Lamé Delisle Boucard, 2019 Update
My visit to Lamé Delisle Boucard a few years ago turned out to be one of the most instructive and enjoyable ways in which to spend an afternoon in Bourgueil. The domaine owes its existence to several families, important milestones along the way being the marriage of Jules Lamé and Yvonne Delisle in 1938, and the subsequent wedding of their daughter Maryvonne Lamé-Delisle and René Boucard in 1965. Today their descendants, in the shape of René and Maryvonne’s son Philippe Boucard (pictured), his sister and their respective spouses, continue to run the domaine. They thus hold the keys to one of the Loire Valley’s most remarkable library of old vintages, his parents and grandparents having laid down many bottles over the years. It was some of those bottles Philippe and I entertained ourselves with that afternoon.
Since that day the opportunity to return to the domaine has not come my way, so I was glad when I was able recently to check out some recent releases with the Boucards. I should point out that “recent”, chez Boucard, probably means any vintage during the last decade or possible older. It is not that long, for example, since they released fresh stock of the 1976 Cuvée Prestige onto the market.
The Wines
The style here leans towards the old-school, the palate usually dominated more by tannin and acidity than by generous or easy-going texture. Despite this, the wines clearly age well, as evidenced not only by my previous visit to the cellars, but also the fact that none of the wines tasted here were even close to maturity. Even the 1976 vintage I enjoyed last year had plenty of gas in the tank.
