Press 2 • December 2023 Direct Press Selection

The wines of Tue-Boeuf have been part of the conversation around natural wine for many years—in the early 90s Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat brothers were pushing the boundaries of zero sulfur winemaking and organic farming when few others dared. Thierry says, "The first time I drank a natural wine, it put me in the same state as Bernadette Soubirous in front of the Virgin Mary. A year later, I was attempting my first 100% grape vinification. Working organically became an evidence to me a few months later. Ever since, I visit Ville-Morgon [in Beaujolais] every year the way some go to Lourdes; there aren't any miracles, but there's certainly joy for me!"

Thierry kept the faith and spread it like an apostle burning with the spirit. When his older brother was weary of taking on more work and purchasing more land, Thierry began a negociant project that was a huge influence in Cheverny, as he paid growers more to convert to or continue working organically. Many of them saw that they could start bottling their own wines, too, leading to a groundswell of newly christened growers in Cheverny like Pierre-O Bonhomme, Herve Villemade, Christian Venier, Philippe Tessier, and others. After Jean-Marie retired, Thierry’s daughter Zoe stepped in and the results are spectacular, as anyone who has been following already knows.

La Guerrerie is 2/3 Côt and 1/3 Gamay from a vineyard that was the site of some Hundred Years' War skirmishes back in the 14th century. Though the vines are in the Cheverny AOC, they see this as closer to a more robust Touraine wine in style, something Thierry has been arguing about with the AOC for some years now. Whole cluster, semi carbonic maceration in old barrels with little to no sulfur added. It smells amazing. Red plum and basil with some subtle, crunchy earth and a cranberry-like lift on the finish. Ethereal but precise, dangerously delicious but complex. We are lucky to procure these wines for our Direct Press members as the demand has made them more difficult to get than ever. It's not hard to understand why. Jonathan Kemp

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