Pierre Borel Bourgueil Rouge Pavée, honest and understated cab franc
Summer Sale!
The only wine currently released by Pierre.
This is a young, crunchy Bourgueil with lots of bright cranberry and cherry fruit, plenty of the herbaceous capsicum notes you'd expect from the grape and the finish has plenty of bitterness and dark chocolate. The wine is beautifully savoury, and freshness abounds in its bright acidity. The 2019 vintage is a little lighter on its feet at 12.5% degrees of alcohol. We feel this youthful character will only gain depth and complexity over the coming years.
Pierre is the definition of the small grower. He works alone, tending to a single parcel (2 hectares) of young vine Cabernet Franc in a beautiful walled garden, or clos, in the heart of Bourgueil. Pierre has obtained his organic certification, which is aided no end by the vineyard’s seclusion; a sleepy village to one side of the walls and woodland to the other, meaning no risk of contamination from neighbouring growers who aren’t following the same practises. Simplicity is key here - Pierre makes only one wine, and seeks to vinify in as straightforward a way as possible. The sandy gravel soils yield fragrant fruit which is fermented in a simple chai (basically a shed) that comprises one large tank of stainless steel and one of fibreglass. The wine is racked off the skins after a couple of weeks and is bottled from tank, with no barrel ageing. Pierre’s wine is honest, understated and everything we love about Cabernet Franc from this part of France.