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Domaine des Aubuisières Update, February 2010

There is no better way to get under the skin of a wine region and understand its wines than to visit the region in question. In fact, I think it is essential; to gain a truly deep understanding of the wines you have to connect with them outside of the glass in your hand. You need to meet the winemakers, see the vineyards, and walk amongst the vines. Yes, you can enjoy wine despite never having done any of this, but the pleasure derived from each glass will be greater if you have.

One additional benefit of meeting the vignerons is that they can direct you, even on occasion open doors for you. Yesterday's account of my discussion with Richard Leroy about who else was on the itinerary for my most recent set of Loire visits is not an unusual occurrence. Exactly the same thing happened when I met Eddy Oosterlinck recently at his home near Faye d'Anjou; as my visit drew to a close we ended up talking about other winemakers, and which of their wines we liked to drink, particularly in Vouvray and Montlouis. I told Eddy who I had visited there recently; Jacky Blot and François Chidaine in Montlouis, Vincent Carême and Domaine Huet in Vouvray. Eddy, however, was a vocal supporter of another Vouvrillon, one who I have not visited for some time; none other than Bernard Fouquet.

I wasn't in the least bit surprised to hear Fouquet's name spoken in this manner, nor to learn that Eddy is so enamoured with his wines. Bernard Fouquet has long been a stalwart of the Vouvray appellation; and yet he is less well known than either Huet or Foreau, perhaps less than Champalou also, a vigneron who somehow manages to remain under-the-radar despite sitting - in my opinion - on the very top tier of the appellation. And I would place him directly behind Huet and Foreau on that tier, in third place. And so might Eddy, I fancy, such is his regard for the wines.

It is now many years since I first visited Bernard Fouquet of Domaine des Aubuisières at his cave on the back streets of Vouvray, and a return to this domaine and its wines - and thus an overhaul of my profile - is long overdue. Indeed, with this in mind, some months before I had that conversation with Eddy in his vineyard I had met up with Bernard Fouquet in Angers to taste his latest releases, immediately after my meeting with Catherine Champalou. Nevertheless, Eddy's mention of his name was a timely reminder that I really should be publishing my notes.

Bernard Fouquet and 2009

The tasting focused on 2009, a vintage which seems to have engendered a rich, flavoursome, sweet-fruited style in Vouvray, although cut through with good acidity as required, and Fouquet's wines are no exception to this generalisation. The Cuvée de Silex, a dry wine sourced from three vineyards (Les Girardières, Les Perruches and Les Chairs Salées) which are rich in flint (in French, 'silex') showed a very convincing mineral-tinged and honeyed character. It was delicious and I felt it eclipsed - albeit only just - the slightly more smoky, slightly more minerally Le Marigny cuvée which comes from the lieu-dit of the same name, a clay-limestone terroir. In this vintage the Cuvée de Silex straddles the sec and sec-tendre categories, with its residual of 6 g/l giving it a fleshy although still rather dry feel, whereas the Marigny cuvée has half that figure, and comes across as just that little more taut for it I think. But they are both certainly dry, and I would love to have either or indeed both of these wines in the cellar.

Bernard has a demi-sec from the aforementioned Les Girardières in this vintage, just as admirable as the two sec cuvées, although not quite as impressive as the delicious Plan de Jean and Alexandre moelleux cuvées. The former is sourced from a vineyard rich in silex, whereas the Cuvée Alexandre is a blend of his two principle terroirs, limestone and flint, the only wine in the portfolio where this occurs (apart from his sparkling wine, not tasted here). Both are admirable wines, although the Plan de Jean does not quite match the exquisite heights reached by the Cuvée Alexandre. But then few wines do manage to combine the sweet richness of moelleux Chenin with such well defined minerality and acidity in the accomplished manner of Bernard Fouquet's 2009 Cuvée Alexandre.

Bernard Fouquet and Screwcaps

Unusually for any Loire tasting, the issue of screwcaps surfaced. I say unusual because the Loire has been very slow in adopting this alternative to cork, despite the fact that the style of many of the wines is perfectly suited to it. Domaine des Baumard is the only notable, big-name producer who has taken the plunge, and so Fouquet's use of screwcaps is certainly worthy of note. Fouquet hasn't so much plunged but merely dipped his toe in the water, but in this region even that level of commitment is impressive. He has been using screwcaps since the 2007 vintage, but only for his entry-level Cuvée de Silex. I was surprised to hear Fouquet describe to me his preference for synthetic closures over screwcaps, as he finds the evolution of the wine to be more to his liking - in fact he said "slower" - and his evidence for this comes from comparative tastings of Cuvée de Silex under both synthetic and screwcap closures.

To Fouquet, the 2007 bottled under synthetic is still tasting fine, whereas that under screwcap is quite "dead", in his own (although translated by me) words. I suppose if Fouquet has determined this by experimentation then we should take some notice, although I do wonder about the validity of the results only two years after the vintage. And my experience tells me that synthetic closures are not good for the long haul, whereas there are numerous reports of wines ageing well under screwcap. Nevertheless, such reports seem to have little relevance for Fouquet, who clearly prefers synthetics over Stelvins.

So why has Bernard opted to continue bottling his Cuvée de Silex under screwcap since 2007, rather than beneath synthetic cork, when he so obviously prefers the latter? Fouquet told me it is because his clients prefer screwcaps, and so being a well-grounded businessman he has given his clients what they wanted. Or at least that is the spin he puts on it; the more cynical reader might look back to the synthetically-closed 2005 Cuvée de Silex as a possible explanation. The wine didn't come up in our conversation, but it has been reported by some to have fallen apart in the bottle, a fact of which I am sure Bernard is aware. The failure of synthetic closures with time might well have been a strong incentive - both to Fouquet and his influential clients - to demand a more reliable alternative.

Whatever the reason, don't expect the wines of Aubuisières to all appear under screwcap soon. Maybe one day, in the dim and distant future, but for the moment Fouquet is firmly wedded to the cork I think, and if anything I sense a weariness related to his synthetic and screwcap experimentation. So I suspect it will be only the Cuvée de Silex that is bottled under screwcap for many vintages yet. (5/10/10)

Domaine des Aubuisières Update, 2010 - Tasting Notes

The wines below were tasted in Angers at the Salon des Vins de Loire in February 2010. All my notes on the wines of Domaine des Aubuisières, including those below, are collated under my Domaine des Aubuisières profile. Click to locate stockists.