Rimbert, Mas au Schiste 2020 750ml

Personality: Ruby in the glass with shimmering highlights. The nose is redolent with red and black fruit scents; cherry cordial, blueberry jam, and crushed stones that are backed by a slight suggestion of black olive and hummus. The palate is elegant and generous with loads of elegant red and black fruit flavors steeped in dynamic mineral-infused cocoa tones.

Vineyard: Selection of different schist plots of the estate, 60 % old vines (50+ years old), all certified organic.

Making of: Grapes are hand-harvested and partly destemmed, then spontaneously fermented with only gentle extraction of the cap, for two weeks. After fermentation, the wine spends about a year on lees in old oak barrels (3-13 years old). The wine undergoes slight filtration and fining and is then bottled using gravity and a little bit of sulfur.

Winemaker's Note: This wine is an ode to Berlou’s schist soils, as the name also suggests (all while playing a double entendre with the French pronunciation of the term “masochist”). One of the domaine’s flagship cuvées, made from low-yielding vines (15 – 25 hectoliters per hectare) from selected old plots around the village, all grown organically by Jean-Marie himself.