Puzelat Bonhomme 'In Cot We Trust' KO

Côt (Malbec)

Loire Valley, France

Domaine Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme is the continuation and evolution of the now defunct Puzelat-Bonhomme négociant project. Revenues were tight, and Thierry Puzelat, the younger of the two brothers running the estate, wanted to expand by renting or buying more vineyards. His brother Jean-Marie, in his late forties at the time, did not want to add more vineyard and cellar work to his already heavy schedule. So Thierry started a négociant business, set up a winery in the village of Monthou-sur-Bièvre and sourced excellent vineyards and vine-tenders to buy their grapes.

The négoce project had gotten bigger than he'd anticipated, and he needed a partner. Thierry quickly found one in Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme, a teenager who'd dropped out high school and had helped work a few seasons at Tue-Boeuf. Pierre-O, young and motivated, became a partner in his early 20's and the négoce business was renamed Puzelat-Bonhomme.

In anticipation of Jean-Marie's retirement from Clos du Tue-Boeuf, Thierry knew the day would come where he would have to re-shift his focus back to his family estate. A plan was then hatched to have Pierre-O continue the négociant operation under his own name. The switch officially happened with the 2013 vintage, but Pierre-O has vinified the entirety of the production since 2011.