Lulu Red 2020

Lulu Rouge 2020,

Patrick Bouju

A magnificent and renowned wine, a rich and velvety Lulu cuvée, with animal and spicy notes, and where the red fruits are generously expressed. Lulu comes from a basalt plot in Corent, planted with Gamay d'Auvergne vines over seventy years old. The destemmed harvest macerates for five months in amphorae. Aging is twelve months in oak barrels. Decanting is recommended.

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Near Billom, the Limagne clermontoise rises eastward to form a hilly area with a mild climate, dominated by volcanic hills. This is the Tuscany of Auvergne, so named because of its resemblance to the Italian province. This land of mixed subsistence farming was once covered in vines and was the preferred domain of Gamay d'Auvergne, a robust ancient strain, the origin of dense, deep, and fruity wines. This is where Patrick Bouju cultivates and vinifies, on these high-quality volcanic soils and mainly on old vines. The soils vary between basalt, limestone, clay-limestone, and pozzolan. Patrick collects and cares for the best terroirs of Puy-de-Dôme, often abandoned, and gives them new life. He also preserves the indigenous grape varieties, of which he cultivates a good fifty, and simultaneously works as a wine merchant using purchased organic grapes. The current renaissance of the Auvergne vineyard (which was once the third largest in France) owes much to Patrick. The fact that he enjoys lending a helping hand to his winegrowing friends from France and elsewhere only confirms his image as a model, a leader. His partnerships are famous: with Action Bronson for the series A la Natural, with Jason Ligas in Greece for Sous le Végétal… Patrick practices long macerations, and the wines rest for up to six months after bottling. Very sensitive to sulfites in wines, Patrick has found that his own do very well without them. He has also found that if the grapes are healthy and concentrated, the balance is achieved by itself, whatever the successive phases a vintage goes through. His noble, chiseled, distinguished, never bland wines are immediately recognizable in the glass. They are straight, clean, precise, often marked by floral notes and a spicy minerality. They also constitute a formidable anthology of the terroirs and ancient vines of Basse-Auvergne and its volcanic soils.