Mary Taylor + Christophe Avi "Agenais" Rosé, Lot-et-Garonne, France 2023

FROM MARY TAYLOR:

THE WINE: This Agenais rosé is made from his younger vines, no more than 20 years, and consists of juice from Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon. The taste is something like minerally orange blossom and lime leaf, with lots of grip.

THE PRODUCER: We adore working with Christophe Avi, our otherwise source of Buzet wines. He discontinued working with the large co-op of Buzet roughly 30 years ago when he discovered a passion for biodynamic farming, and since has cultivated 20 hectares of deeply regenerative and biodiverse vineyards. Christophe makes wines with minimal intervention – no chemicals in the vineyard, all natural yeast, a light filtration – so that you get aromatics of earth, wet stone, nuanced fruit – those which makes wines of terroir so elegant. When Christophe is not on the tractor or tending to his wines, he is rescuing cats, cooking for his lovely wife, and being an all-around kind and decent human. The Avi family had cooked for us for days in preparation for our last visit and we spent so much time playing in the vineyards – I left feeling like this is exactly the kind of family business I am so proud to support.