VéNéNuM Rouge 2018

VéNéNuM Rouge 2018,

Aurélien Lefort

One hundred percent Gamay from Auvergne, VéNéNuM is a red cuvée made in small quantities from vines over a hundred years old, planted in 1904 on red clay soils rich in quartz and granite sand (Lamouret location). Harvested in September, the wine macerated in vats with whole bunches for forty-five days, and aged for eighteen months in vats followed by eleven months in bottle.

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Established since 2011 in Madriat, near Boudes, in the southern part of Puy-de-Dôme, Aurélien Lefort is an artist (a Fine Arts graduate) with a passion for wine and nature. After training with Michel Auger (Loire) and Patrick Bouju, he decided to move to Auvergne and took over the lease of abandoned vineyards. The Boudes region is an ancient wine-producing land, an exceptional volcanic terroir, warm and vibrant, cultivated for nearly two thousand years. Aurélien's approach is to encourage the revival of this magnificent vineyard. He does this on small areas of stunning pedological diversity: basalt, granite, calcareous red clay, sandy and gravelly clay on quartz flows, and, at the foot of the hillside, marly white clay. On this substrate, the Auvergne trilogy (Gamay, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) takes the lion's share. In Aurélien's hands, the singular talent of Auvergne Gamay, an ancient grape variety as dense and powerful as it is spicy, which finds a particular expression on these volcanic soils. His plots are grassed but mown to control humidity, and the vines are worked with a pickaxe to prevent the root system from suffocating. The harvest, always manual, can last up to three weeks due to the meticulous sorting of the berries. This is the price Aurélien Lefort pays to create his rare and sought-after vintages, resulting from long macerations (up to three months). Mostly red, sometimes sparkling, sometimes also mellow (late harvest reds), they always leave a lasting, even unforgettable, impression.