La fine équipe
Les Montils, Loire valley
You have on this picture quite a nice bunch of winemakers and if all your cellar stock was sourced among these guys you would be sure to have suddenly many new friends dropping home for a glass...
Pierre Breton, Jean Foillard, Bruno Duchêne, Hervé Villemade and René Mosse were finishing their casual lunch when I visited the winery tasting with a Japanese friend who lives in Paris. Fifi of
Ten Bells (the New-York wine bar), whom I didn't recognize immediately, was also among them (the bald guy on the right), enjoying as he told me later a week-end in the Loire. I was not sure he was serious, somehow going from New York to Les Montils for a weekend seemed to me like going on the other side of the world for a weekend...
So, this is another open doors in a winery, but this time, this free tasting was organized by two wineries : the
Puzelat brothers (plus Thierry's associate Bonhomme) where the event took place, and
Hervé Villemade whose wine farm is a few kilometers away. It used to be that the two wineries had their yearly
portes ouvertes (open doors) separately, each inviting 5 or 6 same-minded artisan vignerons. But they thought it made more sense to do it together (the two wineries are so closed from each other), not only to share the costs, but it would be more fun, and each bringing his guest vignerons, there would be more opportunities for exchange (I mean, exchanges like the ones above, there's no better way to learn from your fellow vignerons...). Hervé Villemade whose open doors were set in december, will now in return invite Puzelat/Bohnomme and their guests, and you'll have another opportunity to drive to this nice corner of Sologne.
The improvised tasting room
This first weekend of june was warm, and the chai temperature was indeed more fit for a tasting. As I walked inside, I spotted Jean-Marie and Thierry Puzelat who were taking care of the visitors. Like the previous
portes ouvertes at Les Vins Contés, you could taste the wines of each participating vigneron and buy wine as well, each having brought cases for the potential customers. There were two tasting rooms, this one in the Clos du Tue Boeuf facility, and another one on the other side of the street, in the Négoce building.
The participating vignerons were : Pierre Breton, Christian Chaussard (didn't see him though), Bruno Duchêne, Jean Foillard, Jean-Sébastien Gioan, René Mosse, Jean-François Nicq, Pascal Potaire & associate Moses Gadouche, Nicolas Vauthier and Hervé Villemade, Thierry & Jean-Marie Puzelat and Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme.
Jean-Marie Puzelat pouring
Don't expect many notes or appreciations, as I didn't taste everything and/or didn't always take out my note book, breathing the whole atmosphere and enjoying the experience without having to report everything was the mood of the day. The pours as usual in this type of winery tastings
were very generous, and there was a very-tempting buffet on a table on the side with lots of great terrines, saucissons and marinated
vegetables, so you could swallow more wine with these treats. We of course tasted the selected wines of Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat, there were a few white and reds and also this great rosé, the exciting color of which you can see near the bottom of
this page. This is a Pinot Gris vinified like a red, and I'm not sure if they still have lots of it to sell.
I think we began with the wines of Hervé Villemade. He wasn't at his stand (still outside with his buddies), and we helped ourselves. I'm always inspired by his wines, his sulfur-free whites are vibrant and alive, simply delicious. After tasting a couple of wines from Clos du Tue-Boeuf, we had a few glasses of Les Foulards Rouges (Jean-François Nicq) and from
Yoyo, a
vigneronne also named Laurence Manya Krief, with whom JF Nicq is working but who has also her own small wine farm (1,5 hectare) in Banyuls. We first tasted La Negra, a table wine 2011 made from Carignan old vines (60 years) at Les Foulards Rouges (from vineyards co-owned with Yoyo). Then we tasted Yoyo's KM 31, a Vin de France (table wine) 2011 made from 100-year-old Grenache/Carignan with yields of 7 hectoliters/hecare. No added SO2 at all. The nose is impressive and inspiring, and when I looked at the color and its visual texture, I knew that this wine was going to be great. The turbid wine has a fresh, fruity mouth and gets down easily. Costs 16 € for a 75 cl bottle (we were poured from a magnum).
The 2nd tasting room
After tasting a few more wines in the first tasting vatroom, so to say, we crossed the street and walked into the warehouse-looking négoce facility of Puzelat/Bonhomme. Here again it was crowded with a seemingly-joyous crowd who appreciated the real wines of the day. We walked to the cask/table of Bruno Duchêne who was also probably still enjoying the company of his fellow vintners outside. We helped ourselves with the two bottles standing quietly on the cask : La Luna and La Pascole, I think they were from 2011 but not sure for La Pascole (could have been 2010). See
this page listing his cuvées.
Bruno Duchêne is also based in Banyuls, a region known for its windy climate and its terraced vineyards on diffucult terrain, some terraces holding only 3 vines if I remember. I didn't take any notes but these two red wines were outstanding. Not cheap but certainly worth every Euro.
Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme pouring
I tasted several wines from the Puzelat/Bonhomme négoce, which are made with grapes purchased in the region. I liked particularly the Cheverny 2010 white, a deliciously saline wine made from grapes purchased to Michel Quenious, a neighbor. Vineyard on sandy soils. 8 grams of residual sugar. The fermentation was long and uneasy, may have to do with the fact that these sandy soils lack nitrogen. Costs 7,5 € only at the estate, very good value indeed.
Jean-Sébastien Gioan pouring his wines
I also tasted the wines of Potron Minet, a wine farm managed by Jean-Sébastien Gioan. He makes wine in
Fourques on the Côtes Catalanes east of Montpellier. I had been a while since the last time I had tasted his wines.
__ Paris Trouillas rouge (red) vin de France (table wine) 2011. Carignan (70 %) Grenache Gris (20 %) and Syrah (10 %. 13 °. Carbonic maceration without punching of the cap. 8 €.
__ Potron Minet La Berlue 2010. Côtes du Roussillon. 100 % Grenache.
__¨Potron Minet Paris Trouillas blanc (white) , Vin de France 2011. Muscadelle & Grenache Blanc. Nice fresh mouth, with very ripe aromas. Like that. Costs 8 €.
__ Potron Minet Paris Trouillas rosé, Vin de France 2011. 80 % Carignan (direct press) and 20 % Grenache. Onion-peel color (pale). Nice wine. Costs 8 €.
Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme
There was also a table/cask devoted to the small import venture managed by Thierry Puzelat & Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme : they're importing and distributing
a few artisan, naturally-made wines from Europe and even Chile. I didn't taste all but had a pour of a
Georgian wine,
Pheasant's Tears Kakheti 2009, made from Rkatsiteli, a regional grape variety. Maceration in partly-buried amphorae like it's been done traditionally there for centuries (for thousands of years actually). Costs 12 €. The mouth seems to me pretty dry but it's very aromatic. Not convinced by this wine, I'll have to try again. Tasted then one of
their Italian wines, a Sicila wine from Ariana Occhipinti : SP68 2011, made from Neru D'Avola & Frappato. This is the base cuvée. The wine is alive, the mouth not very long. Costs 12 €. Then I tasted one of
their Spanish wines : Laureano Serres Montagut Roig Jose Maria 2011 (picture below), the name of the estate is
Mendall. That's simply great ! Intense nose with complex aromas, spices. Very refined tannins in the mouth. Just superb with such a balance. The label says "no added sulfites". I Forgot to ask the price, but I saw it was priced at 15,5 € on a merchant's webpage. This "no added sulfites" is good to notice : many of these natural wines have an issue with sulfites as a lab analysis can detect tiny amounts of sulfites in a wine even if the winemaker didn't add any. that's because as you may know, the fermentation process does yield a bit of sulfites in the way. By printing this notice on labels, the winemaker put the facts straight : no sulfites were added during the winemaking, be it at the incoming of the grapes, the winemaking or at bottling.
Lastly, I tasted a Chilean wine from
Louis-Antoine Luyt, Cauquenes 2010, a red made from Carignan (picture on right). 13,7 ° in alcohol. Region located north of Santiago. The label says "pure grape juice * nature * unfiltered * 8,5 Richter", as the area went through an earthquake of this scale a few months ago. The wine is powerful and maybe a bit burning in the mouth. I heard about the man who is said to make very nice wine in Chile. This was a quick tour made at the end of our visit and I'll have to taste these wines more thoroughly.
Laureano Serres Montagut Roig Jose Maria 2011
Hi Bertrand, I read regularly and this site is one of my favorites.
A small detail Cauquenes is south of Santiago http://goo.gl/maps/mYbp. Would be great if you could meet other bottles as "Pais de Quenehuao", "Huasa de Coronel", "Pais de Trequilemu" or the Pinot Noir. Regards from Santiago, Chile.
Posted by: Ricardo Ch. | June 11, 2012 at 11:45 PM
Thank you Ricardo for the correction. And you're right, I have to taste more of these Chile wines, I hope I have another opportunity. Now I'll be looking when they come my way
Bert
Posted by: Bertrand | June 12, 2012 at 09:15 AM