Domaine des Aubuisières "Cuvée de Silex" Vouvray, Loire Valley, France 2023

FROM WEYGANDT-METZLER IMPORTING:

THE WINE: 100% Chenin Blanc.

THE PRODUCER: Despite Vouvray's storied wine-making past (its origins extending back to the monks of the abbey of Marmoutier founded in 372 by Saint Martin), many of the appellation's leading domaines have a fairly short history. Domaine des Aubuisières is no exception. Both the domaine and its reputation owe themselves to the humble work of Bernard Fouquet, who built the estate up from the few small plots of vines he inherited from his father. Bernard's father André Fouquet was not so much a vigneron as a pépiniériste, a "nurseryman" who specialized in grafting new vines. In 1978 André took over 6 hectares of vineyards from Gérald Bruley des Varannes (the winemaker at Château des Girardières). These holdings became the basis for Bernard's beginnings as a winemaker starting in 1982.

The domaine's parcels contain the two classic terroirs of Vouvray: limestone and flint (silex in French). Some plots are rich in flint fragments of various sizes embedded in clay, a soil type known locally as perruches (flinty clays combined with silica). Others are characterized by limestone (specifically "tuffeau," a lower-density limestone variant formed from sediment and fossilized sea creatures) mixed with clay, a blend known as aubuis, the apparent namesake of the domaine.