L'Extrême Blanc 2024

Extrême Blanc is one of these wines which left me speechless during the tasting session. How beautiful is Grenache Gris when you give it the leading role ? 873 bottles were produced.

Made from 125 years old Grenache vines and aged in old oak barrels, the wine features a deeply seducing golden hue. The tightly wound palate opens to notes of dried apricots, candied lemon, buddha's hand lime peel, oven baked red apples and gingerbread that would have been perfumed with Calvados liquor from Normandy. As if it wasn't enough, you get offered a complex and long finish that is both saline and rich. Rare and beautiful.
I recommend to decant it. Huge ageing potential.
17,5/20 Jancis Robinson.

Region: Côtes Catalanes
Grape: Grenache gris 40%, Grenache blanc 15%, Macabeu 30%  Grenache noir 15%
Alcohol: 13%
Total SO2: 30 mg/L
Service: 12°C.
For: 🦪🦞🦐🦀🐠🧀

Tech facts: 

Yield: 6 hl/ha !

Vinification: Basket pressed and cold settled, before spontaneous fermentation in 2nd year 225L barrique and 5th year 500L barrels. Ageing in 3rd year barrique, 5th-year barrels and stainless steel with extended solids contact. No fining, bottled with light filtration.

Terroir: 1ha schistose marls on steep northeast facing slopes. 314-260m altitude. Mas de las Fredas, Vallée de l’Agly.

Vintage: A mild winter followed by a wet March was promising, however, what followed brought our smallest crop since our first vintage in 2003. A poor flowering due to high winds and humidity and then almost no rain in spring and summer caused the vines to endure varying levels of hydric stress. My treatment moved from treating disease to applying biostimulants to leaves to encourage photosynthesis. Due to low cropping, the vines reached maturity early. The indigenous yeasts and bacteria fermented well, and we now have a small quantity of extremely vibrant wine with great precision,