2018 Coupe Roses - Minervois Cuvee Orience

Granaxa is Occitane dialect for Grenache, and this is Coupe Rose’s Grenache cuvée, raised in second and third-year oak barrels. Now we get into more weight and body, with distinctly earthy overtones in the red fruit. Their Grenache grows in their stoniest soils. Yearly production averages 1,000 cases

-Importer notes (Roy Cloud)

Pronounced Ar-jess, this comes from the lieu-dit of Babio to the northeast of the village (Karst comes from the north-northwest). The name is an homage to the ancient Greeks, who may have been the first to make wine in Gaul; it's their word for clay. The soil here is clay-limestone, but the emphasis is on the clay, and it's the coupe-roses clay once used by Françoise's forefathers to make roof tiles. This heavy topsoil lays 1-2 meters over limestone bedrock, nurturing just over three acres of Roussanne and just over one of Grenache Blanc. Harvest is by hand, the grapes pass over a selection table, fermentation is spontaneous (20% in neutral 500L demi-muids, the rest in steel), blending takes place in early December, and bottling is in the following spring. No fining or filtration, no SO2 or other additions.