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Swiss
wine, part 3
The wines
of
Louis Bovard, Dézaley, Switzerland
Domaine Louis Bovard
1096 Cully
www.domainebovard.com
Louis Bovard with a bottle of his
Médinette: the label dates from the early 20th century
and is a picture of one of his relatives
During
the Memoire des vins Suisses weekend
some of the time was taken up by official meetings of the winegrowers
involved. So on a rather misty Saturday morning Sam and I, who would
otherwise have been at a loose end, were picked up by the charming
wife of Louis Bovard who drove us to her domaine for some vineyard
visiting and wine tasting. Bovard is one of the few Swiss producers
whose wines I’d some previous experience with: the Médinette from Dézaley
had been a nice surprise when it was served to me by my brother in law
who lives in Geneva: a really attractive, rich rounded white.
Bovard
have 17 hectares spread across some smart vineyard sites bordering Lac
Lemain. They also make 17 different wines. Before visiting the winery
we were given a tour of the Dezaley vineyards, which are spectacularly
located on the steeply rising bank of the lake. Growing grapes here is
highly labour intensive and reasonably dangerous. Some of the terraces
are just wide enough to take a single row of vines (pictured below).
Some
biodynamics is practiced here (roughly 30% of the vineyards). This has
been going on for five years. There was some evidence of the damaging
July hailstorm that all but wrecked the 2005 vintage here, with
scarred wood on the vines. In the winery, most of the work is done
with 8000 litre foudres. A bit of battonage is used. Annual production
is around 200 000 bottles and the wines are fantastic.
We
began the tasting with cask samples of the 2005s. The wines are
Chasselas unless otherwise noted.
Louis
Bovard Epesses 2005
Closed
nose. It’s on its lees. Rich and ripe with nice fruit, good weight
and low acid.
Louis
Bovard Saint-Saphorin 2005
Really
full, spicy, fruity nose with some fatness. Lovely acidity and nice
expressive character. A potentially brilliant wine: it’s a shame 90%
of crop was lots to hail.
Louis
Bovard Dezaley Grand Cru Medinette 2005
Fresh,
full and nutty with some minerally tones, combining fat melony fruit
with some fresher notes. Lovely
Louis Bovard Salix 2005 (Chenin Blanc component)
This will be 70% of the Salix; the rest is Chasselas. Lovely full,
herb-tinged spicy nose. Quite rich. Dense palate with good weight,
richness and acidity. Lovely fruit. Fantastic.
Louis
Bovard Buxus 2005
This is
one of Bovard’s two Sauvignon Blancs; the other one is Ribex. They
are tremendously successful and highly sought after. Lovely rich spicy
nose is full and quite sweet with a grassy edge. The palate is fresh
but full with lots of nicely textured fruit. Delicious and quite
brilliant.
Merlot
2005
This is
pre-malolactic fermentation. After fermentation the wine is chilled
down without any sulfur dioxide addition to let the ethanal to form
cross links with the anthocyanins and tannins, thus fixing the colour.
Just thought I’d share that technical gem. It has a wonderful pure,
perfumed nose of bright blackcurrant fruit. The palate is ripe and
fresh with lovely fruit and nice typicity. This will be blended with
the Shiraz (below) to make the Bovard Rouge.
[Apparently,
in Switzerland, with Pinot Noir there is always a difference between
sugar and phenolic ripeness (meaning that they hardly ever converge),
but for Merlot and Syrah it is possible to achieve that balance.]
Shiraz
2005
Lovely
nose of fresh, vibrant red fruits with great freshness and some
northern Rhône-like
violet character. The palate is open and bright with lots of fresh red
and black fruits. Nice savoury spiciness. This was harvested on 4
November!
Bottled
wines
Louis
Bovard Salix 2004
Rich creamy, mealy nose with generous fruit. There’s
lovely fruit on the palate which is broad and full with a nice
texture. Delicious, with some toastiness, and herb and straw
complexity. Very good/excellent 91/100
Louis
Bovard Buxus Sauvignon Blanc 2004
Wonderful grapefruit and melon nose which is very
expressive. The palate shows lovely acidity: it’s quite bracing with
nice freshness to the fruit, but there’s also a lovely rich texture
too. A special wine. 2000 bottles made. Very good/excellent 94/100
Louis
Bouvard Dézaley Médinette 1997 Dézaley
Chasselas.
Deep yellow–gold colour. Rich, nutty nose. Palate shows smooth
rounded fruit: quite ripe with pear and melon notes. Soft and mellow.
Very good+ 89/100
Louis
Bouvard Dézaley Médinette 2004 Dézaley
Fresh,
open, herby minerally nose. The palate combines lovely rich herby
fruit with good acidity. A really delicious fruity white. Very
good/excellent 91/100
Louis
Bouvard Buxus Sauvignon Blanc 2003
Deep
yellow colour. Really fantastic nose is rich and open with full, fresh
peachy fruit. Sweet and intense. The palate is rich with flavours of
melon and peach, together with a bit of lychee. Very good/excellent
92/100
Louis
Bouvad Rouge 2003
A blend
of Syrah and Merlot with just a touch of Pinot Noir. Smooth, pure
fruity nose of forest fruits. The palate shows ripe smooth red and
black fruits with good acid. Modern and pure. Very good+ 89/100
See also:
Wines tasted 01/06
Find
these wines with wine-searcher.com
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