TN: 2016 Domaine du Bel Air (Pierre et Rodolphe Gauthier) Bourgueil Les Marsaules

This producer has been on my radar for a year or so and I have been buying some bottles here and there but never opened one before. Clos Nouveau is the trophy wine, Grand Mont seems to go for decent money too (relatively speaking), but this one - priced similarly to Le Clos Guillot - is a screaming value. A wine of great interest to buy in large quantities, if authentic Loire Cab Franc is your thing, that is.

• 2016 Domaine du Bel Air (Pierre et Rodolphe Gauthier) Bourgueil Les Marsaules - France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Bourgueil (19.9.2020)
  On the nose this is intense, generous and slightly perfumed. The fruit is an exciting and vibrant blend of cassis and capsicum that has this very unfiltered and unadulterated feel to it. There are herbal and earthy tones but they are comfortably in the background. Extremely elegant and stylish, very charismatic. Relatively gentle on the entry, coats the palate in a friendly manner but then the tannins start to emerge, leading to quite the finishing grip while never making the wine lose its liveliness. The flavors are absolutely seamless from start to finish: ripe, savory red fruit without any obvious vegetality and some minerally and graphite tones. While markedly firm there is also something ethereal about the texture. Overall an impressively refined Cabernet Franc that showcases masterful winemaking and use of oak. Tons of pleasure right now but clearly there is plenty of upside as well. A fantastic value within a genre that generally offers great value.

Posted from CellarTracker

Lovely note on a wine from a domaine that surely deserves more attention! I’d very much like to sample this cuvée (along with the Clos Nouveau, of course). They’re just not that easy to find, alas.

Tell me about it! The retailer I got this from sells the whole range but told me that the two top cuvées are reserved for his regular customers. I suppose I just have to become one!

Excellent note, Ilkka, thanks for posting! I quite agree with you about the quality and value. I’ve only tried the 09 so far, twice, which was much like what you describe so well. It’s just a pity that it’s hard to find (even here). I’ve yet to try the top two, but that’ll be done in the near future!

Thanks for the TN.

Sounds like my kind of wine and I did do a search and came up nada in my immediate market, but will give the Jour du Soif a spin since I see availability.

Looking forward to your notes on them! Feel free to PM if you want me to share where this was bought.

I believe that is more of a simpler wine to drink on the fruit, although I remember someone praising it for what it is. I did not buy that one, so interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Although both are good, if you can find it, I’d recommend the straight village Bourgueil over the Soif.

How about Les Vingt Lieux Dits? Obviously cheaper than Marsaules but how’s the style?

I’ve never been able to try it, unfortunately. Beyond the entry level wines, the only one I’ve sampled is a bottle of the 2010 Grand Mont, which was extremely impressive, but also just a tannic monster. It needs 15+ years from vintage, I imagine.

Btw, could you say a little more about the oak you mentioned in your note. Did it come through in terms of distinct barrel flavors? Or mainly texturally? Or something else?

No barrel aromas or flavors whatsoever, mostly textural. I’m not surprised to read your comment on Grand Mont demanding age as this one is no weakling either.

Cool. Thanks for suggestion.

Really nice note, Ilkka. Sounds like a good wine and a very good value. I don’t recall Bourgueil getting a lot of attention here. In general, are there notable differences in the taste profiles of Chinon, Saumur, and Bourgueil Cabernet Franc? Or not really? Cheers.

I don’t personally have nearly enough experience to answer but certainly I have found considerable stylistic differences between producers in these appellations.

I’m in the camp where I’ve not discerned major taste profile differences in cabernet franc wines by those appellations within Loire Valley. I also agree that there are stylistic differences between producers.

Thanks Illka - my problem is not so much buying them as not buying them! Temptation, temptation!

I too find it very challenging when so much cool stuff is popping up all the time and it’s just way too easy to put in an offer for a case or two without thinking about it too much. So much easier pre-'95 when we were not yet part of the EU and all we had was the monopoly and their 100 something wines

Yes, and it gets worse - I’m running out of space in the cellar, which would normally act as the perfect brake, but it’s also a lot easier to sell now too, so I can get rid of all those wines I wish I hadn’t bought…and then get tempted to replace them. No peace for the wicked!