{"title":"La Boutanche","description":"\u003cp\u003eSometimes the most influential wine project is the one that persuades the most people to try natural wine for the first time. La Boutanche began in 2012 when New York importer Selection Massale set out to fill a gap in the market: there was almost nothing serious, naturally made, and genuinely affordable to hand to someone who had never tried the category before. The answer was a litre bottle with a screw cap, a boldly illustrated animal on the label, and a commitment to sourcing from producers who needed no vetting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSelection Massale, one of the pioneering importers of natural wine in the United States, launched La Boutanche with a single bottling: 100% Gamay from Olivier Minot's Domaine des Charbonnières in southern Beaujolais. Minot, who farms organically with his wife Corinne, harvests from 90-year-old vines and ferments in concrete tanks with no added sulfur. He became the inaugural producer and was immortalised on the label as a cheerful pig in a Hawaiian shirt. Since then the line has grown to include Cinsault and Grenache from Martin Texier in the northern Rhône, Riesling and Trollinger from Weingut Andi Knauss in Württemberg, Germany, and pétillant naturel from Frantz Saumon in the Loire, each producer identified by a distinct animal character.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMore on how they farm and work in the cellar in our \u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/natural-wine-producers-primal-wine\/la-boutanche\"\u003eLa Boutanche producer profile\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"melon-de-bourgogne-la-boutanche-loire-france-white-wine","title":"'La Boutanche' Melon 2016","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis wine begins with fruit sourced from Domaine Landron-Chartier, a family estate run by Bernard and Benoit Landron in the Coteaux d'Ancenis zone northeast of Nantes. Their vineyards sit on soils of schist, micaschist, and gneiss from the ancient Massif Armorican, and the estate has been certified organic since 2010. Melon de Bourgogne is not a permitted variety under Coteaux d'Ancenis AOC rules, so these grapes cannot carry that appellation — the wine is classified as Vin de France.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQuentin Bourse of Le Sot de l'Ange brought the grapes to his cellar in Azay-le-Rideau, a sub-appellation of Touraine roughly 150 kilometers east of the source vineyard. Bourse's own estate is certified biodynamic. He used a long, slow pressing into stainless steel tank, native yeast fermentation, and aged the wine entirely in tank before bottling with no added SO2.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 2016 growing season in the Loire was marked by April frosts, a wet spring, and then a dry late summer. Moderate temperatures through harvest helped preserve acidity and a clean fruit profile in the finished wines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause this Melon de Bourgogne was neither grown in a Muscadet zone nor vinified within one, it carries no appellation beyond Vin de France. What it does carry is the mineral density and salinity typical of the grape on ancient crystalline soils, without the lees-aging that defines textbook Muscadet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Boutanche","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":12742502613047,"sku":"LESOMELO16C","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/files\/melon-de-bourgogne-la-boutanche-loire-france-white-wine.jpg?v=1780675070"},{"product_id":"la-boutanche-pet-nat-nv-sauvigon-chardonnay-loire-natural-wine","title":"La Boutanche Pet Nat NV","description":"\u003cp\u003eLa Boutanche is a pétillant naturel blanc from Quentin Bourse of Le Sot de l'Ange, made from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay grown on biodynamically farmed vines in Azay-le-Rideau, in the Touraine subzone of the Loire Valley. The estate sits on clay-silica soils (locally called perruches) and clay-limestone aubuis over a Tuffeau limestone bedrock, which lends the wines their characteristic mineral edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBourse ferments and ages the blend across three different vessels: a cement tank, a stainless steel tank, and a custom oak barrel he had built to his own specifications, referred to in the cellar as the cigar barrel. The wine completes its secondary fermentation in bottle, as pétillant naturel, with no disgorgement and no added SO2.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe result is a lively, low-pressure sparkler with fine persistent bubbles, aromas of green apple, fresh-baked bread, and citrus zest, and a lean, dry finish driven by the natural acidity of both varieties. It is bottled as Vin de France.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Boutanche","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":13715619348535,"sku":"LESOPETNNVC","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0019\/3363\/9735\/files\/la-boutanche-pet-nat-nv-sauvigon-chardonnay-loire-natural-wine.jpg?v=1780662751"}],"url":"https:\/\/primalwine.com\/collections\/la-boutanche.oembed","provider":"Primal Wine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}