Le Raisin et l'Ange Pause Canon 2016 VdF

Pretty red. Fuzzy. Peach skin. Nice natty tang. Juicy fresh hole in the center. Canned fruit. Honeydew. Savory soft herbs follow, basil, oregano. Mouthfuls of bright dirt.

“Wine of relaxation and recklessness”

— leraisinetlange.com

75% Gamay and 25% Syrah from the Ardeche. Separate whole cluster carbonic, Gamay for six days, and twice that for the Syrah. Two months in stainless steel to integrate and it's off.

Gilles Azzoni went to wine making school in the 70s, but converted to organic in the late 90s and started Le Raisin et l'Ange in 2000. Truly natural, no sulphur at all, no filter, no yeast. Just wine. Ecocert. 

Berthet Rayne 2014 Vieilles Vignes AOC Cairanne

Purple raisin red. Not be confused with Purple Rain. Or purple drank. Alcohol on the nose. Warm rocks. Indistinct herbs. Flowers. Spicy attack. Fatty black pepper, 50 pieces of cinnamon gum. Herbs become less random, more rosemary, cloves. Nose gets dustier, dried alliums, tobacco leaves. Teethy acids. Makes me want to eat a whole lamb. Not the wooly outside part though. 
60% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 20% Carignan certified VIN BIO, from clay-limestone soils studded with quartzite rocks. Caillouteux, more pebbles than galets.

Cairanne is at the northern end of the Southern Rhone, 50km from Montelimar, and sits well in the cooling Mistral winds. Keeps the grenache higher toned, fruity and flowery. This one sees a year in concrete tanks. Lovely.

Arbalete and Coquelicots 2016 Aude IGP

Dark black red. Rock smoke and licorice. Spiced texture. Rising minerals. Warming and drying. Sour climbs to bitter fruit tannins. Green clusters of fruit.

80% Grenache 20% Syrah certified AB from clay and limestone in the Minervois. Jean-Baptiste Senat took over the family estate, converted to organic and makes seven cuvees with indigenous Mediterranean grapes, Grenache at the core. Natural and without additives. Whole clusters, 10 day fermentation, and elevated in the tank over the winter.

Mas d'Agalis - Yo No Puedo Mas 2014 VdF

Ripe red. Eggs. Egg shaped rocks. Match heads, sulphur. Sweet slippery. Vegetal greens. Baby arugula. Fleshy flat mid, spicy tannins. Jalapeno. Smoke.

50% Syrah, 40% Carignan, 10% Mourvèdre from 16 terraced acres in the Languedoc. 12 months in a combo of tank (60%) and (40%) barrique. Maybe the Carignan alone gets the wood, as at 70 years, they are the oldest of the vines by far. Hand picked, sorted, and 15 day fermentation with indigenous yeasts. Biodynamically farmed, manure, natural treatment. Bottled with a trace of sulphur if needed, less than 20mg/l, keeping it within Biodynamic allowances.

Lionel Maurel makes a couple cuvees, and this one gets the middle finger at the IONA,
"Yo No Puedo Mas" translates as "I can't take this anymore", declassifying the wine even from the Vin de Pays certification. He sneaks in the vintage with a not so vague XIV, Roman numeral 14.

Open Now 2015 Minervois AOC

Deep purple and red. Giant grey skies. Charcoal fruit. Extracted nose. Fresh, lovely creosote. Ashtrays full of olive pits. Char. Gum rubber. Waxy chalk, red earth. Minerals hiding as fizz / not fizz. Garrigue. Petrichor. Says 14%, smells like 100 proof.

60 Syrah. 40 Mourvedre. Fermented 3 weeks in concrete tanks. Aged 11 months on fine lees in small concrete tanks. Light filtration and minimal sulphur at bottling.

Demeter certified biodynamic on limestone and clay soils. Compost and manure are used to promote rich microbial life. Collected rainwater used for tisanes and biodynamic preparations as needed. Minimal interventions, hand harvested, and triaged before vinification.

The name and bottle gave a bit of a scare, but it's a perfectly respectable glou, just made by a Knight. Sir John Hegarty is a real life Don Draper and is the proprietor, while winemaker Jessica Servet, nobly, pushes the agenda.

Causse Toujours Ribiera 2012 VdF

Dark rocks. Rust. Peppery cherries in an aromatic brightness. Skin tannins numbing, maybe seeds, sticks? Pleasant roundness. Wild. Clanging Cinsault. Iron filings. Zinc.

Says Cinsault ↗️  Grenache ➡️  Syrah ↘️  on the label, and 65/25/10 on the website. Fair. IGP Pays d'Hérault because it's young. 10 year old vines. Manual harvest, Vinified in vats, native yeasts. Destemmed, pumped over, and racked to expose and oxidize, move things along. Natural, non filtered, no pesticides. Little or no sulphur at bottling.

Winemaker Régis Pichon was a Somm in Paris until he decamped for Languedoc in 2005. Growing local varietals, and making wine as the grapes see fit. This one is labelled as 2012? Where has it been hiding? It was also a steal. So.
 

Brutal Domaine la Boheme VdF

Black. Gack. Sweet licorice. Berry juice. Powdered granite. What's the French version of licorella? I can imagine what these soils look like. Roiling passion. Bright blasting koolaid Berries. Lovely citric acid. Candy wand. Lick em stix. Swirl and wow. Dark. Bells. I want a case of this.

The Brutal Wine Company is a crazy wonderful concept. Based around a natural wine bar in Barcelona, named apropos, Bar Brutal. These are one-off cuvees from natural winemakers. Some bottles are for the bar, and accompanying wine store Can Cisa in el Born, but the rest are sold by the winemakers as a prestige project.

This is from Domaine la Boheme, winemaker Patrick Bouju has a few hectares on the gentle slopes of Auvergne, at the headlands of the Loire River, just west of Beaujolais, where he focuses on old vine Gamay d’Auvergne. Some broken mixed parcels with the vines too close together for a horse to plow. Had to get a skinnier horse.

50% Gamay d’Auvergne, and 50% Syrah. Patrick's vineyard and cellar practices are minimal, using observations not tricks. Zero sulphur for almost 10 years. Pure wine.

Chateau la Canorgue 2014 Luberon AOC

Dark. Rather glorious. Raisins with reasons. Leather pants. Canned tobacco. Roaring skin tannins. Concentrated.

2 for 1 Glass with a burger. Syrah Grenache Mourvedre. 60 30 10. Neutral oak, doesn't mean it has no opinions on the subject. 

Organic since the 70's, Ecocert certified. (ATM Machine..) Vinification is natural, indigenous yeasts and only a minimal dose of SO2 is added. The cellar has a selection of foudres, demi-muids and barriques.