Chardonnay hand-harvested from volcanic soils of the Auvergne, this wine is vinified without additives, with natural fermentation and long aging on lees in amphora and old barrels. The nose opens with ripe pear, elderflower, and a touch of wet stone. On the palate, it is full-bodied yet taut, with a silky texture and a slightly saline finish.
Domaine la Bohème - Justine Loiseau & Patrick Bouju - Auvergne, France
Patrick Bouju’s path to wine was anything but conventional. Trained as a chemical engineer, he first came to wine while studying in Clermont-Ferrand, only to realize that his body reacted badly to sulfur and to most “classical” wines. Rather than turning away, that discovery pushed him deeper. During military service in the mid-1990s, he encountered low-intervention wines made by friends of fellow conscripts, an experience that reframed what wine could be. He went on to study viticulture in Beaune before settling in the Auvergne, releasing his first commercial vintage in 2002 and leaving his engineering career in 2008 to devote himself fully to the vines.
Today, Patrick works alongside his partner, Justine Loiseau, under the name Domaine la Bohème. Together they farm around nine hectares in the Puy-de-Dôme, near Saint-Georges-sur-Allier, an area marked by volcanic soils and a fragmented patchwork of old vineyards. Vines here are scarce—many were lost after phylloxera and the world wars—and Patrick’s parcels are small, scattered, and often very old, some reaching back more than a century. Everything is done by hand, often with the help of a horse, with an attention to detail that extends from the vineyard all the way through bottling and labeling.
The cellar work follows the same logic of restraint and trust. Fermentations are spontaneous, nothing is added, and sulfur is entirely avoided. The aim is not correction but expression: to let the raw material, the vintage, and the volcanic terrain speak clearly. The resulting wines are direct, energetic, and deeply alive, carrying both generosity and tension without polish or disguise.
Alongside their estate wines, Patrick and Justine also produce a négoce range, sourcing organic grapes from close friends who share the same farming values. This side of the project allows for exploration beyond their own vineyards, including lesser-seen varieties and broader stylistic range, without compromising their core principles. Domaine la Bohème has become a reference point for natural wine not because of hype, but because the wines consistently feel honest, personal, and rooted—bottles shaped as much by conviction as by place.
