The Languedoc is one of the world’s oldest winegrowing regions, tracing its history back to 125 BC. For many years it has been known for abundant, cheap, and uninteresting wine, but in recent decades a new wave of small winemakers has earned the region a new reputation.
Foulaquier’s vineyards embody the polyculture at the heart of their farming philosophy. The rows of vines are full of flowers, insects, and wild herbs — they even let a herd of nubian goats roam through the vines, trimming back the grass and fertilizing the soil. It’s Eden on a sunny hillside in southern France.
For years Carignan has been a high-yield, low-complexity grape known for making oceans of cheap wine. But at Foulaquier, the grape is given the room it deserves.
Foulaquier’s ability to channel natural terroir is extraordinary. No other winemaker we work with produces wines of such varied complexity and depth. The wines mix perfectly ripe, juicy notes of raspberry, cherries, violets, and roses with earthy notes of spice, lavender, garrigue and leather. There’s more going on in a glass of Foulaquier than nearly any other wine we know.
The Gran’Tonillieres is Foulaquier’s flagship wine – made from 60 year old vines of Grenache and Carignan, it shows extraordinary complexity but with elegance and grace. Raspberries appear on the label, and they are an apt hint of what’s inside. The wine is too complex to name (or know) all the notes, but highlights include leather, earth, and rosemary.
This is as sophisticated and delicious as natural wine gets.
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Foulaquier Gran’Tonillieres 2017
bottle price: $42
FREE EAST COAST SHIPPING ON ANY 12 BOTTLES