L’Artisane par Alice Lafon is a range of excellent wines for enjoying either by the glass or serving together with a meal shared around the table. Wines that remain true to their Southern France Terroir, with good fruit expression, textured palates and beautiful length on the finish. These wines represent the handwork of Alice, her work in the vineyard, hand harvesting and minimal intervention in the cellar using age old family winemaking practices.
Presentation
Presentation
With three carefully selected site-specific vineyards, primarily of sandstone terroir that produces exceptional Grenache and Syrah, Alice's vineyard is home to some of the region’s top red wines. Utilizing organic farming practices, the grapes are hand-picked for harvest and sorted with traditional winemaking techniques, followed by minimal aging in Burgundian barrels, to merely support the full potential and development of the wines resulting in elegant, complex and expressive wines that speak eloquently of their birthplace, the beautiful south.
Terroir
Although the sites are only 500m away as the crow flies, they have Villafranchian soils. Distinctively Mediterranean in nature, it is home to compact clay which holds water in summer and pebbles that store up the sun’s heat and radiate it back by night. Naturally low-cropping vineyards, they yield very powerful, rich, spicy wines with high tannin presence. Very good acidity means the wines are always fresh.
Winemaking
Hand-picked and sorted at the vineyard. Winemaking is simple and low-tech with no added yeast. Temperature control provides gentle extraction, particularly at the start of fermentation.
Varietals
Grenache noir : 55%
Syrah : 30%
Carignan : 15%
Syrah : 30%
Carignan : 15%
Specifications
Alcohol content : 14,5 % vol.
Contains sulphites. No..
Advice
Ageing potential
5 to 10 years
Tasting
Dark, lush and brooding, this is a beautiful wine with tons of character. The components are bold and powerful: deep red plum flesh, raspberry, fresh-ground coffee granules, cedar, garrigue spice and cocoa. The tannins are firm; the finish is long with flecks of pepper shining through.
Food pairings
With its bold red fruit and earthy-meaty notes, it’s ideal with richer poultry dishes (turkey, duck), roasted pork, or even a meaty beef brisket. The thing to keep in mind with this wine is to expand on its natural spice flavorings of cinnamon, cumin, 5-spice powder, star anise and dried herbs by also adding them to the dish. If you do this, the wine will bring out the spices and sweeten the flavor of the pairing.
