2020 Domaine La Piffaudiere Gamay AOC Touraine
2020 Domaine La Piffaudiere Gamay AOC Touraine
Grape: Gamay
Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified organic farming; clay/sand/flint soil; semi-carbonic, maceration for 10 days, 1/4 destemmed and 3/4 whole bunches, indigenous yeasts, no punching down, and a little pumping over, just a light spraying over the cap; press juice and free run juice blended and spends 3 months in fiberglass vats before being bottled, unfined/unfiltered, w/ 1.5 ppm added So2 (essentially zero-zero); 13.5% ABV
Winemaker: Olivier Bellanger
Domaine de la Piffaudière is small, organic estate in the loire helmed by Olivier Bellanger who has been operating the 8 hectare vineyard since 2008 on the slopes of the Cher Valley, in the Touraine AOC. Olivier, child of the '78 vintage, grandson and nephew of vignerons, started his career working at classic estates like Domaine Philippe Tessier. But he chose the natural path with his own project in 2008, with organic certification since 2012 and a largely hands-off winemaking approach, though Olivier's mandate is "to produce zero-defect wines". He's not sacrificing quality to be natural, and he's not trying to be super natty -- he's simply trying to make wine that honestly reflects his terroir without any chemical inputs that could mask the subtlety of the soil. This is proper juice, not a single weird or mousy bottle.
We're loving his Gamay, from several vine parcels, for fall -- it's a super fruit bomb, very representative of Gamay on these warmer slopes of Touraine. Bright and juicy with plush red cherry and blackberry balanced by a subtle foresty/green note, this is a boisterous bottle for holiday gatherings. An awesome turkey pairing!
SERVE SLIGHTLY CHILLED
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