A. Cailbourdin Pouilly Fume Les Racines 2022| eWineAsia.com

Alain Cailbourdin came to Pouilly-Fumé to work a harvest while attending university and never left after falling madly in love with this beautiful region. It was in 1998 that he bought his first 2 ha parcel of Silex laden Sauvignon Blanc and officially established Domaine Alain Cailbourdin. Since that time, his reputation has grown exponentially, eventually reaching the very heights of the appellation with wines of complexity and intense minerality.
In a region full of high volume, industrial wine, Alain refreshingly follows the philosophy of making traditional and high quality Sauvignon Blanc. With vineyards located in some of the most choice, Silex heavy sections of Pouilly-Fume, he works hard to not obfuscate the beauty of the terroir. Every parcel is vinified separately so that he may have the maximum control over the quality of each vintage. All the fruit is hand harvested, yields are kept very low and stainless steel tanks are used to age all of the wines. The wines display a terroir focus that has become rare in this region, and we couldn’t be happier to represent these honest and delicious wines.
Alain Cailbourdin is one of the newer breed of winemakers in Pouilly-Fumé in the Loire dedicated to producing low quantities of high quality wines. Originally from Paris, Cailbourdin was a teenager when he first picked grapes in Loire vineyards. After studying in Burgundy and returning to work for several large producers in Pouilly, he bravely started his own domaine from scratch in 1980. From just a couple of plots of vines, the estate has now grown to a respectable 16 hectares planted on some of the best slopes in the area. This is very much a family business with Alain’s wife and now their son also involved. About half of the vines are vieilles vignes or old vines.
Methods here are traditional with short pruning and low yields in the vineyard, gentle pressing of the grapes and controlled fermentations which result in wines of concentration and purity. Thanks to such attention to detail, Alain Cailbourdin is now viewed as one of the finest producers in the area. Several different cuvées of his Pouilly-Fumé are made each year, all of which are characterised by purity of fruit and elegance. The Society follows the more forward Boisfleury cuvée regularly and occasionally Les Cris which requires a little more time in bottle before release.