For years Thierry Puzelat did double duty, helping his brother run the great family domaine, Clos du Tue-Boeuf, and a negoçiant side project that just bore his own name. Needing help with the second winery, Thierry hired Pierre-O Bonhomme, a teenager who had recently dropped out of high school to pursue a career in wine (try that in the U.S.!). Pierre-O proved to be a prodigy and gradually took on more responsibility at the domaine, now rechristened as Puzelat-Bonhomme. Fast-forward again to 2013, and Pierre-O took over entirely from Thierry, who had returned fully to Clos du Tue-Boeuf on his brother’s retirement. Since that time, Pierre-O has continued making wine in the same natural and organic manner, growing from 4.5 hectares of his own vines and 3.5 that he rents. Per Louis-Dressner, “In the cellar, Pierre-O learned everything from Thierry Puzelat and there are obvious parallels with the Tue-Boeuf wines. With the exception of some recently released macerated whites, almost all of the white wines are direct-pressed, then ferment and age in old barrels. The reds see a whole-cluster, semi-carbonic fermentation and then elevage in old barrel. Tiny amounts of SO2 are only added at bottling and if deemed necessary, more often on the whites than the the reds. Even the the entry-level Telquel is usually bottled sans-souffre.”
