Pouilly-Fumé 'Les Racines', Domaine Cailbourdin 2022

Domaine Alain Cailbourdin, based at Maltaverne in the Loire Valley's Pouilly-Fumé appellation, is dedicated to producing small quantities of high quality wines. Originally from Paris, Alain was a teenager when he first picked grapes in Loire vineyards. After studying in Burgundy and returning to work for several large producers in Pouilly, he bravely started his own domaine from scratch in 1980. From just a couple of plots of vines, the estate has now grown to a significant 20 hectares planted on some of the best slopes in the area, and is very much a family business with Alain’s wife Carmen and their son Loïc also involved. About half of the vines are vieilles vignes or old vines, prized for the concentrated fruit they yield, and the rest have been planted since 1980.

Terra Vitis environmentally friendly practices are followed under an audited process, and methods of viticulture are traditional with short pruning and low yields in the vineyard. Gentle pressing of the grapes and carefully controlled fermentations result in wines of concentration and purity. Thanks to such attention to detail, Alain Cailbourdin is now viewed as one of the finest producers in the area.

Several different cuvées of his Pouilly-Fumé are made each year, all of which are characterised by a wonderful purity of fruit and charming elegance. The Society follows the more forward Boisfleury cuvée , which comes from sand and limestone soils, and Les Cris, on pebbly limestone soils, which sometimes requires a little more time in bottle before release. They were among the first in the region to produce a wholly barrel-fermented wine, under the name of Triptyque, beginning with the 1989 vintage, and this wine is made only in the best vintages. The results speak very loudly in favour of such a policy.