Gentle and minimum intervention with a ‘hands-off ’ approach to show the delicate and elegant side of this grape. After hand picking in the early morning, bunches were destemmed into small fermenting tanks with 30% whole clusters. I allowed four days of cold soaking on skins for colour and flavour to develop before a natural fermentation started. Punch downs were done by hand, twice a day, resulting in gentle extraction, preserving the grape’s natural character. After a slow and steady fermentation, an additional post-fermentation maceration of 10 days was allowed to extract the finer, softer tannins. After a total of 4 weeks on the skins, grapes were gently pressed with an old basket press into old Foudre for malolactic fermentation and maturation. Total time in Foudre: 12 months. No fining. Bottled in August 2024.

ANALYSIS: ALC 13.04% | RS 2.1 g/l | TA 5.8 g/l | pH 3.32