2023 Cuvée Jean-Paul Blanc Sec, IGP Côtes de Gascogne

A deliciously aromatic, bright, and zingy dry white!

Tasting Notes

Nose

A fresh nose of lime, basil, freshly cut green grass, and guavas. 

Palate

The medium-bodied palate continues with more grapefruit, subtle passionfruit, and zingy tropical lemon.

Production

The rolling hills between the scattered medieval towns and villages of Gascony in south-west France are predominately white wine country. For many decades growers here have provided Boutinot with an excellent source of Colombard and Ugni Blanc, which together provide a pleasant mix of tropical and herbecaeous flavours. Vines are generally trained using the Guyot system and vigorous grape selection is used to capture both the fresh aromatics and provide the longevity needed to maintain the consistent flavour profile for which Cuvée Jean-Paul is known. On delivery to the cellar, the grapes are cooled then undergo maceration on skins for 10-15 hours before pneumatic pressing and cold settling to preserve the aromas. We then keep the wine on fine lees to retain maximum freshness before crafting into the final cuvée. To ensure freshness, we blend and bottle up to four times a year - an intricate process essential to maintaining stylistic continuity and quality, one which demands knowledge of how each component parcel will evolve.

Producer

Like all good stories, that of Boutinot France is both long and a little bit complicated! Boutinot began as a tiny importer in 1980, specialising in French wines. Paul Boutinot himself began by personally selecting the wines from France, back in the UK he would unload the trailer by hand. And deliver the crates of wines to customers himself. But good things grow and by the end of the decade we had become a bigger and better company. A company that not only sought out great wines but made them too. After 10 years later, Boutinot France started in January 1990. The first office was in the middle of the vines in Julienas; perfectly located to navigate the Beaujolais and Macon regions on the quest to make beautiful wines.

Samantha Bailey, who started as a wine enthusiast, was there at the beginning of this adventure. Since then, she has grown into our Master Blender and has key responsibilities: building long-standing relationships, tasting, understanding the terroir and appellations, and pushing the boundaries. She is at the heart of the whole process from blending to quality assessment, making sure there is always a Boutinot touch in every cuvée. We are proud to also count Guillaume Letang and Julien Dugas in our winemaking team. Guillaume oversees the South of France and Languedoc, whilst Julien looks after our property in Cairanne. Together they have the local knowledge to select and blend the very best wines from throughout. Eric Monnin oversees every aspect of production and makes sure everything our winemakers blend and source is top quality.

Today, Boutinot’s French office has recently relocated to Macon, and has over 20 employees who take care of production across the whole of France, covering fresh whites and rosés from Gascony, mineral wines from Burgundy, and joyful varietal wines from Languedoc among others. We don’t use any single model to source our wines; instead, a combination of sources are used, from large-scale, high-quality co-ops to small, family growers and single domaines, as well as our own vineyards in Cairanne and Saint-Vérand. Drawing on the expertise of our four winemakers and a network of partner growers, we seek to deliver the highest quality-to-price ratio possible for every wine

Specifications