Thierry & Jean-Marie Puzelat (Loire)

Thierry and Jean-Marie PuzelatLes Montils, Loire Valley
Two things strike me with the Puzelat brothers' wines : the diversity of their cuvées, and the tenacious work with nearly-extinct grape varieties that were common in the Loire not so long ago, but were put aside by the Appellation entities for reasons having more to do with commercial simplification than quality and terroir. Oh, and I forgot the third and main reason : these wines are good and offer each a different facet of these Loire/Cheverny or Touraine region. B. and I tasted the Puzelat wines at the last Caves Augé tasting in Paris, and I can't remember of a single wine that was not enjoyable.
At about the time he began to work with his brother Jean-Marie on the family estate in 1994, Thierry Puzelat had the opportunity to meet (and taste the wines of) François Dutheil (Chateau Sainte-Anne, Bandol) and Marcel Lapierre and these beautiful wines vinified without any gimmick or additives convinced him immediately. But to be able to vinify this way, the vineyard and soils had to be well tended and free of conventional chemical products in the first place. That's where he and his brother were lucky : his father had always worked his "Clos du Tue Boeuf" with a very limited range of products. The soils were alive and he also had never machine-harvested his grapes or used industrial yeasts. He was also among the first around here to bottle his wines and not sell them in bulk to Coops or mass-bottlers. Thierry says that his brothers and sisters and himself (they were 7 children) were raised in this strong family bond, with every year plenty of people coming to help pick the grapes for the harvest. They were used since then to these happy evening dinners and the joyous crowd of pickers.
Another chance is that they're basically alone to have vineyards in the area of Clos du Tue Boeuf : the real estate prices is very low around here and when given the opportunity, they have bought additional woods or fallow lands to preserve the untouched ecosystem of this area and to have altogether woods, vineyards, bushes and fallow fields with high grass and wild weeds. This is utmost important to prevent the coming of pests (they love intensive mono-cropping agriculture).

Thierry Puzelat in the Clos du Tue Boeuf VineyardsWhen you drive the short distance from les Montils to the Clos du Tue Boeuf and after you passed the last of the newly-built houses that have eaten on the waste lands and fields, you arrive in a wooded area with many patches of vineyards on the left and right : this is the Clos du Tue Boeuf, the family property. It looks like being on a plateau, with a slope on one side going down to the Beuvron, a secondary river which rejoins the mighty Loire near here. On these Clos-du-Tue-Boeuf vineyards (they also have rented and contracted vineyards elsewhere), they have basically the Cheverny varieties : Chardonnay and Sauvignon for whites and Gamay and Pinot Noir for reds, plus some Pinot Gris which was in the VDQS Cheverny (the pre-AOC Appellation here) but was outlawed because they were only 2 vignerons in the Cheverny area to still grow some. The other grower uprooted it since, but the Puzelats kept these Pinot-Gris rows which had been planted by their father in the 1960s'. They make Table Wine with it.
An interesting story about Thierry's father is that he had always taken care of these minor Loire varieties like Pineau d'Aunis, Menu Pineau, Grosleau, that had always been grown in the region. These varieties, like Meslier and Romorantin, had always been grown in this region. Menu Pineau, which is also named Arbois, is a local Loire variety and has no relation with the Arbois Appellation in Jura (Arbois whites are made with Chardonnay & Savagnin). It is a variety close to Chenin Blanc (which is also called "Gros Pineau", gros meaning big in French, while Menu means small) and like Chenin Blanc, it is a late-maturity variety. If you consider the region beyond the Cheverny area, with Sologne and Touraine, there are maybe 10 vignerons who still grow Menu Pineau, people like Michel Quenioux, Claude Courtois, Pascal Potaire, Christophe Foucher, Christian Venier... Thierry says that it is a very interesting variety, not very aromatic bur with a sense of place, of terroir. Like Romorantin and Chenin, it has a late maturity, making tight wines in small millesimes, but with a long laying-down potential.
At Clos du Tue Boeuf, when a vine would die they would replant it the massal way, using the "marcotage" system like Thierry shows me on the pic on the right : marcotage means you let a shoot of the next vine grow during a couple of years and you put its end in the ground when it reaches the location where the died vine was. The shoot resurfaces but it will also make roots in the ground. When this new vine is strong enough, its link to the other vine is cut and you end up with a new vine. This was the traditionnal way to replace dead vines in the past, it did not cost anything and today it's a way to avoid the clones. You must know that when the Cheverny Appellation was created in 1993 and added to the Loire wines, the people in charge of the rules thought wiser to outlaw these minor varietals for an "easier visibility of the wines of the area". There had to be Sauvignon only for the whites ("otherwise the consumer could have been unsettled"...) . The people who made this choice were not only the AOC people at the national level, but the local vignerons who were mostly unaware of this precious, even if tiny, heritage. Makes me think to the seeds companies who along with the French Administration (and EC lawmakers) want to eradicate ancient vegetable species and allow only a limited list of species (see this page about the punitive fines inflicted recently by the French judges to a non-profit French group named Kokopeli selling ancient-varieties seeds in France). Whatever, while many vignerons decided to uproot these varieties that they considered now as useless, the Puzelat kept making wines with them because these wines had a definite identity and taste and because their customers had always been there to buy them (even before they took the natural-wine way). The only difference is that they were now labelled as table wine (Vin de Table) instead of Cheverny.
At one point, as we walk along a particular plot, I ask which variety it is planted with, and he says with a smile that he can't answer me here...We'll not elaborate...Tight Cask RoomThe situation is similar for the Chardonnay, they can't make bottlings with 100% of it, they must blend it with the Sauvignon under the Cheverny AOC label. The fact is that Chard can be traced in the region very far in the past under the name of Auvergnat Blanc (some sort of local Chardonnay variety in the Loire), the Auvergnat-Rouge variety being the Pinot Noir. the Burgundy varieties are planted in this continental part of the Loire since the Middle Age. The Chardonnay vines on Clos du Tue Boeuf are massal selections from Burgundy and were planted in the 1970s'. The cuvées : lots of them. They vinify in batches, some thing like 12 cuvées just for Clos du Tue Boeuf, plus about...15 cuvées of wines made with the purchased grapes under the Negoce label (this is Thierry's personnal business), which makes about 27 different wines, each worth a separate cuvée. About Thierry's Negoce business, Negoce isn't the right word I think, because if Thierry Puzelat does buy the grapes from other growers, he vinifies them himself. And the growers manage the vineyards with the same organic rigor. By law, they are obliged to vinify the purchased grapes in a different winery, so he bought a separate building 50 meters away from their home and Clos du Tue Boeuf winery. This contracted-vineyards thing makes me think to Philippe Pacalet who makes wine in Burgundy without owning any vineyard at all. Some growers find more rewarding (ethically and financially) to sell their grapes to someone who is going to make the best of them. Some of the tiny batches that they make are as small as 4 or 5 casks a year, like the Pinot Gris of Clos du Tue Boeuf. Jean-Marie Puzelat adds that they didn't multiply the cuvées for the fun of it, but because each has a different expression that they think desserved a separate elevage and bottling, like for example the base Sauvignon and the Buisson Pouilleux (Sauvignon also) which have a very different expression due to vines respectively aged 30 and 60 years, the last one being more refined. It has also to do with the difference in the earth thickness, one of the plot having a very thin soil with the chalk immediately beneath it. This is all a question of nuances but you can't miss it in the taste. Many of these small cuvées are labelled as Table Wine because either they were too different from the "norm" or because of the minor varieties which are not allowed in the Appellation. It doesn't make a difference for the amateur who still purchases these unique wines, and the pleasure is just the same, for the local customer or for a renowned wine critic like Jancis Robinson.
Back to the vineyard management : the first plow (decavaillonage) of the year is made in march. The earth is very clayish here and the vineyard can be impracticable for the tractor after he rain. On the other hand, it dries very fast and the window of opportunity is narrow between mud and stone-hard earth. After the decavaillonage, they come now and then to cut the grass, but they don't see the grass and weeds as a menace.Checking the Wine's SongThe vinification : not much to say, according to Thierry Puzelat. Everything is simple and lies in the grapes if the vines have been correctly tended, without chemical products. He says that his philosophy for the vinification is to leave the potential of these grapes unscathed. It means minimum intervention, no external yeasts of course, and no sulphur during the vinification. Thierry explains the vinification as we visit the purchased-grapes' winery, but he works just the same with the Clos-du-Tue-Boeuf grapes.
For the whites : pressing, decanting of the juice and filling into the casks and it will stay there on its lees until the bottling without racking.
For the reds : Whole clusters into open, tronconic wooden-vats with CO2 over it with punching of the cap after a week when the grapes begin to be altered, then into the casks after pressing with the same elevage conditions, the wine feeding quietly off its lees. In addition to the 40-hectoliter tronconic vats, he also uses what he calls the "yogurt pots" (pot de yayourt) which 30-hectoliter fiber-glass vats. He also has smaller volumes with a few old steel vats. The vat room is temperature-controlled at about 14° C, and it helps to have a vinification temp of 17-18° C. No coils in the vats, he says it is not necessary, but an important step is that the red grapes are cooled in refrigerated trucks before arriving at the winery. They stay a night in the truck at about 5° C, cooling down and it helps also shake the bacterias, sort of. We spot a cask of Pinot Noir with DRC written on it : Asked about what it means, he answers that it is a special orderd from one of his Japanese buyers : Pinot Noir raised in a Romanée-Conti cask. Thierry happens to buy regularly used casks from the Romanée Conti in Burgundy, and when the Japanese customer visited here, he chose the wine AND the cask... Japan as a whole btw buys a very large part of Puzelat wines and the distance and refrigerated freight costs doesn't shy them away.Clos du Tue Boeuf : the VatRoom Still speaking about the purchased grapes, Thierry says that 90 % of the wines are vinified in casks, plus 2 which are vinified in vats, a base Sauvignon and a "Pet'Nat'" (a natural sparkling that he makes since 1999) which is bottled early but begins its fermentation in the vats. With the Negoce wines, he tries to work with grape varieties that have another expression than those of the Clos du Tue Boeuf : on the Touraine and Cheverny he tries to have diffrent terroirs and soils, or he uses grape varieties that they don't have on Clos du Tue Boeuf, like he makes wine with the Pineau d'Aunis variety (red) in Touraine and also with Romorantin variety (white). He has also two cuvées of 100% Côt, and also a cuvée of Grolleau (also named Groslot) from the Cher valley (Touraine) named Pouillé. It's a 70-year-old vineyard (a few rows) with 60% Grolleau and 40% Gamay which are vinified together. He makes cuvées with more distant Appellations, also with purchased grapes : some Vouvray (4-5 casks), some Montlouis (3-4 casks), and some Pouilly-Fumé (3 casks) since this year, but in a very small volume. He vinifies the Pouilly-Fumé with his own casks at the growers' estate and when it gets the Appellation Agreement, he can bring his casks back here. One of the wines which took my attention at a recent tasting was a wine made out of tiny individual vineyard plots south of Orléans. As you may know, there are still many farmers and old people who still have a few rows of vines, you see these individual plots intended for home consumption like this one on the left (in the Loire) all over France but particularly in the Loire. The problem is that many people stop working on their family vineyard-plots, abandon them, or worse, uproot them to grow something else, or like near Orléans sell them for construction (Orléans is growing fast and with it, the suburban sprawl). Furthermore, many of these plots are made of interesting minor varieties. The region near Orléans and the Loire river was where the basic "blanc de comptoir" (basic white wine for daily consumption at the bar counter) that the populace would drink at the bar counters of Paris a century ago. The proximity of the Loire helped have it transported quickly to Paris via the Briare canal. Much of this wine boarded in barges near Orléans, in Saint-Dié-sur-Loire. Whatever, Thierry Puzelat found a non-profit group which takes care of many of these rows of vines spread all over the region and which risk being uprooted. This non-profit group takes care of the vineyard management with a permanent employee, and it is a lot of work because the 7-hectare total is spread in countless tiny plots. The group, which rents all these vineyards, farms them with the Biodynamic method. The goal of the group is to protect this terroir heritage. Their goal was to sell the grapes to the local Coop but as the resulting wine was not very satisfying, they sold him some of the grapes with which he made this wine. This resulted in 2 casks of "Le Rouge est mis" 2007, a red Pinot Meunier wine. A peppery, fruity wine which gives pleasure at every sip, typically what I call a "living wine"..Thierry Puzelat Leaving the Winery with a Couple of BottlesWhen arrived at 10am at the Clos du Tue Boeuf, Thierry Puzelat was awaking after a short night : He had played belotte (cards) with 3 friends, incuding Noella, another great vintner and Bill Brasile, an American from Brooklyn. They finished a 6am or something like that, and Bill had been learning this iconic French card-game with a good company. Bill works since recently as a cook at Thierry's wife restaurant, "L'Herbe Rouge" in Valaire a couple of kilometers away, this a former country inn isolated in the woods near an old bridge (see map) and Thierry's wife manages the place since a few years and serves good, healthy food along with a very nice selection of wines. It is a favorite restaurant for some of the best natural-wine vintners of the region and if you hang out there you might come across a few of them. The pic above was shot as we were leaving the winery for the restaurant, Thierry had grabbed two bottles and Jean-Marie two more and it was a good omen for the furthering of our wine tasting.... Speaking of l'Herbe Rouge, this is a nice place to eat, which retains this feel of the country inns where people stopped to rest the horses or change the horseshoes (there was a horseshoe worshop in this particular inn, on the side, long time ago). It is surrounded by woods and quietness. We sat down at the terrace and spoke with the company, including with Bill, the American expat-and-cook (he's the guy in white on the picture on the right) . He worked previously as a cook at ICi, a Brooklyn restaurant owned by a Frenchman, Laurent Saillard. As we were eating, enjoying the shade on the terrace, the food, Puzelat's wines and the company, I wondered, why stay in Paris, this is the real life, here....The Puzelats' two daughters were there too, they're still young but they already learn : Zoé for example made frienship with Joe (Dressner) when they all went to New York earlier this year for one of Joe Dressner's tastings, and she was good at pouring the wines at the Puzelat stand...The Puzelats - Thierry holding a bottle of Le Rouge est Mis (Table Wine- Orléans - Pinot Meunier)

A newly discovered wine is for me akin to a newly discovered song, and my discovery of this micro-cuvée of Pinot Meunier at the Caves-Augé tasting bears some similarity with what I feel when I listen to "Let's you and me go away to the Ice Hotel" by Stacey Kent, there's a magic in the lyrics and in the music I want to enjoy again, because it comes from a unique voice with a real story behind it. This small-batch wine was like a tune that you keep on a side of your mind because it is beautiful and was shared in good company...
I'll begin with the wines that we tasted at the Caves Augé tasting last june, a great tasting as usual.
__ Brin de Chèvre 2006. Menu Pineau. White variety close from Chenin. What a nose ! Spices, maybe balsamic notes.
__ Frileuse, Table Wine (2006 Sauvignon Rose, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Nice richness in the mouth. Really nice feel, a pleasure on the palate.
__ Le Petit Buisson 2006. Sauvignon base wine. This is a Touraine Appellation wine when it gets the agreement. Residual sugar. A good thing thierry says because the 2006 wines are high in alcohol.
The reds now :
__ Cheverny La Gravotte 2007. Mostly Pinot Noir. Just bottled (10 days ago - at the time of the tasting). Nose : what a nose (again) ! Beautiful balance and pleasure.
__ Touraine Pinot Noir 2007. Purchased grapes. No additional notes, I was busy chatting...
__ Le Rouge Est Mis, Vin de Pays de l'Orléanais. Menu Pinot micro-cuvée. Nose : peppery. Nice vivid color. Something particular comes out of this wine, or is it the magic of the previous wines that I just tasted ? I drink and I don't spit, I know I should'nt... This is the wine made out these collection of isolated rows belonging to farmers or old people in the vicinity of Orléans.
__ La Tésnière Touraine 2007. Pineau d'Aunis. 60 ares of surface only (0,6 hectare). Purchased grapes (he's been buying them since 1999)-.Peppery nose. Good tannicity. Pineau d'Aunis is some sort of red version of Chenin, Thierry says, with an angular side as a plus.
__ La Gravotte, Table Wine (2006). Pinot Noir. Beautiful Pinot Noir... Begin to feel good...
I'll post here soon the notes about the wines that we tasted at the Clos du Tue Boeuf, and will add a few prices that I omitted to note.
Read the beautiful tasting report of Brooklynguy about the Puzelat wines.
Thierry Puzelat's wines, the ones he makes with his brother Jean-Marie along with his Negoce (purchased grapes) wines, are exported to several European countries (like to UK, to Caves de Pyrene in London - Thanks to Jamie for pointing it), the US (Dressner Selections) and Japan (Racines).
A few prices (tax included) at the estate:
Vin de Pays Clos du Tue Boeuf Chardonnay 2007 : 9,5 Euro.
Vin de Pays Clos du Tue Boeuf Pinot Gris 2007, 11,3 Euro.
Touraine Sauvignon 2007, 6,4 Euro.
Touraine "Brin de Chèvre", Menu Pineau (Vieilles Vignes) 2007, 7,6 Euro.
Touraine "le Buisson Pouilleux" 2007, 10% Sauvignon Vieilles Vignes, 9,7 Euro.
Cheverny white, Clos du Tue Boeuf "Frileuse" 2007, 7,6 Euro.
Cheverny red, Clos du Tue Boeuf 2007, 6,3 Euro.
Cheverny red, Clos du tue Boeuf "Rouillon" 2007, 7 Euro.
Cheverny red, Clos du Tue Boeuf, "la Caillère" 2007, 9,7 Euro.
Cheverny red, Clos du Tue Boeuf "la Gravotte" 2007, 9,7 Euro.
Touraine Gamay 2007, 6 euro.
Touraine red "la Guerrerie" 2007 (Cot-Gamay), 8,7 Euro.
Plus several other highly interesting Negoce cuvées that I'll ask the prices of.

Clos du Tue Boeuf6 route de SeurLes Montils, 41120phone : +332 54 44 05 06tue-boeuf(at)wanadoo.frthierry.puzelat(at)wanadoo.fr
pob41 [at] orange [dot] fr
www.puzelat.com

Comments

[BREL]

very intresting
Thank you

[Brooklynguy]

great post Bert, thank you. I love these wines and i learned a lot more about the people and the land behind the wines from reading this.

[Bertrand]

Thank you, Brooklynguy ! I thought about you while there, with Bill from Brooklyn, who came here to work and seemed to like his new life...

[Michael Messenie]

Hello! Great post. I'd really love to visit Tue Boeuf - I'll be out that way in Jan. I'd like to visit L'herbe Rouge as well and meet Bill. Ici is actually a client of mine, I sell them Hervé Villemade's wines amongst others and I too live in Brooklyn. Great stuff as usual....

[Brian]

I'll chime in with another "great post." I discovered the unique character of Puzelat thanks to the good folks at Terroir SF in San Francisco. I like peppery wines quite a lot!

[hikalu]

I've tasted a wine named "PN". I've got a feeling of something charming.

[Steve L.]

This is just the best post. I just read it for what I think must be the seventh time.

[Jamie Goode]

really good post - I love the puzelat wines - caves de pyrene carry them in the UK

[Online casinos]

Very good.

[clermont]

Gratulierung, felicitation, Very very good comment. Their wines are real wines.. It is the good direction... for our region. I stand behind their work? I m also trying to do the same... I am growing Arbois, Pinot gris, Pineau d'aunis(called chenin noir), and Grolleau Gris (it is different of standart grolleau). These winegrappe provide diversity... Thanks for your great blog...

[Martin]

Great post!