2022 Clos de Tue-Boeuf Cheverny Rouge Caillère

WINEMAKER: Thierry, Louise & Zoé Puzelat
REGION: Loire Valley, FR
VARIETY: Pinot Noir
VITICULTURE: Organic

Named for the site, La Caillère is a 1.35-hectare estate plot of 35-year-old vines on sandy, red-clay soils; it is also incredibly rocky, a fact built into its name, which is derived from caillasse, meaning "hard rocks". Caillère is organically farmed and harvested by hand. Like all of the Tue-Boeuf reds, the wine goes through whole-cluster, open-top, semi-carbonic fermentation in vat; La Caillère is then pressed, aged for 10-12 months in used Burgundy barrels and 400-liter demi-muids, and bottled unfiltered with minimal sulfur. Along with La Guerrerie, this is the longest-aged of the reds.

In the early-nineties, Jean-Marie and Thierry Puzelat took over their family domaine in Cheverny, converted the farming to organic, and began making wines with native yeast and low or no sulphur additions. Three decades later and Clos du Tue-Boeuf is the definitive natural wine estate in the Loire Valley, if not all of France.