Lamé-Delisle-Boucard today encompasses 47 hectares of vines, averaging 40 years of age and spread among four villages within the Bourgueil appellation: 21 hectares in Ingrandes de Touraine, encompassing soils of gravel, siliceous clay, and clay-limestone; 13.5 hectares in Saint Patrice, with soils of siliceous clay and well-draining large-stoned gravel; 8.5 hectares in Restigné, with vines planted in sandy soil and gravelly clay; and 4 hectares in the limestone-rich soils of Benais. Philippe and his crew work their 61 parcels without chemicals, having transitioned from Terra Vitis certification (beginning in 2001) to full-on organic viticulture (to be certified as of the 2021 harvest). Grass is maintained between the rows of vines, which are planted at a density of 5,000 per hectare, and meadows and woods interspersed among the parcels are allowed to flourish, thereby contributing to overall biodiversity. Harvest is conducted entirely by hand.
In Lamé-Delisle-Boucard’s spacious, no-frills cellar, all 61 parcels are vinified separately, according to their terroir: sandy and gravelly plots are vinified in steel, and clay-limestone plots are vinified in very old tronconic wooden casks, with macerations averaging 15 days. Generally speaking, the wines age for one year in old 20- to 25-hectoliter foudres with no racking, and only a very light filtration is applied at bottling. This type of time-tested, unflashy elevage results in wines of extraordinarily rendered tannins, with well-integrated acidity and precise, lip-smacking fruit. This is Bourgueil whose power derives from the zone’s intense minerality rather than any sort of cellar tomfoolery, and tasting the spot-on equilibrium in the current releases makes one realize why they age so well and for so long.
