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All out for excellence
L'express Mag 09/2006
Kermit Lynch, one of the top Californian importers of French wines, has worked hard to introduce people to the Loire's red wines, especially the Bourgueil. To give you some idea, it's like 'a cross between a Beaujolais and a Bordeaux', due to the cabernet grape. And he adds, with equal reason: 'At first meeting, you either love it or hate it. '
But before finding out which camp you belong to, first you need a good Bourgueil in front of you. We might add that there are many differences between the Bourgueils from the old bed of the river Loire with its gravely, sandy soil that gives rise to supple wines, and those from the limestone slopes or clayey/flint soils, which produce fine vintages for keeping.
'People have forgotten that the Bourgueils are wines for keeping', despairs Pierre Caslot, one of the few winegrowers to sell old vintages. He can afford to. His cellar is one of the finest in the region. Like all the others, it's an old converted quarry, which was mined in the Middle Ages to extract the tender, yet compact limestone used to build the village houses. Yet it extends for over 1 hectare! The ideal place for storing wines: a constant 11°, high hygrometry and silence. It lies barely a few metres beneath the vines, whose roots sometimes penetrate the cavity, while above are thousands of bottles slowly maturing. Pierre Caslot's 1975 has an astonishing freshness, while his 1983 is still young. 'I think we can go even further', he claims triumphantly, delighted to have the support of his son, Emmanuel, and daughter, Stéphanie, on this vast 32-hectare estate: 'Emmanuel looks after the vines, and we're now going over to organic.' Pierre Caslot is part of a team of experts, which is continuing to break new ground, led by Yannick Amirault, Pierre Breton and Thomas Gambier of the Domaine des Ouches, and recently joined by Jacky Blot, the leading light of Montlouis, who has taken over the splendid Domaine de la Butte.
'The Bourgueil's famous reputation as having a 'peppery aroma' is due to the early harvesting, or the picking of the grapes in damp areas where they fail to ripen: the vegetal quality is quite atypical of any wine, whether from Bourgueil or anywhere else for that matter!', explains Yannick Amirault, who tells us a little bit about its development: 1983 saw an end to fertilisers, in 1997 outside yeast was not used any more, and in 2000, we stopped using weed killer, but concentrated on full ploughing. 'I've lost 10 hectolitres of yield per hectare, that's a drop of 55 to 44.' However, his wines are magnificent, never chaptalised and refined due to long maturing. Like those produced by Pierre and Catherine Breton, who have taken their scrupulous concern for purity to the point of creating a sulphur-free, sweet and fruity vintage, called Nuits d'ivresse ('Intoxicated nights'). They are still not used to the idea of a yield-based system, as practised by some winegrowers in the appellation. 'It doesn't seem right that wines from some of the slopes' finest terroirs should be bottled after only 6 months!' says Pierre Breton wistfully. He shudders with horror when he hears a winegrower has let go of one of the finest parcels in the appellation consisting of 80-year-old vines: 'I'll have to have them ripped up, they only produce 50 hectolitres a hectare..'
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