Le Chat Huant

Skin Contact Bourboulenc 'Tsituri' 2022

Name: Skin Contact Bourboulenc 'Tsituri' 2022
Brand: Le Chat Huant
SKU: FLOCHtsituri22
Price: 31.0 USD
Availability: InStock

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100% skin contact Bourboulenc

Blandine Floch grew up in the Vallée du Cher, in the heart of one of the Loire Valley’s most bountiful winegrowing and agricultural areas. Not surprisingly, being raised in these environs developed into a passion at a young age. By 2011, she was working in the cellar of legendary vigneron Olivier Lemasson, and quickly fell in love with the work of making natural wine. She eventually went on to train under the likes of Thierry Puzelat, Remi Dufaitre, Domaine du Scarabée, as well as the likes of Pheasant’s Tears and Artanuli Gvino in the Republic of Georgia. These invaluable experiences eventually led her back to the Loire to start her own project in 2018, Domaine du Chat Huant.

For four vintages Blandine and her then-partner Jérémie Choquet farmed and made wine together under a mix of their two labels and farmed around 3ha in the area. In 2021, the couple went their separate wines personally and as winemakers.

Eventually, due to a combination of love, the need for a fresh start, and an exciting new region, Blandine fully made the move to the Gard in 2022-23. She has slowly begun purchasing old vine Carignan, Grenache, and other local varietals, and moved into a new winery in 2023. Although she still produces a small amount of Gamay, Côt, and most notably, her Loriot sauvignon, she feels right at home in her adopted region, while maintaining a strong bond with the Loire.

Even after her move, the basic principles Blandine begun with in the Cher Valley persist today: only organic grapes, vinification exclusively via natural processes, with respect for the fruit, environment, and final consumer. Fruit is meticulously harvested to ensure that only the healthiest and ripest grapes make the cut. All fermentations are spontaneous using indigenous yeasts, followed by aging in either neutral wood or tank depending on the cuvée. She will occasionally add SO2 at bottling, but never during vinification. The wines are never filtered.

With this new chapter, Blandine’s wines seem to have reached a new level of depth, energy, and verve. We always saw in her a talented young winemaker who was going to do great things, but to come back stronger and with an even more impressive project in the face of constant seismic shifts in her life both in and outside of the cave and vines, is even more inspiring.