L'Année Blanc 2023

Powerful and elegant, seamless and silky, playful and with uplifting acidity, this wine gives you mirabelle prunes, lemon zest, pomelo juice, peach skin, white flowers and tarragon. Few seconds after, fresh saline nuances persist against a long structured finish. I would have screamed "Chenin from Loire" during a blind tasting 😆. To pair with a simple and efficient cheese plate of brie, camembert, gruyère, some young chèvre and goat cheese.

Region: Corbières Maritime / VDF
Grape: Macabeu 55%, Grenache gris 25%, Roussanne 15%, Muscat 5%
Alcohol: 13%
Total SO2: 18 mg/L
Service: 8/10°C.
For: 🧀🍣🦐🥒🐙🐠

Tech facts: 

Yield: 11 - 20 hl/ha

Vinification: Basket pressed and cold settled, before spontaneous fermentation in
stainless steel. Ageing in stainless steel and barrel with extended solids contact. No fining with a little filtration.

Terroir: 1ha Macabeu, mica schist on southwest facing terraces. 180-200m
altitude. Montner, Vallée de l’Agly. 0.7ha and 0.35ha Grenache gris, schistose marls on east to southeast slopes. 190-220m altitude. Maury, Vallée de l’Agly. 0.6 Muscat,
schistose marls. 300m altitude. Mas de las Fredas, Vallée de l’Agly. Some
Roussanne was purchased from Biodynamic domaine near the village of Lagrasse.

Vintage:
A mild winter was followed by our third consecutive growing season with below average rainfall. Very little disease pressures allowed us to focus on treating the vineyards and vines with compost tea and algae based foliar sprays. A cooler summer reduced the effects of hydric stress. Early August electrical storms rained on some of our inland vineyards while our maritime vineyards missed out. A small crop that quickly reached
maturity. Very small berries with good acid retention. Higher nitrogen levels in fruit allowed the clean ferments by the indigenous yeasts. Final wines are concentrated and generous.