Wine-searcher’s Wine Director, David Allen MW, tastes a Classic Vouvray from leading producer Bernard Fouquet. The wine is the 2021 vintage of the Fouquet’s Cuvee Silex, it is slightly off dry and for some reason is not labelled as being from the Domaine des Aubuisieres (which it normally is) – david reviews the 2021 vintage and speculates as to why this is not branded as from the Domaine.
Vouvray is the flagship wine of the Chenin Blanc grape variety (or Pineau de la Loire as it is sometimes known there), followed ever-closer by Savennieres and the sweet white wines of the Anjou region.
Bernard Fouquet took over this estate in 1978, initially with just 6 hectares of vines. In 2021 he relinquished control of the domaine, which he had built to 33 hectares in size. The estate’s vineyards are predominantly clay/limestone soils, but about 25% comprise Siliceous clay soils.
Fouquet has always produced the wines from his estate, either as single-vineyard bottlings or by terroir, thus the Silex bottling is such a Cuvee. The Estate’s top vineyards are Le Petit Clos, Le Marigny. A demi Sec Vouvray is bottled as Les Girardieres. The late harvest Cuvee Saint Jean and a luscious Cuvee Alexandre are produced in vintages where conditions are favourable for botrytis.
In 1996 Bernard Fouquet formed a negociant business, producing wines from grower’s fruit. In 2021 he handed over control of the domaine to Charles Lesaffre.
Discover more about this wine and where to buy it on wine-searcher.com: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/bernard+fouquet+dom+de+aubuis+cuvee+silex+vouvray+touraine+loire+france/2021
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Hello today I’m taking a look at a wine from the lir valley this is a v it’s from a producer called Bernard fuk and it’s C deelex 2021 now Bernard fuk runs the domain or ran the domain deer however this isn’t actually labeled as domain deer and
Normally KU selx is a wine produced under that label so we’ll we’ll come to that anyway on the label this is described as being se but the descriptive notes I’ve got describe this a SE Tundra I I.E slightly off dry I believe domain deuser is a 33 hectare
Property and they have two soil types throughout the Vineyards that they have there 75% of which are a limestone and clay soil type and they’re mostly on the hillsides overlooking the lir river the balances is a salacious clay which is generally found on the edges of the
Plateau and this celex flinty element of the soil is is quite good in terms of retaining heat throughout the day and passing that back to the plant so particularly in cool vintages it can it can be a benefit to ripnick so it gives a particular style to the wines now the
Vason was created in 1936 at which stage what became domain de brusier was shatow de girardier and the clo de pinat and these were run by somebody called Gerard bruly d ends now in 1978 the domain was taken over by Bernard fuk at that stage it was six
Hectares inside so Bernard devoted his life to Growing the the estate and acquiring additional high quality Vineyards in the area now in 1996 Bernard founded Bernard fuk trading and that was to produce wines under a sort of negoti label so what what he will do is purchase fruit or juice from Growers
And either vinify it with the team at demain de broer or at the grower own facilities but with the fermentation and the the Aging being monitored by Bernard’s team of enologists now this one is 100% shannan Blanc Peno DEA as it can be referred to locally in V I
Believe KU celex is referencing the fact that it comes entirely from these salacious clay soils now the 2021 vintage might actually actually explain why this might not have been produced under the demain de buer label because actually it’s quite a challenging year for Vine it was quite an early start to
The growing season but then the windes were hit by Frost which did quite a lot of damage and reduced yields subsequently in some parts of thean not so much in but um there were some hail storms particularly pul fum suffered really badly there was humidity in the
Early summer then August when the grapes needed to ripen it was quite cool so vintage was late and vintage lasted a long time yields for 2021 were only somewhere in the region of 40 Hector lers per hectare whereas the previous vintage had been something like 52 hect
Per hectare so what I’m thinking has probably happened here is that maybe there wasn’t enough fruit available from demain de buers and maybe this has become for the 2021 vintage a negoti on line there’s nothing particularly in their their own literature that that expands on that but that would seem to
Make sense it’s also to also to be noted that 2021 was the year in which Bernard fuk passed over his business to Charles laaf and Charles actually was the grandson of jerard brui dearen who Bernard had acquired the property from in the first place and he’s somebody who
Has had a background in wine distribution so it appears that the the estate is in good hands as far as the wines are concerned the fruit was was machine harvested this is done to ensure freshness and that the fruit is all picked quickly and you have to be quite careful
With a machine Harvester with Shena because it’s quite a big grape and it can be damaged quite easily so so you like I say you need to be careful vilification went on in stainless steel tanks and although the domain does use Oak for some aging the CU celx ages
Simply in stainless steel there’s no note about Le aging and I would assume being a v that malolactic conversion was blocked I think we’ll we’ll probably see that in the tasting so that would keep the acidity good and fresh but it would also prevent other flavors from masking
The aromatics of the shanon Blanc so let’s have a look at the wine shall we looking at it it has a medium to pale yellow color swirling it has 12.31% alcohol it just says 12 on the label the notes tell me that’s. 31 it is cleaning to the glass but it’s not
Actually forming tear all as it as it slides back down the sides there or maybe just but yes so not particularly viscous wine anyway and the Aromas let’s see what we make of those shall we the Aromas are fresh and they’re quite typically those of of shenan
Blanca there’s an almost sort of grap fruity lemon pith lifted almost to sharpness there are waxy notes there quite a pungency and there may just be hints of sort of minerally hints from fermentation Aras you just a touch of sort of gunpowder or Wet Stone but really that’s
Being overl sort of grapefruity maybe slightly pear notes there’s a little bit of ripeness in there but yes a complex aroma so let’s see what we make of the palette show we on the palette that certainly has a crisp tart acidic bite so I’m I’m absolutely certain there’s no Mal actic conversion
Has gone on in there there’s none of the real sort of creaminess showing extended aging with leaves there is quite a lovely smooth note on the Panet so there might have been minor time spent with fine leaves but it’s not sort of dairy or creamy or yogurty notes coming
Through there the fruit that you are seeing is is in line with the Aromas there’s a said of a gra fruitiness there is almost sort of a a sharp green gbury note and then’s there’s a waxiness there’s that very slight mineral whether that’s a toastiness or whether that’s a
Wet stone gunpowder note and the Finish has this sort of rounded waxy texture and the quite pungent green gbury type crispness coming through there there nice length of flavor the wine would probably age for you four or five years quite happily has good acidity it’s not particularly honey there aren’t necessarily No Rotten
Fruits in there or anything like that so it’s lovely and clean it’s fresh it’s really quite pungent acidity makes it very refreshing to drink and gives good length it’s at Best of midweight You know there is a roundness but the it’s not got a huge alcoholic mid pallette
That’s actually a sort of a quite elegant concentrated greenish fruit coming through there so thank you very much for watching I hope you found this of interest if you’ve enjoyed the tasting do please press the like button if you have any comments any feedback on the tasting on the wines do please leave
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