Alcohol: 12%
Grape(s): 90% Syrah, 10% Grenache
Localization: Languedoc, France
Tasting Notes: Fruity, light and Juicy. This is a nouveau in style - meaning the time between the grapes being picked and the finished wine ending up in the bottle is very short, in this case just a matter of months - so no time for any ageing; it's all bright upfront juicy fruit.
Notes: Hand Harvested Destemmed 10 day carbonic maceration 1 month élevage in demi-muids. No added SO2
The wine is made using carbonic maceration like nouveau wines, but is naturally fermented and has no added sulfur. Funky and light and never around for long.
The Domain: For 12 years, Jean-François Nicq worked as a winemaker in the Côtes du Rhône. On the first of January 2001, Jean-François joined his childhood friend, Bijan Mohamadi (who had been spending his days as a math teacher like our friend Cyrill Sevin) to start a new domaine at the very southern end of the Languedoc. "The Red Scarves" is a literary reference to the works of Fréderic Fajardie, whom the men greatly admired. Their philosophy is in turn a militaristic one, completely against intervention in the vines or the cellar. Native yeasts, no fining, filtration, added sulfur, and even some tillage with the help of their mule, Uma: The real deal. The vineyards are composed of multiple plots, on the lower, flatter part are mostly decomposed sandier soil. On the hillside, 100 meters up, are isolated single plots: Frida, Les Vilains, Les Glaneurs, Grenache. They lie directly on the bedrock with barely any topsoil and show more density.
Buy 6 bottles of regularly priced (not on sale) wines and receive 5% off.
Buy 12 and receive 10% off.
Email sale wines do not combine nor count towards the above discount.
We would consider all wine to be "Natural". The term "Natural Wine" has the connotation of lacking a touch with nature. The winegrowers we champion are those who are farmers first. They seek to capture the uniqueness of the site (terroir) in the purest way possible. The product is as pure as possible and without wine-making flaws (brettanomyces, mercaptans, volatile acidity, etc.
Raw, in this case, we define as realistic and not manipulated. The winemakers use the least amount of intervention as possible. Wine should be made in the vineyard, not the cellar. The winemaker's job is to get the wine into the bottle in the purest form possible. There are additives that go into making wine, some are essential and some are not. Wines in this category do not have extra additives. They are free of added sulfur, or have the most minimal amounts possible in order to provide shelf stability for the consumer to experience the wine as the winemaker intended it to be.
