Winemakers Stephanie & Olivier Ramy, a husband and wife team, are the third generation of their family to run the show at Maison Ventenac. Cabardès is a unique Languedoc appellation that requires both Atlantic and Mediterranean grape varieties.
Their location in the village of Ventenac-Cabardès is famed for its limestone, chalky soils, which they say gives their wines their fresher character.
The winemaking philosophy is to allow their unique terroir to shine through in the wines, presenting them as naturally as possible and raising in tuns, terra cotta urns and concrete vats to enhance their purity. They are also experimenting with vinification without sulfites but deploying non-saccharomyces yeast to avoid spoilage from the likes of brettanomyces.
Maison Ventenac Le Paria 2021, Languedoc-Roussillon, France
WHAT IS IT?
Medium bodied red wine, unoaked old vine Grenache, juicy and explosive, fresh and intense, with candied red fruits like strawberry to the fore, and a punchy, thirst-quenching, dry finish
WHERE'S IT FROM?
Cabardès, France
WHAT DOES IT GO WITH?
Sausage and mash
WINE-O DETAILS
Organic, Sustainable, Low Sulphite, Vegan, 14% abv, made from 100% Grenache
HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF IT
Serve at 16-18 degrees celcius, decant for 30 minutes before drinking