Aurélien Revillot, 2018 Bourgueil “Sur Les Hauts”
If the name Domaine Aurélien Revillot is not one that is immediately familiar to you, there is probably good reason for that. Aurélien is a relative newcomer on the wine scene in Bourgueil, with his first vintage being in 2012. Aurélien is originally from Burgundy and came from a family of farmers, or agriculteurs, as the French would say. Following his studies in Dijon, he spent time working in Burgundy, South Africa, and the Languedoc, before eventually landing with the Caslot family at Domaine de la Chevalerie in 2010. It was this time with at Domaine de la Chevalerie where Aurélien's passion for Cabernet Franc really began to blossom, seeing the unbridled enthusiasm of the Caslot family for their terroirs and how Cabernet Franc has the potential to be very expressive of site. This, combined with the exceptional tuffeau soils of the côte in Bourgueil as well as the favourable climate, Aurélien could see that there was a special opportunity to set up his domaine in Bourgueil.
Aurélien initially set up his domaine by acquiring a handful of parcels in the communes of Benais, Restigné and Bourgueil, and made his first wine, the Sur Les Hauts in 2012. Today, Aurélien has grown his domaine to a mere 3.5 hectares of Cabernet Franc vines, and a teeny tiny 19 are of Chenin Blanc, and he is pretty much a one-man show. I had the pleasure of visiting Aurélien for the first time last spring, and before this visit I had no prior knowledge of Aurélien's domaine or wines. My first memory of that visit was that upon meeting Aurélien, the first thing he does is pulls out this laminated map of the Bourgueil appellation that indicates the location of many of the lieux-dits across the appellation. On this map, is a collection of small, colour-coded stickers, showing the locations of Aurélien's parcels. He shares that, with the exception of Sur Les Hauts, his focus is producing cuvées parcellaires, so single lieux-dit wines, believing that Cabernet Franc has the potential to show place in the finished wines. I am instantly delighted to hear this. And if that wasn't enough, then Aurélien pulls out another laminated map showing the underlying geology of Bourgueil, and begins explaining the nuances of the terroirs and soils in Bourgueil, and what we find on the slopes versus the flatter sites closer to the Loire. So here we are, two nerdy maps on the hood of my rental car, and I'm trying to contain my excitement for what I'm hearing and seeing, but I can't help but think I have found my spirit-animal vigneron in the Bourgueil appellation.
In addition to the Sur Les Hauts, from these 3.5ha of vines, Aurélien is making 4 cuvées parcellaires, including Les Aubuis and Grand-Mont, in Bourgueil and Benais respectively, which he has been making for several vintages now, and as of the 2020 vintage, he has added 2 additional cuvées parcellaires, La Bretêche in Restigné and Les Brunetières in Ingrandes-de-Touraine, which will be released in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
The Sur Les Hauts is coming from, as the name suggests, the slopes or the higher points in the appellation. This area of the slopes or the côte is concentrated in four of the seven communes in the Bourgueil appellation: Bourgueil on the west side of the Changeon River, and then Benais, Restigné and Ingrandes-de-Touraine on the east side of the Changeon River. And the parcels for this wine are all located in lieux-dits on the east side of the Changeon specifically, I will focus on some key elements that define the slopes in this part of the appellation.
The côte in this part of Bourgueil is this gently sloping, narrow band of soils that follows this forested area to the northeast, the foret du Benais and the foret du Rochecotte. Because of the orientation of these forests, the exposures on the slope generally follows this tree line in a slightly arced shape. So in Benais, the slopes have a bit more of a southwest exposure, and then the slopes gradually begin to point more south as we move east into Restigné, and Ingrandes de Touraine.
The côte is also at its widest point in the commune of Benais. So, in the western part of the Benais commune, closest to the Changeon River, the côte is a little over 1000m wide, and then the côte gradually narrows to about 800-900m wide in Restigné, and then from about 500-700m wide in Ingrandes-de-Touaines, with the slope at its narrowest point in the eastern part of this commune where it is about 250m wide.
It's also important to note that vineyard area of the slope in Ingrandes-de-Touraine is also much closer to the Loire River, compared to that of the slope in Restigné and Bourgueil, because of how the Loire River takes a dogleg a bit more northeast towards Tours. So we're about 2.5-3km north of the Loire here in Ingrandes-de-Touraine, versus about 5km away from the Loire in the heart of the côte in Restigné, and about 6 to 6.5km away in Benais. And this is important because the microclimates of the vineyards in Ingrandes-de-Touraine will have a stronger influence from the Loire, making them slightly warmer than those in Benais.
In terms of the tuffeau chalk bedrock, the type of bedrock will vary depending on altitude. The majority of the côte here in the eastern part of the Bourgueil appellation is on the Middle Turonian tuffeau, with lies between 50 and 70m above sea level, then there is a narrow band of the Upper Turonian tuffeau between 70 to 75m above sea level. And as I have mentioned before, these differences between these tuffeaux are relevant because of they each have slightly different properties in terms of density, water holding capacity, mineral content which can impact nutrient uptake, etc. And in terms of topsoil, it varies from vineyard to vineyard, but generally we find a bit more clay on the côte, than what we find on the ancient alluvial terrace.
The 2018 Sur Les Hauts is coming from parcels in 4 lieux-dits: Les Rossés, Les Caves Caillot and Les Vlaudons all in Benais, and Les Blottières in Ingrandes-de-Touraine. Combined these parcels total around 0.97ha. The planting dates for the vines vary by parcel, but generally the plantings were between 1976 and 1988, so 35-40 years of age on average in 2018. The topsoils range in depth and texture across the parcels, but across the board the topsoils are more shallow, with predominantly siliceous clay or a sandy-clay topsoil. Aurélien is farming his vineyards organically as well.
From a winemaking perspective, Aurélien takes a very classical approach in the cellar. Hand-harvested fruit, that is sorted in the vineyard as well as the cellar, the fruit is destemmed as well. Aurélien prepares his pied de cuve about 2 weeks in advance, and fermentation, for the 2018 vintage, was done in fibreglass tanks. He takes a very gentle approach to extractions, doing light pump-overs over the first 4 to 7 days, just to keep the cap wet, and then the remainder of the post-fermentation maceration via infusion. The total time on skins is about 3.5 to 4 weeks. Aging then follows in 228L neutral oak barrels for about 5 to 8 months, for the 2018, followed by 6 months in stainless steel. With his goal for this cuvée is to bottle in the spring, two years past the vintage. So this was bottled in May 2020.
Key wine wine facts below:
Producer: Aurélien Revillot
Appellation: Bourgueil
Commune: Benais, Ingrandes-de-Touraine
Lieux-Dits: Les Rossés, Les Caves Caillot, Les Vlaudons, Les Blottières
Soils: Shallow siliceous clay and sandy-clay, atop the Middle Turonian white tuffeau chalk
Alcohol: 14.0%
