Crunchy, Tart & Juicy, Perfectly Bourgueil
This cuvée has become something of a calling card for the Gauthier family, who are among the most important voices in the appellation. Pierre Gauthier and now his son Rodolphe have built their reputation on a style of Bourgueil that is both quietly age-worthy and wonderfully lifted, with wines that show elegance, red-fruited purity, and that irresistible “crunchy” texture Cabernet Franc lovers chase year after year.
Domaine du Bel Air has long been farmed with precision and care; the family has embraced organic viticulture for decades, and their vines in Benais are treated, as they like to say, “as if they were a garden.” While their top cuvées can age beautifully for decades, Jour de Soif is intended to be the domaine’s most vibrant and immediate expression, a wine that radiates freshness without ever slipping into simplicity. Even in this earlier-drinking bottling, you can feel the structure and finesse that define Bel Air, the same traits that have made the domaine so respected throughout the Loire.
The 2023 offers a vivid aromatic profile of wild red berries, flowers, and subtle herbal character without being green. It is fermented with native yeasts after a gentle cold maceration and raised entirely in stainless steel on its fine lees, a process that preserves clarity and tension. On the palate, it is tartly juicy, with bright acidity, feather-light tannins, and a finish that snaps cleanly into place. It is exactly the kind of wine that feels alive in the glass.
This cuvée is also no stranger to critical praise. As Eric Asimov once wrote of Jour de Soif, “You can sense the structure of the other cuvées … in the fine tannins that give shape to this otherwise fresh and juicy wine.” That sentiment captures the magic here: a bottle you can open any night of the week, yet with the quiet pedigree of a domaine that never cuts corners.
