- Description
- A groundbreaking experiment, never seen before.
The base wine is a Carignan, but it was fermented with a submerged muslin bag of fresh wild rosemary, to experiment with the flavours of our amazing valley.
Since the use of herbs in winemaking is not permitted, this is technically not a wine, but a form of aromatised wine (like a dry Vermouth, but without the added alcohol. And much nicer!).
- Eyes
- A deep, rich red.
- Nose
- The impact on the nose is subtle - there is an extra dimension of woody/piney notes, but not immediately obvious as rosemary. But the effect is complex and intriguing.
- Mouth
- On the palate, a savoury dimension opens up, and the natural bramble fruit of Carignan is joined by an umami richness remniscent of the sticky pan scrapings from a roast lamb. The rosemary notes are very subtle and contribute some wonderful complexity without overpowering the wine.
- Body
- full
- Winemaking notes
- Two near identical barrels of crushed Carignan grapes were fermented, in an unusual experiment, with a bag of submerged wild herbs, picked that morning from the rugged hills around Maury. This barrel contained 500g of wild rosemary (or "Romarin") for about 7 days, during the main fermentation, and the bag was removed before pressing and filling a 225L barrel.
- Growing Conditions
- An EXTREMELY cold January, with rare snow lying on the ground (briefly) marked the start of a year that was incredibly dry. Very low rainfall in a cool spring, and then a nice mini heatwave in June, but still very little rain. Two more heat spikes in mid July and late August, followed by September rains which finally allowed the vines a little moisture, and helped to swell the thick-skinned grapes. Most of the vineyards for our white and rosé were harvested before the rain, and most of our reds in a dry spell after the rainy spells. A good year for white and pinks, and a GREAT year for reds.
