"Jean-Marie was joined on the estate by his younger brother Thierry in the early 90’s and they began converting their vines to organic viticulture. When the Cheverny AOC was created with the 1993
vintage, some varietals became outlawed from the blends, and the brothers started a yearly struggle to get their wines accepted under the new appellation (it bears to mention that they were also in their earliest stages of experimenting with sulfur free winemaking).

While firm believers in the concept of the AOC system, this began a trend of the brothers selling some of their wines as declassified Vin de Pays (renamed Vin de France since 2010). For us, it was one of the first examples of customers knowing and trusting the estate's work methods over the appellation itself. Case in point: as recently as 2020, Thierry has made the difficult decision of intentionally declassifying all of his Touraine cuvées after years of struggles with the appellation and its ever-increased efforts at standardizing and simplifying one of France's most diversely planted wine regions. And while we cannot claim the Puzelats were the first to do this, it clearly served as a monumental influence in the world of
natural wine, setting an example for those having problems or feeling stifled by their appellations' criteria.

Speaking of natural wine Clos du Tue-Boeuf, along with Marcel Richaud, Dard and Ribo, Yvon Metras and a handful of others were at the heart of the nascent natural wine movement in mid-90's Paris. They are undoubtedly the impetus for spreading this philosophy in the Loire, which remains a hotbed for the style to this day.

After an illustrious, 40+ year career, Jean-Marie retired following the 2018
vintage. Thierry is now fully at the helm of the estate and was recently joined by his daughter Zöe.

For their juicy, quaffable vin de soif Gamay, the Puzelats source organically farmed, hand-harvested fruit around their home estate in the Cher valley in the Touraine."- Louis Dressner Selections

Contact