Product Information:
The Bouchot Pouilly Fume MCMLV is all about roundness with citrus aromas. The mouth is complex, intense, delivering elegant power at the end. Half of the wine underwent skin contact for several days while the rest was pressed directly into old (8 to 10 years) 500L barrels.
Antoine Gouffier's dedication and respect for terroir is on full display in his Sauvignon Blancs from Pouilly-Fumé. His wines display a fruity, floral, and intense minerality. As a young vigneron at the helm of Domaine du Bouchot, his wines express a vibrant, elegant, balanced tension. Antoine is truly raising the bar in this appellation.
Maker:
In 2019, Antoine Gouffier purchased Domaine du Bouchot, from Rachel and Pascal Kerbiquet who had been running it as a family estate since 1987. As a Loire native himself, Antoine has a profound understanding and connection to the land, which lead him to farm the land organically. In 2009 Domaine du Bouchot was the first in the Pouilly-Fumé appellation to become certified organic, and fittingly Antoine was the one to finalised the biodynamic certification.
Bouchot holds 10-hectares, which is mainly planted to Sauvignon Blanc, with a few vines of Chasselas, on the southwest side of the hill from the village of Saint-Andelain. The wines reflect the unmistakable character of each of the vineyards: the Kimmeridgian marl soil is of white clay, limestone, and fossilised oysters from ancient seabeds, and the Portlandian terroir (limestone with layered, small rocks) lend a flinty, mineral quality to the wines - the differentiating characteristics lending to a unique purity and clarity. Domaine du Bouchots wines are excellent representations of a sometimes-overlooked appellation and are vibrant, elegant, and balanced.
Philosophy:
Antoine believes in minimal intervention in his winemaking, using indigenous yeast and stainless steel for fermentation. He is also experimenting with amphorae. The wines are vinified without sulfur. The Domaine produces three different Pouilly-Fumé: Cuvée Terres Blanches from the Kimmeridgian marl soils, Cuvée Les Caillotes from Portlandian soils, and Cuvée 1955 from the oldest vines on the estate.
All fruit is handpicked, 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.
Nose - Lavender, Lemon, Quince
Seems at first like a subtle expression of sauvignon, with initial aromas of lavender and light lemony citrus fruit.
Palate - Tropical Fruit, Gooseberry, Silky-Texture
On the palate you discover a deep-set, complex array of citrus and yellow fruit, together with a whole heap of terroir-driven nuance.
Finish - Roundness, Satisfying Grip, Taut
A sense of roundness and completeness with a sense of satisfying grip that clasps the palate. Long, mineral finish with some phenolic tightening.
Seems at first like a subtle expression of sauvignon, with initial aromas of lavender and light lemony citrus fruit. But on the palate you discover a deep-set, complex array of citrus and yellow fruit, together with a whole heap of terroir-driven nuances, from wet gray clay to sand and gravel. Full-bodied and super-silky with calm persistence. Long, mineral finish with some phenolic tightening. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Old vines. Drink or hold. - James Suckling, 95 points.
This wine shows lots of thiol-related flavors: tropical fruit, gooseberry as well as a hint of green. It is wine with lots of texture, a sense of roundness and completeness with a sense of satisfying grip that clasps the palate on the finish. There's lovely acidity, but it's nicely balanced. - Rebecca Gibb, Vinous, 93 points.
The Finer Details
Style - White Wine
Varietal - Sauvignon Blanc
Country - France
Region - Loire Valley
Vintage - 2021
Bottle Size - 750ml
ABV - 12.5%
