Eric Texier (Domaine de Pergaud) - "Brezeme" Vieille Roussette Cotes du Rhone Blanc 2018 750ml (11-14% ABV)

unique opportunity to taste an old vine, single plot white Rhone from a master with a touch of bottle maturity. From the most northern point of the southern Rhone valley.

Eric is a trailblazer, putting nearly the extinct regions of Brézème  and Saint Julien en Saint Alban on the map. He experiments with concepts you rarely if ever hear about elsewhere: finding acidity ... through anforas, not working the soil in favor of cover crops, "infusion" macerations, working on his own grafts, rediscovering forgotten grapes adaptable to the very real threat of climate change...

He originally became a winemaker after a first career as an engineer in the nuclear industry and without any family background in vines or wines. As such, his goals and methods developed not so much from his years of schooling, but from his readings, his visiting winemakers around the world, and working in Burgundy with Jean-Marie Guffens at Verget.

From vines planted in 1936 on a south-facing limestone marl slope in the Brézème vineyard. Fewer than 100 cases produced.

fuller bodied, honeyed, waxy, pineapple, poached pear, white peach, baked mango, summer hay, textural, leesy creaminess, amazing balance, 

region: Rhone Valley, France

varietal: Roussanne

style: weighty white

farming/cellar: certified organic, hand harvested, The bunches are direct-pressed (old fashioned wood vertical press) and fermented spontaneously and without sulfur. Part of the wine is aged in tinaja (Spanish clay amphora) and the other part in old oak barrels. Malo occurred. Bottled without fining or filtration and with a small dose of sulfur.

pairing: any seafood like seared lemon garlic butter scallops or tarragon roasted halibut with hazelnut brown butter