DOMAINE ALAIN CAILBOURDIN Pouilly-sur-Loire

This estate of 19 hectares was set up some 30 years ago by expat Parisian Alain Cailbourdin. Spread throughout the various crus of Pouilly, with a high percentage of old and low yielding vines, the estate produces a range of Pouillys which are marked by a lovely purity and intensity of ripe fruit, and a fine, steely cut. The Nanogyra is grown on Kimmeridgian marl, and possesses crystalline purity and textbook minerality. It is named after the tiny shellfish fossils found in the vineyard. Les Cris is grown on the estate’s finest south-west facing Portlandian limestone slopes, and is a wine marked by greater richness and “gras”, and which arguably repays greater patience, perhaps a minimum of 2 years in bottle, before it shows at its best. Both are superb.

2011 Pouilly-Fumé ‘Les Cornets’ Alain Cailbourdin “Smells, gloriously, of cold rain on chalky soil and crushed lemon verbena leaves. A lot of flavour and electric energy coursing through this wine. That cool lemony sage and box and almost a wild herb element. Earth and steely sky. Begs for tarragon and river fish and goats cheese. Good stuff. So good.” Tamlyn Currin on jancisrobinson.com April 2013.

2013 Pouilly-Fumé ‘Les Cris’, Alain Cailbourdin. A smoky nose, quite reserved in style, tightly packed in, straight and appealing in its rather reticent character. White fruit. The palate shows a rather vinous nature from the outset, concentrated, with good substance and a nice frame of light acids and pithy fruit. Attractive, very polished and harmonious. 17/20. Chris Kissack, 2014