Anna Sarda "Coteaux de Cabrerisse" Languedoc, France 2021

FROM MARY TAYLOR:

THE WINE: Our Cabrerisse comes from 40-60 year-old Carignan vines, dry-famed in the stony landscape of this small Languedoc appellation. Winemaker Anne Sarda works her vineyards by hand, and the wine is fermented with native, ambient yeasts and aged in concrete vessels up to 105 years old.

THE PRODUCER: Anne Sarda and her team do their vineyard work by hand. Carignan vines, up to 60 years old, grow as bush vines at 130 meters altitude, necessitating hand harvest and producing low yields of 30 hl/ha. The climate is dry and the vines struggle in their stony soils – too stony to even plant cover crops. It is a wild and rural landscape, yet strikingly beautiful and natural. No pesticides, no herbicides, and no irrigation are employed. The estate is HVE Level 3 Certified.

After the intense labor in the vineyards, Anne works with a delicate touch in the cellar. Spontaneous fermentation by native, ambient yeasts takes place in large concrete tanks, followed by 10 days’ maceration, then aging in old concrete vessels that are at least 60 (and up to 105 years!) old. The wine is not fined, just lightly filtered and an infinitesimal 2 g/hl of sulfur is added right before bottling.

Saint Laurent de la Cabrerisse is one of the 5 municipalities that qualify for the small Coteaux de Cabrerisse IGP. Anne’s rendition of it – expressing all the character of those old Carignan vines on stony soils – is intense and pure.