Mas des Capitelles - Faugères 2017 (750ml)
Price: $39.99
Producer | Mas des Capitelles |
Country | France |
Region | Languedoc-Roussillon |
Varietal | Carignan, Mourvèdre, Grenache |
Vintage | 2017 |
Sku | 63407 |
Size | 750ml |
Mas des Capitelles Description
Mas des Capitelles encompasses 30 hectares of mostly very old plantings on south-facing hillsides of pure schist. This acidic and well-draining soil, in the dry climate of Faugères, results in miserly yields—typically 20 to 30 hectoliters per hectare at Mas des Capitelles—and can impart a certain bare-knuckled intensity to wines born from it. However, the moderating influences of high altitudes (250 to 280 meters, making for relatively cool nights) and cooling winds blowing down from the Massif Central keep the wines from feeling gloppy or overly heat-marked. The domaine’s two most important varieties, Carignan and Mourvèdre, thrive in these cruelly poor soils and enjoy the relatively lengthy hang time they need to fully express themselves, and the sidemen Syrah and Grenache achieve intense spiciness without becoming outlandishly ripe. Aside from a small handful of younger plantings, the Laugés’ vines range from 40 to 100 years old, and are trained low to the ground in the ancient gobelet (bush-vine) manner—a practice which serves to further limit yields and thereby maximize expressiveness in the resulting fruit, and which of course makes machine harvesting impossible.
Assembling our old Carignan vines over 80 years at 40%, 30% Mourvèdre and 30% Grenache, the “Vintage” wine comes from grapes sorted on the vine and harvested manually for low yields.
Traditional vinification in long vatting for over 30 days, Carignan and Mourvèdre is aged in French oak barrels for 24 months at 80% and reassembled in vats with Grenache so that the barrel fermentation does not predominate in the wine’s aromas.
Unfiltered and with a minimum use of SO2, the “Vintage” wine has an purple and intense color ,a Mediterranean nose of blackberry, garrigue, thyme with a mouth full, fresh, minty with a remarkable length
Organic wine and also originating from our biodynamically cultivated vineyard, this vintage can easily age well for a minimum of 10 years.