Domaine Boutinot, Argiles Blanches Blanc

Like all good stories, that of Boutinot France is both long and a little bit complicated! Boutinot began as a tiny importer in Manchester 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 Boutinot France was etablished. 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.

Samantha Bailey, who started as a wine enthusiast, was there at the beginning of this adventure. Since then, she has grown into their Master Blender and has key responsibilities: building long-standing relationships, tasting, understanding the terroir and appellations, and pushing the boundaries. She is at the heart of the whole process from blending to quality assessment, making sure there is always a Boutinot touch in every cuvée.

Today, Boutinot’s French office has recently relocated to Macon, and produces 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 our 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 their own vineyards in Cairanne and Saint-Vérand. Drawing on the expertise of four winemakers and a network of partner growers, they seek to deliver the highest quality-to-price ratio possible for every wine.

The hand picked grapes come from trusted partner growers in Cairanne, with the Roussane plot being only 200 metres from our cellars. Once harvested the grapes are directly pressed and clarified by cold tank. 100% of the clear juice is pumped into 300 and 400 litre oak barrels which are a mixture of new and four year old wood for fermentation.

These have been carefully selected to create texture and intensify the natural character of the wine rather than to impose overt fresh oak. The wine is aged in barrel for 6 months before filtration and bottling at Domaine Boutinot.