Les Vieilles Vignes

The oldest parcel was planted in 1921 and has never been pulled up. The vines give almost nothing — four handfuls each — and what they give is concentrated in a way young vines cannot fake. We pick and ferment it exactly as it grows, a field blend, because that is how the wine has always been made and it has never been wrong.

Eighteen months in French oak, a third of it new. The result is dark but not heavy, with tannin that is present the way a floor is present — you don’t notice it until you lean on it. This is the wine we cellar deepest and open slowest.