Foulaquier Orphée 2019

Foulaquier is an excellent source in Pic-St-Loup, at the northern end of the sprawling Languedoc. Their wines are natural, wild, sometimes funky, and always delicious. They also exhibit a completeness often absent in low-intervention styles — where some offer a single, interesting, unusual note, Foulaquier’s wines are a harmonious symphony of nature — perhaps Philip Glass more than Beethoven, but charming nonetheless.

Foualquier’s 2019 Orphée is natural wine done to perfection. Foulaquier has added no sulfites to this cuvée, but the nose is sophisticated and clean – we’d put it squarely in the middle of the domaine’s typical natural character. It’s raised for 15 months in sandstone amphora and concrete tanks. The nose shows dark fruit, with violets and tapenade; the mouth is young and intense but with excellent intensity.