Domaine de la Butte

Domaine de la Butte is the Bourgueil estate Jacky Blot acquired in 2002, twenty years after founding Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups in Montlouis-sur-Loire. The vineyard is a single 14-hectare south-facing slope on the edge of the forest above Bourgueil, planted to Cabernet Franc on tuffeau limestone with patches of clay and flint. Blot bottles the hill as a series of parcellaire cuvées - Le Pied de la Butte, Mi-Pente, Le Haut de la Butte, Les Perrières, and the more recently introduced Les Côteaux du Levant - each meant to read the slope at a different elevation rather than blend it into one wine. The estate is now run by Jacky's son Jean-Philippe following Jacky's death, farmed with low yields, hand harvest, and élevage in a mix of foudres, demi-muids, and used barrels.