Description

2021 Une Vie La Nuit (Syrah) ‘Hors Champ’ – This wine comes from purchased grapes picked at the highest altitude in Roussillon at 600m on the hills of Trevillac and Montalba, permitting a long, slow maturing cycle, which help the freshness and delicacy in the wines. Sapid and Elegant with lots of fresh and silky fruit, together with touches of violets, black cherry, flowers and wet stones. A smooth, fresh and captivating red with good acidity and a moderate level of alcohol. Super

Since he took over, Cyril has searched for a natural balance in the vineyard to help give finer and more complex expressions in his wines. To avoid soil compaction he uses no tractors, just a motorized hand-held cultivator and a horse to help with ploughing. He also sows leguminous plants between the rows of vines, rolling them and folding them back in the summer so that they act as a reserve of humidity, helping each vine to suffer less from the heat and keep enough freshness in its grapes, which is crucial as the village of Latour-de-France is known to have the driest non-irrigated vineyard in the world (an average of just 250mm of rain a year). The crux of viticulture for Cyril is observing the nature of each of his vines and their environment with a lot of attention and reacting according to their specific needs.

Yields are tiny, in the 10-20hh range, and back in the new cave that he converted four years ago, the fruit is gently handled with extractions more like infusion, élevage in 500/600ltr demi-muids and foudres, no fining or filtration and total sulphur levels of just 10-15mg/l.

The range comprises two outstanding whites, the principal cuvée a mix of maccabeu and carignan blanc, with a couple of barrels of grenache gris producing a wine from the exceptional terroir of L’Ubac. The reds include a Jeunes Vignes grenache that shows that this grape can give wines with finesse and elegance, an old vine cuvée that is made from gnarled old carignan, and a red from L’Ubac that is a mix of carignan, grenache and cinsault.