Grapes: Grenache Blanc + Ugni Blanc + Clairette + Vermentino
Region: Provence, France
Vintage: 2022
Viticulture: Biodynamic
Soils: Limestone + Sand
Yeasts: Native
Vinification: Hand harvested. Grenache is pressed immediately while a 3 day cold soak for the other varietals. All four varietals are co-fermented and raised in stainless steel tank but for a small measure which is raised in neutral barrel.
Aging: Stainless steel + Neutral barrel
Fining or Filtering: None
Notes from the Importer: According to Guillaume and Karina Lefèvre, "Domaine de Sulauze is more than a vineyard. It's a place that is alive and meant to be shared." And so it is at the annual raucous pig roasts where the bounty of the vineyard & cellar, brewery & hop yard, bakery & mill, olive groves, and farm animals, is all proudly share at the table. Karina and Guillaume came to the domaine in 2004 and immediately converted the vines to organic farming and a few years later, to biodynamic farming as well.
Today the domaine is a winery, brewery and mixed use farm that encompasses 500 hectares of organic farmland. They have 30 hectares of vines on limestone and sand planted to classic Provence varieties like Vermentino, Grenache Blanc, Ugni Blanc and Clairette for the whites and Grenache, Syrah (and the more rare Sereine), Cab Sauvignon, Cinsault and Mourvèdre.. No chemical treatments are used, everything is harvested by hand, and the domaine has just recently started ploughing with horse. Sulfur is kept to a minimum and the domaine has a few zero sulfur bottlings as well.
