Forever and Ever Child
Sparkling Rosé, Ardèche 2023
100% Syrah
2023 is a vintage that fermented faster than any vintage we’ve ever seen. Most white wines finished the fermentation, before we had even started harvesting the reds. This sparkling rosé is a 12 hours direct press of Syrah. The following fermentation, for only a few days, took place in a fiberglass cuve and from there it went into bottles. In bottles the fermentation lucky slowed down and finished by creating the bubbles over winter. We have left this Pétillant Naturel on its lies for a little more than a year, which add a little bit of the bitterness. A bitterness that you normally find in wines with longer élevage in barrels. This brings us a less expressive and young fruits with smaller and more delicate bubbles. We have made the dégorgement in fall of 2024 just before the release.
In the end all that is left is what we give
Rosé, Ardèche 2023
60% Syrah 40% Viognier
Separately direct press of both Syrah and Viognier. This press was shorter and faster than what we normally do, meaning around 2-3 days of each. The juice was blended the days after the pressing. Full fermentation and élevage in our old wooden foudre over winter and spring on the lies. Soutirage a week before bottling in the beginning of June.
The time in the old wooden barrel, allows the wine to breath and get rid of the young, sweet and simple fruit driven style that some of our previously rosés are defined by. As our little Domaine is getting older, it’s something we prefer. This is a rosé with a deeper and more rich aromatic profile, as well as a little hint of tannins. A rosé, that might be more suited for a glass in a bar or at a dinner table, than at a terrasse or on the beach.
Weightless fingers
Rosé, Ardèche 2022
50% Grenache Noir 50% Grenache Blanc
Direct press of both red and white grapes. A long slow vertical press over five days. All grapes are from our vineyards placed on the hillside southeast of Valvignères – the area called Valgrand. We harvested Grenache Noir and Blanc the same day and mixed the two varieties directly in the pressoir. Following fermentation has taken place in a fiberglass cuve. The short élevage over winter and spring has been on the lies, which explains the more complex bitterness and aromatic profile.
As we do often, the grapes were harvested very ripe. This gives of course a higher alcohol, but at the same time aromas that are less likely to found in wines made from Grenache. We think, in this case specifically, of flavors like grapefruit and rose leaves. These flavors, combined with the very light rosé color – closer to white than rosé, places our first Rosé of 2023 a little bit out of the category Rosé – If you’re more comfortable by calling it white rather than rosé, we’re completely okay with that. We bottled the wine in June, directly from the cuve, without making any soutirage.
Inside I’m a boat build of paper
Red, Ardèche 2022
100% Grenache Noir
Grenache Noir Vieilles Vignes – so from Old Vines, planted in 1956 by the father of Jocelyne and Gérald Oustric. The grapes we harvested were very ripe, but still with some freshness, and particularly a very precis bitterness. We destemmed a part of the grapes and the rest we pressed directly. The juice from the direct press juice and the destemmed grapes has been macerating together for a month, then décuvage, fermentation and élevage on lies in old barriques for two years.
This wine changed its expression a lot during the first 10 months in barrels.
Starting out being the perfect image of Grenache Noir, just to move flavor-wise closer to what we know as Bourgogne Pinot Noir. After as little less than one year in barrels the flavor profile of Grenache Noir came back, and since this profile has only become more and more pronounced.
It is now giving us the well-known classical Grenache Noir notes; rich dark fruit, salted caramel and sweet/dark chocolate.
A completely dry red wine, with an alcohol percentage of 14,25, with a very well-integrated memory of sugar – as Jacques Néauport would say. For all the wines we’ve ever made this one, might be the one, that are the closest to what now a days are being understood as classical wines. We believe it need to be understood as so. Drink some now, save a lot for more in your cellar and let it age.
Tout ce qui beau revient
White, Alsace 2020
100% Gewürztraminer
A wine made of rich and very aromatic Gewürztraminer at harvest time with a beautiful noble rot. We made a direct press of the grapes same day as we harvested them to be able to extract as much of these flavors as possible.
After a few days of oxidation, the juice went into fiberglass cuves to ferment over winter. After a soutirage in the spring of 2021, time just enough to add these yeasty and autolytic flavors that we love so much, the wine went into the cellar where it finished its fermentation and stayed another 3 ½ years in old barrels without topping up.
Gewürztraminer is in general moving slow when it comes to the development of flavors, and it took close to two years of élevage, before the oxidation started to make its mark. But as it always goes with aromatic varieties like Gewürztraminer, once the oxidation arrives, the oxidation takes its place and create together with the other aromas a beautiful balance.
It’s the smell of pine trees by the sea that I prefer
White, Alsace
Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris & Gewürztraminer
This wine is a rare example of an assemblage from our cellar. It was made a long time after the grapes where harvested and pressed. By the time of bottling, we decided to assemble a few single wine barrels, all 2019, but all deferent blends. This left us with a more balance and yet complex expression of the different barrels. And some more volume than the single barrels could offer us. We made this assemblage in May 2024 and believe that the wine now after six months, in bottles, are ready to be drunk. As all our barrels, they haven’t been topped up and the wine have therefor developed oxidative notes.
Palpite un peu comme un cæur sauvage
White, Alsace 2019
Pinot Noir & Gewürztraminer
A field blend of Pinot Noir and Gewürztraminer. As we do with most grapes and freshly pressed juice in Alsace, the grapes were pressed overnight, and the juice left for oxidation and start fermentation in open casks. Followed by 6 months of fermentation in fiberglass cuves outside, soutirage in the spring of 2018 and élevage for 5 years in old barrels, without any topping up.
After bottling we decided to save the wine another 18 months in the cellar, before release. We did this to allow the acidity, the deep salty notes and the oxidation to find each other again. Some old wines need time to recreate the balance after bottling. Now it’s exactly the balance of all these elements that defines this wine – we’re therefore very happy for our decision and patience, something the wine have benefited a lot from.
