2009 Bourgueil, Cuvée Prestige, Domaine Lamé Delisle Boucard, Loire
About this WINE
Domaine Lamé Delisle Boucard
Created by Pierre Guyot in 1869, Domaine Lamé Delisle Boucard was passed to his son-in-law Jules Lamé, who took advantage of the phylloxera crisis to plant grafted vines early in the region. Over time, he expanded the vineyards. After World War II, Jules' son Lucien and his wife Yvonne bottled their 1947 vintage under their own label instead of selling to négociants.
The domaine produces both brasserie-style wine – the Cuvée Déchainée – and its more prestigious Cuvée Prestige, made from the oldest vines on mid-slope parcels. These wines are vinified in large vats and aged in old oak foudres, with the best vintages ageing gracefully for decades.
Philippe Boucard now runs the estate with his family. A lover of politics and sports, Philippe enjoys sharing old bottles in the domaine’s tuffeau cellars. Under his leadership, the estate converted its 46 hectares to organic viticulture, receiving certification with the 2021 vintage.
Bourgueil
Bourgueil is a qualitatively-important, dry red wine appellation in Touraine, if quantitatively small (1,500 hectares).
Located west of Tours, its vineyards are planted with Cabernet Franc on calcareous clay and sandy soils gently inclined south, towards the River Loire. The wines are medium to full-bodied and fleshy, possessing rich, perfumed raspberry and forest-fruit characters, underpinned by a fine structure with the potential for up to 20 years ageing. Wines are vinified for up to 18 months in French oak barrels.
Recommended producers: Domaine de la Butte (Jacky Blot), Domaine de la Chevalerie
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is widely planted in Bordeaux and is the most important black grape grown in the Loire. In the Médoc, it may constitute up to 15% of a typical vineyard – it is always blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and is used to add bouquet and complexity to the wines. It is more widely used in St Émilion, where it adapts well to the cooler and moister clay soils.
Cabernet Franc thrives in the Loire, where the cooler growing conditions serve to accentuate the grape’s herbaceous, grassy, lead pencil aromas. The best wines come from the tuffeaux limestone slopes of Chinon and Bourgueil.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
A visit here is a treat: tastings of old vintages in the atmospheric cellars, cut deep into the tuffeau limestone, can last for hours. This domaine prides itself on making wines for the long haul, only releasing them when they are ready. This is their most age-worthy cuvée; I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy examples dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. The fruit is from the oldest and most steeply sloping hillside vineyards, yielding a wine with a mineral backbone and outstanding ageing potential. The winemaking is unashamedly traditional: three-week fermentation in open-top oak vats, with regular punching down to extract colour and structure; before ageing for a year or so in huge and ancient circular foudres. The bottles then slept for several years underground before release. This was a warm vintage – a great one for Loire Cabernet Franc – and this wine is beginning to drink well now. Mineral and saline, there is plenty of energetic red and black fruit, classic pencil-lead notes and the first hints of maturity – leather, sous-bois and tobacco. Note that due to being unfiltered, this wine may throw a sediment; decanting is therefore recommended.
Adam Bruntlett, Wine Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd (Jul 2021)
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