Producer Domaine de La Bohème

FRANCIA, ALVERNIA

The Domaine de La Bohème by Patrick Bouju is located in the village of Saint-Georges-sur-Allier, in central-southern France, in a region called Massif Santoral about 40 km east of Clermont-Ferrand. Here the soils are thin and of volcanic origin, and enjoy a unique climatic condition, with little rainfall, hot summers and cold winters, and strong excursions between day and night, unique conditions for the cultivation of the vine. Patrick worked as a programmer at the IBM, and at the end of the week he would wander around the cellars. The most important decision of her life took her after the Pierre Bose meeting that taught him the first notions of viticulture. Until 2002 he produced his wine using weekends and holidays, but in 2003 he decided to leave his job at IBM to found Domaine de La Bohème. Today it cultivates about 5 hectares of vineyards, most of which are planted with Gamay and Pinot Noir, but we also find almost disappeared grape varieties such as Limberger, Mirefleurien, and multiple types of Gamay, such as Fréau, Bouze and Gamay d 'Auvergne. These vines, some of which are centuries old, are processed with great respect for nature, in an organic way so as to have healthy grapes. Patrick does most of the work in the vineyard manually, and for the treatment he does not use herbicides or synthetic chemicals, but products based on copper and sulfur, as well as fermented vegetable extracts or herbal infusions, such as nettle, horsetail, which serve to strengthen the natural defenses of the vine. In the cellar, Patrick tries to intervene little in winemaking, and he processes the plots separately to look for the characteristics of the different soils. Spontaneous fermentation without the use of sulfur dioxide and aging in the most diverse containers, ranging from steel tanks, to oak barrels, to amphorae.