Have enjoyed a bottle of Bernard Fouquet's Cuvée de Silex, Vouvray 2008 over the past two nights. Domaine des Aubuisières has 25 hectares of vines planted with Chenin Blanc around Vouvray, just East of Tours. 90% of harvesting is done manually in successive 'tries' and on arrival at the winery grapes are pressed pneumatically with the pressure adapted to the overall quality of the grapes. This wine is mostly fermented and matured in thermo-regulated vats although his more prestigious dry cuvées and all the moelleux wines are fermented in oak of varying ages (new to 4 years old). After alcoholic fermentation, the dry wines are aged upon their lees with regular stirring to add depth and complexity. The Cuvée de Silex is Bernard's entry level dry Vouvray. It comes from three parcels, les Perruches, les Girardières and les Chairs Salées. We first tasted the 2008 at the Salon des Vins in Angers in February and subsequently paid him a visit to pick up this, and some of his other wines in Vouvray a couple of weeks ago. The nose is enticing, a little floral (but not tropical) with hints of honey and pears. On the palate, it's fresh with a taste of sherbet lemons - the fruit continues and it finishes with a crisp acidity but one that is not at all dominating (it has 6g residual sugar). It's absolutely delicious now but will probably taste better given a little time to develop. It went perfectly with the very old fashioned supper of boiled ham, parsley sauce, boiled potatoes and mashed carrot and swede. I finished it last night without food, as an aperitif.
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