2020 Samuel Boulay 'Aleph' Alicante/Syrah

Samuel Boulay is a winemaker in the Ardêche region of France. He got his start working for Les Maisons Brûlées for quite a few years in the Loire Valley where he is also originally from. He moved to the small village of Les Salelles on the banks of the River Ibie, where he farms 5 hectares but only half of that is vines. He is surrounded by forest, rivers, plants, and animals and works in serenity with nature. The property is really off the beaten path which it seems he prefers, a nice simple life making wine. He doesn’t like phones so that is a rare photo of him above, he prefers to not be seen and to live simply off the land. For farming he follows the moon cycles and only employs homeopathic treatments to the vines. Grass grows wildly between them creating a beautiful ecosystem between himself and his land. In the cellar he really lets his wines sit... He carries out very long elevage of all his wines in barrel and never tops them. Not only that but he has no electricity in his cellar so they are bottled by gravity and labeled by hand. His entire production equals only 5000 bottles (416 cases) in any given year, so it truly is a small project.

Aleph is a deep and complex blend of Alicante Bouschet and Syrah. This wine doesn’t go through quite as long elevage as the Ritournelle does at only just a year, but the grapes are fermented together in whole bunches which gives it some nice crunchy fruit to it. Tastes of black fruits, olives, and wildflowers. This wine is wonderful at cellar temperature. We wouldnt suggest serving this wine cold you’ll lose all the wonderful aromatics

Pairing Suggestions: This is a wine for more muscular dishes, such as mushrooms and red meat. A nice ribeye, medium rare, with a bordelaise sauce. Braised pork loin with sauteed mushrooms. Roasted brussel sprouts with a balsamic glaze and onions. Or mushroom conserva spread over baked brie on crispy toast.