the way through its lifetime—drink or hold; it should improve for another decade.
White Nuits-Saint-Georges
A category so small that it amounts to a rounding error; only 3% of Nuits-St-Georges’ output is white. But, oh, that white! Oozing with opulence, white NSG shows Champagne-like brioche above its rich and memorable golden hue. Only about twenty-five acres in Nuits-St-Georges is set aside for white wine varietals, mainly (but not exclusively) Chardonnay.
White NSG Two-Bottle Set $251
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru La Perrière Blanc ($198)
100% Pinot Gouges from the La Perrière climat, filled—as the name suggests—with stones and chalk. Low production from, as its name implies, an old stone quarry. This unique cru is as rare as it is unusual, coming from a single acre of 80-year-old vines showing a broad, mineral-laden palate with floral and white peach notes.
2022 Domaine Henri Gouges Bourgogne Pinot Blanc ($53)
Don’t let the label fool you; this is not Pinot Blanc, but Pinot Gouges, a Pinot Noir mutation that Henri Gouges discovered in a stone quarry called La Perrière, now a vineyard. The incorrect, but user-friendly moniker ‘Pinot Blanc’ leads you to one of the most idiosyncratic whites in Burgundy. On the nose, it shows classic lemon and apple followed by cold stone and faint hints of buttery toast. On the tongue, sweet almond and fresh corn appear.
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Posted on 2025.06.14 in Nuits-Saint-Georges, France, Burgundy, Wine-Aid Packages | Read more...
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