Tasting notes: Alo Jais Noir Carignan
Alo Jais Noir Carignan. The small yields from this area and its unique soils and landscape give distinctive wines with personality. This wine is intense and complex with dark, rich fruit, delicate tannins and smooth mouthfeel. As Guillaume says, it’s a “must taste” wine!
Food: Alo Jais Noir Carignan
Duck confit or shoulder of lamb. As a vegetarian option lentil and bean stew would compliment the wine just as well.
Region/Producer:
Winemaker Guillaume Letang went on a voyage to vineyards unknown to source these grapes. While he is used to driving all over Languedoc Roussillon for his work he had never ventured this far south. One day curiosity got the better of him and he went to explore “the wild landscape” between Corbieres and the Mediterranean. Stainless steel was used to maintain the freshness and purity of fruit from the old, bush-vine Carignan.
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 they 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.
Producer:
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. They don’t use any single model to source their 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 their four winemakers and a network of partner growers, they seek to deliver the highest quality-to-price ratio possible for every wine.
