Languedoc-Roussillon, France

Carignan & Grenache

A light, chillable red that bursts with fruit like a crisp, red apple on a sunny fall day. Pomegranate and a touch of garrigue on the nose meet juicy red cherry on the palate. 

Laetitia Ourliac and Rodolphe Gianesini grow grapes and make wine at Fond Cyprès, which really is at the end of a road lined with cypress trees, outside the medieval town of Escales. Their site benefits from the combination of cold, dry air from the northwest and the warm, humid winds from the Mediterranean. Here, a harvest of carignan ferments whole-cluster for two days before being submerged in Grenache juice already fermenting with indigenous yeasts. The whole is then immediately pressed. The wine ages for six months in barrique before bottling without fining, filtration, or any addition of sulfur.