Wines (12 View)

Organic

This is the most important wine of the estate, a serious red vinified to reflect its capacity to age. The grapes are harvested at a point of slight surmaturité which captures the profound scents and flavors of the surrounding hillside garrigue. The cuvaison continues for at least a month; then, the wine is racked into tank for aging. The wine is bottled twenty to twenty-four months after harvest. As the wine ages in bottle, it develops enticing notes of juniper, rosemary and thyme as well as the savory flavors of wild berries and a hint of the "animal" all in all, one of the more compelling values in all of France.

Organic / Natural

A crushable chillable red.

13% abv

90 points Wine Advocate
Tasted twice, two months apart, with consistent notes, the 2020 Côtes du Roussillon Bastide Miraflors is a 70-30 blend of Syrah and Grenache, aged in demi-muids and concrete tanks, respectively. There's a hint of peppermint, but the primary focus here is on the fruit, ranging from blueberries and mulberries into darker notes of plum and dark chocolate. It's full-bodied and creamy in texture, with deliciously supple, soft tannins, which make it exceptionally easy to drink now, but maybe not particularly long-lived.

Organic

Review is on the previous vintage.

94 pts Jeb Dunnuck
A richer styled wine (I've compared this cuvée to a Chardonnay from Mark Aubert), the 2020 Novellum has a medium gold hue as well as a rich, powerful bouquet of caramelized lemon, honeyed almonds, candle wax, and toasted bread. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, and balanced, this is another no brainer purchase.

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural / No Sulphur Added

100% Old Vine Carignan

Saskia Van Der Horst worked as a sommelier in London before deciding to study oenology in Burgundy. During her 2 year degree, she apprenticed with some of the greats in natural wine – Jean-Claude Rateau in Beaune and Jean-Christophe Comor in Provence.

In 2013, she settled in the Roussillon in South West France and started Domaine Les Arabesques. The estate has been certified organic since 2013 and is located 30km from Perpignan, between the Corbières and Pyrenees mountains. Eight vineyard plots make up 4.50 hectares of old vine Carignan as well as Syrah, Lledoner Pelut, Grenache Noir, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, and Macabeu. The vineyards are spread across three towns, and Saskia benefits from a great diversity in soil types; schist in Montner, marl slate in Planèzes, and gneiss granite in Latour-de-France.

Oscillating between fiberglass tanks and wood, Saskia makes wine using only native yeasts, without fining or filtering. Grapes are destemmed and very lightly crushed with little to no added sulfur, depending on the year. She has been practicing biodynamics since 2019.

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural

Region: Languedoc-Roussillon
Grape: Cinsault, Grenache
Vineyard Size: 7 hectares
Soil: clay, red stone
Average Age of Vines: 35 years
Farming: biodynamic
Harvest: by hand
Winemaking: spontaneous fermentation in cuves with indigenous yeasts
Aging: in cuves
Fining: none
Filtration: none
Added S02: 10-15mg/L

Regis Pichon works 7.5 hecatares of vines on sloping shiste hills surrounding the small village of Aspiran in the Languedoc. He grows a range of grapes from Cinsault, Syrah and Grenache to Terette, Roussanne and Clairette . Before making wine, Regis worked as a sommelier in one of the world’s great cellars at La Tour d’Argent in Paris and at the equally renowned wine shop Hediard, where he met his wife Catherine.

In 2005, Regis decided to move his family from the city to a tiny village and begin making wine. It wasn’t his background in the classics of Bordeaux or Burgundy that inspired him, but rather a bottle of Pierre Overnoy from Arbois in the Jura that opened his eyes to natural wine beauty.The wine was cleaner than he had thought a wine without sulphur wine could be and so much easier to drink than the extracted, conventional wines that he worked with daily as a sommelier. He knew that making wine rather than pouring it was his true path.

Crimson red Color with Purple tint. Lovely bouquet of red fruits and wild berries. Long and Elegant finish, round and full on the palate. This wine is perfect served with wild berries fruit desserts or on blue cheese. (winemaker)

Review is on the previous vintage.
94 pts Jeb Dunnuck
All Chardonnay brought up in used demi-muids, the 2019 La Colline Aux Fossiles sports a medium gold hue to go with terrific stone fruits, caramelized citrus, white flowers, and honeysuckle-like aroma and flavors as well as a beautiful sense of minerality that emerges with time in the glass. Medium to full-bodied and beautifully textured, with a layered mouthfeel and a great finish, it’s another knockout Chardonnay from the team of Eric Solomon and Jean-Marc Lafage.

Organic / Biodynamic

Mas des Capitelles’ workhorse Vieilles Vignes is built on the backs of Mourvèdre (50%) and Carignan (25%) from vines up to 80 years old, with Syrah (25%) completing the blend. After a 30-day maceration with a small proportion of semi-carbonic whole clusters in the fermentation, one-fifth of the cuvée was aged in oak and four-fifths in fiberglass and enamel vats, with bottling taking place after 14 months. An exuberant nose of blueberries, violets, and warm dust evokes the sun-scorched slopes of the appellation in visceral fashion, and the palate sizzles with an almost spiky minerality, framed by rich but firm blue and black fruits. The balance of refinement and wildness here is extraordinary, with neither trait calling too much attention to itself.

Mas des Capitelles began in 1999, when ninth-generation vigneron Jean Laugé began bottling his own wine after a lengthy stint at the local co-operative, where his father's a driving force in the creation of the Faugères appellation in the early 1980's had served as president.

Organic

90 points Vinous
The 2022 Guilhem is airy and breezy, with the grace that makes it a real charmer. This pale-colored, beautifully textured Rosé is impeccable in its balance. Pretty floral notes fill out the mid-palate effortlessly. Despite its light color, the 2022 offers plenty of depth and tons of stylish appeal."

35% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 30% Carignan