Andrew Guard

2020 Faugères, Leon Barral

The classic “Faugères” is a blend of Carignan, Grenache and Cinsault. The Cinsault is amazing, yielding luscious aromas of cherry, plums and violet; the Carignan provides colour and concentration and the Grenache gives fragrant garrigue notes of bay leaf and thyme as well as a supple mouthfeel. A must try wine for people who want to see what nature can bring to wine !

Didier Barral has 25-hectares of biodynamically-farmed vineyards on slightly acid schist soils in which a little of everything grows. Everything starts from the soil which must be made as healthy as possible.

Dider Barral produces some of the most compelling wines in France in my opinion. It all starts in the vineyard where the health of the soil and its elemants and the creatures that live within it are encouraged to thrive. There are also 30 cows that live in the vines, 1 for each hectare! The result is low yeilds of incredible fruit and wines that practically make themselves with Didier's steady hand gently guiding them along. This is estate practices observation rather than intervation and it's powerful, rustic wines need to be tasted to be understood. This estate is now regarded as one of the “greats” in the Languedoc.