It is always a delight to taste the wines of the late Jacky Blot and today’s tasting is no exception. Today I taste a wine made from Cabernet Franc from the Bourgueil region in the Loire Valley. The wine from Jacky’s Domaine de la Butte is the Mi Pente cuvee, a wine from the vineyard’s mid slope. Despite coming from a vintage that posed some challenges to the region’s winemakers this wine from low yielding old vines is harmonious and elegant, beautifully balanced and with a lovely persistence. A really lovely wine.
The lateJacky Blot was a wine broker before deciding to become a winemaker. He settled in Montlouis in1989 with the aim to make classic, local styles of Chenin Blanc such as sparkling Montlouis Pétillant and late-harvest Montlouis Moelleux to rival the neighbouring appellation of Vouvray. Over the years, however, Blot altered his approach, adopting less interventionist winemaking, placing greater emphasis on dry white wines and developing a successful Pétillant Naturel, which he called Triple Zéro (zero chapitalization, zero dosage, zero liqueur de tirage).
Following the success of his Montlouis wines Blot acquired the 14-hectare Domaine de la Butte in Bourgueil in 2002. He produces a number of labels from the vineyard, generally broken down by their position on the hill (or “butte”, in French). For instance, “Mi-Pente” refers to the mid-slope while Le Haut de la Butte is from the upper hillside. All the wines are of course produced from Cabernet Franc.
All the estate’s vineyards are certified organic and are hand harvested. Most wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts and then bottled unfined and unfiltered. Aging is predominantly in oak with between a quarter and a third of new barrels depending on the cuvée concerned.
Jacky’s son, Jean-Philippe (known as “J-P”) had taken over the running of the estates prior to his father’s death in 2023.
To find out more about this wine, its price and where to purchase it go to wine-searcher.com: https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/jacky+blot+dom+de+la+butte+mio+pente+bourgueil+touraine+loire+france/2021
▶️ CHAPTERS:
0:00 Domaine de la Butte Mi Pente Bourgueil 2021 wine label
0:17 Jacky Blot background
1:18 Triple Zero sparkling wine
1:32 Domaine Taille aux Loups
1:44 Domaine de la Butte background
2:02 Mi Pente site
2:41 Vine age
2:56 Domaine handed over to Jean-Philippe
3:11 Winemaking
3:40 Ageing
3:54 TASTING – Appearance
4:26 Aromas
5:29 Palate
6:12 Maturity
6:44 Conclusions
6:48 Age worthiness
6:58 2021 vintage
7:16 Score
7:32 Thanks, closing remarks and sign-off
▶️ follow this link to my video from the Wine Voices Channel tasting Jacky Blot’s Domaine de la Butte Le Pied de la Butte Bourgueil 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Ybm9tlTjA&t=14s
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