Domaine des Aubuisières: Tasting & Drinking
I first encountered the wines of Domaine des Aubuisières with the 1990 vintage, and was immediately a fan. His wines are vibrant, rich, vigorous and pure and to my mind he quite rightly has a place on the very top tier of the Vouvray hierarchy. Bernard was also a consummate gentleman, a fine figurehead for the Vouvray appellation, thoughtful, helpful and approachable. It was hard not to like the man as much as his wines. Subsequent tastings (and there have been many of them now!), away from the romance of the cellar and the charm of the winemaker, in environments more suited to objective assessment, only served to confirm these earlier impressions.
I have every confidence that the domaine will be run with similar skill, panache and etiquette by the new owner, Charles Lesaffre.
The range of wines is honest, from the very dependable blended wine Cuvée de Silex, up to single-vineyard wines, some of which are deliciously moelleux. Bernard repeated the successes of 1989 and 1990, mentioned above and also highlighted in the course of this profile, in other favourable vintages; his wines from 1996, 1997 and 2002 were all impressive. Likewise the very sweetest wines from 2003 and 2009.
Bernard proved his worth in difficult vintages as well though. After the hail of 2013 there was undoubtedly some concern as to how the wines of this troubled vintage would turn out. I tasted Bernard’s wines first and most often, and they were consistently good, indeed very good taking into account the year. They have a lifted character, perfumed fruit and good balance, nicely masking the acidity of the vintage. These are dependable wines which can be bought and cellared with confidence. The fact that they also tend to be very good value only helps matters.
I look forward to seeing more of these wines, with more frequent tastings, now that the domaine is under the direction of Charles Lesaffre. (31/8/04, updated 6/10/10, 5/8/14, 19/3/23)
