• Roc des Anges & Terres de Fagayra

    • Australe

    At a Glance

    • Variety: Serine (ancient variety of Syrah)
    • Vine Age: Planted in 2001
    • Terroir: Single vineyard on schists with some clay
    • Viticulture: Organic (certified, practicing since 2008) and biodynamic (certified, practicing since 2011)
    • Winemaking: Mostly destemmed. Ambient yeast fermentation with pieds de cuve in closed concrete tanks for 7 days, then pressed and racked back to tank to finish fermentation. No temperature control. No punching down or pump overs. Aged in tank. No fining, light filtration. Total sulfur at bottling 30 to 50ppm.

    Additional Info

    Marjorie: Stéphane worked at Cuilleron. We had spent time in the Northern Rhône.
    Stéphane: It's our Proust's madeleine.
    M: We had schists and planted Syrah, a massal selection of Serine from Saint-Joseph, without thinking much further. (It was the first parcel we planted in 2001.) And for many years, the grapes would dessicate before they ripened. So we threatened the vineyard to pull it out in 2013. And lo and behold, in 2014, it behaved. The vines had just taken more than a decade to accept to be planted here in the south, to be exposed to the winds, to be thirsty. Biodynamics helped.