2024 RIBEYRENC VDF

TRY ME IF YOU LOVE: Gamay / Beaujolais

ABV: 11.0%

GRAPES: 100% Ribeyrenc

TASTING NOTES: Pale red, on the nose a light perfume of violets and peonies, the palate is very mellow, with fresh cherry fruit and a hint of garrigue and white pepper. It’s delicious and takes longer to pronounce than to drink.

PAIRS WITH: Charcuterie, Mediterranean dishes or roasted vegetables.

SERVE ME: Just below room temperature

Thierry Navarre is the third of a generation of winegrowers in Roquebrun, in the Saint-Chinian appellation area, he got his start alongside his father. At the same time he trained in an agricultural school in Pézenas then in Béziers where he discovered the beginnings of the harvesting machine as well as the techniques of conventional agriculture.

His estate covers 12 ha of vines planted on terraces on brown shale terroirs in Roquebrun in the heart of the Haut Languedoc regional natural park. The vines are surrounded by a circle of small mountains covered with arbutus trees, holm oaks, heather, cistus, thyme and rosemary... Thierry is a passionate, artisan winemaker working with minimal intervention wherever possible.

Ribeyrenc is a variety that was traditionally grown between Minervois and Clermont l’Hérault, but all but died out with phylloxera and the big frost of 1956. All was not lost, however, as Thierry’s grandfather had some vines. The cultivar is well adapted to the Mediterranean climate, and intriguingly, it ripens late being picked towards the end of September, usually a recipe for high alcohol, but in this case always a light abv of around 11.5-12%.