The Cellar: Loire & More Day 5

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Thursday, October 09, 2014

Steffen Rasch, GoLocalProv Wine Writer

Day #5 – Bourgueil

Early this morning I left Angers and headed east towards the city of Tours. On the way I stopped by Domaine de la Chanteleuserie located just outside of Bourgueil in the village of Benais where I had a 9 o’clock visit with proprietors Thierry and Christine Boucard. The Boucard family has been growing Cabernet Franc in this region since 1822. Today, they make 7 different wines based on this wonderful grape variety; a still Rosé and a sparkling Rosé, as well as 5 red wines ranging in style from light, fresh and lively to rich, powerful and tannic.

In all the Boucard’s own 55 acres of vineyards. 48 of them are located next to their home (and winery) in the Bourgueil appellation, while the remaining 7 acres are located a couple of miles away in another appellation called St. Nicolas de Bourgueil. The soils are very different in these two locations resulting in two very different wines. Their wine called ‘Irene’ is made in stainless steel tanks and from grapes grown in St. Nicolas de Bourgueil where the sub-soil is sandy.

This wine is much softer than their ‘Alouettes’ which is also made in steel, but from grapes grown next to their home in Bourgueil where the sub-soils are limestone. This wine is much more aromatic and has pronounced minerality to go along with the fruit.

As the morning went on Christine brought out older bottles from their cellar including the ’02 and ’03 bottling of their single vineyard wine called ‘Beauvais’. I was blown away, not only to taste the differences between the two vintages, but to experience how they both were holding up. The ’02 displayed delicious red fruits alongside secondary flavors of herbs and game with (still) noticeable tannins and live acidity, while the ’03, which was an extremely hot year, was much riper, rounder and soft – with very little structure left. Totally different wines – one still a teenager while the other seemed like an old man.

Thierry doesn’t use commercial yeast in his winemaking, so he has to wait until fermentation starts to occur naturally. The vat that Thierry son Alexis is inspecting is filled with crushed grapes that were harvested yesterday. It normally takes 2-3 days for fermentation to initiate on its own. Once fermentation is over and all the sugars are converted into alcohol (which usually takes 1 week) the juice is left to soak on the skins for an additional 3 weeks. This process (called maceration) is when all the color, flavors and tannins are extracted from the skins and imparted in the juice. All this happens in huge oak vats that are more than 100 years old.

Domaine de la Chanteleuserie’s also produces a concentrated ‘Vieilles Vignes’ bottling made from 40+ year old vines, as well as a Cabenet Franc named after Thierry and Christine’s daughter  Marion which is aged in new oak barrels  for at least 12 months – somewhat unusual for the region. The single vineyard ‘Beauvais’ is available in both MA and RI, next year so will their gorgeous Rosé.  Ask you wine merchant for them and stay tuned tomorrow as I will be exploring Vouvray and Cheverny.

Steffen Rasch is a Certified Sommelier and Specialist of Wine. Feel free to email him at [email protected] with any wine-related question or learn about wine in person by signing up for one of his tastings through the Providence Wine Academy.

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