NV Domaine Mathieu Cosme “Les Fines Bulles” Ptillant, Vouvray, Loire Valley, France

ABOUT THIS WINE

The vines for this wine are planted on flint-clay soils, with a limestone subsoil typical of the region. It is made exclusively from the Chenin Blanc grape variety. The grapes are harvested manually and placed in crates to preserve their integrity until they arrive at the winery.Alcoholic fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled fiberglass vats. Fermentation is stopped when the wine reaches a residual sugar content of 28 grams. Then, the wine is fermented and bottled using the residual sugar naturally present in the wine. This wine is then aged on slats for at least 12 months, allowing it to develop all its complexity and finesse.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Domaine de Beaumont is located just outside of Noizay, a village fronting the Loire in the far southeastern corner of Vouvray. Founded in 1930, it is currently headed by the fifth generation of the Cosme family, Mathieu. After a degree in enology and an tage of Domaine Huet, Mathieu has made a name for himself by making powerful, dry, and precise cuves of Chenin Blanc from 13 hectares of vineyards with ideal southern and southeastern exposure These are wines that suit a former rugby player who is more comfortable behind a horse-drawn plow than behind a desk or dinner table rather than a tasting table.

It is a clich to view a vignerons wines as a reflection of their physicality and personality, but this is the indelible human element to terroir and something often lost by talking about soil and climate at the expense of culture and history. At Domaine de Beaumont under Mathieu Cosme, this is doubly so. At first blush, the wines are not only substantial and impressively nuanced renditions of place and time, but they also develop in the glass (and in the bottle!) revealing a sensitivity and a nurturing aspect reflective of Mathieus long hours among the vines and careful stewardship over his cellar.

If blessed, each generation in an appellation can boast a handful of rising stars and Mathieu Cosme is, whith out a doubt, at the top of his class in Vouvray.
With each cuve at Domaine de Beaumont, Mathieu aims to capture a precise reflection of its origins. His vineyards are situated on the premier cte and deuxime cte close to, and immediately above the Loire. These slopes have the thinnest loamy soils of clay and gravel over tuffeau bedrock. These terroirs, combined with their orientation, prove to be the best sites for making drier styles of Vouvray.

Les Promenards is a site further inland on rolling hills and part of the deuxime cte where there are slightly deeper clay soils over tuffeau. Here, Mathieu makes a dry Vouvray from 50-year-old vines that his grandfather planted. Closer to the river and on the premier cte is Les Enfers, a name that reflects this vineyards warmth and where 40-year-old vines are planted on flint gravel and shallow clay soils are underpinned with tuffeau.

The Domaine has been certified organic since the 2014 vintage, and Mathieu has plowed the soils by horse since 2005 when he finished his tage at Huet and returned to run his familys estate. Harvest is manual, and fermentations are indigenous. The wines are fermented and aged in 400L French oak barrels, as has been the tradition in Vouvray for centuries.