Red Pebbles 2021

Cailloux Rouge 2021,

Patrick Bouju

A true seducer, and one of the jewels among the highly sought-after red cuvées from the Auvergne winemaker. Cailloux lives up to its name: it's a wild, smoky, long, and persistent red wine, marked by intensely mineral notes: stone, earth, metal, gravel, combined with the smoky notes typical of basalt soils. However, the fruit is present and juicy. The overall impression is dense and concentrated; the wine can be drunk now but will still be able to age for a few years. This cuvée is made from old Pinot Noir vines on basalt, marl-limestone, and sandy soils, with, in some vintages, a proportion of Chardonnay growing on the same type of soil. Three-quarters of the harvest is destemmed, and the rest is left in whole bunches; the whole macerates for one month in barrels. Serving temperature: 14-16°C. Open twenty minutes before tasting or decant.

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Near Billom, the Limagne clermontoise rises towards the east to form a hilly area with a mild climate, dominated by volcanic hills. This is the Auvergne Tuscany, so named because of its resemblance to the Italian province. This land of mixed subsistence farming was once covered with 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 native grape varieties, of which he cultivates a good fifty, and also 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 a lot to Patrick. The fact that he likes to lend a hand to his winegrower friends in France and elsewhere only confirms his image as a model, a leader. His partnerships are famous: with Action Bronson for the A la Natural series, 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 wines do very well without them. He has also observed that if the grapes are healthy and concentrated, the balance is achieved on its own, regardless of 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.