Lifted and floral yet with a grounding earthiness on the nose, this vintage evokes brambles and hedgerows, red fruits and violets. The palate is complex, taut and coiled at first, giving way to a combination of ripe raspberry, salted liquorice and a hint of dried herbs. That saline edge adds length to the finish. A broody, beguiling vintage.

Gentle and minimum intervention with a ‘hands-off ’ approach to reflect the terroir of Botrivier. After hand picking in the early morning, bunches were destemmed into small fermenting tanks keeping 30% whole clusters. I allowed four days of cold soaking on skins for flavour to develop before a natural fermentation started. Punch downs were done by hand, twice a day, resulting in gentle extraction, preserving the grape’s natural character. An additional post-fermentation maceration of 10 days was allowed to extract the finer, softer tannins. After a total of 4 weeks on the skins, grapes were gently pressed with an old basket press into older French oak 225 L barrels for malolactic fermentation and maturation. 16 months in barrel and no fining. Bottled in August 2023.

ANALYSIS: ALC 12.5% | RS 2.1 g/l | TA 4.9 g/l | pH 3.46