2014 Nostre Pais Grenach Blanc

2014 Nostre Pais Grenache Blanc

Where: Costieres des Nimes, Rhone

Who: Michel Gassier

What: 52% Grenache Blanc, 22% Roussanne, 17% Viognier, 7% Clairette, 2% Bourboulenc

Tastes like: Lively and fresh, flowers, honeysuckle, and white fruits give way to a flinty quality and a mineral-driven finish.  

What to pair with: Gooey cheeses, grilled seafood, rabbit, or poultry.

The Who: Michel Gassier farms and vinifies with the assistance of his wife, Tina.  He considers himself a “peasant-researcher”: someone who is deeply connected to the land on which he lives and works, but who approaches the process of vinification with great intellectual rigour to produce the best possible wines from within his appellation.  Making pure expressions of the terroir of his land is tantamount: Gassier is hands off in the vineyard, preferring to let nature take it’s course.  

“A terroir print on a wine is like a musical score, and is always deeper, more complex, and more interesting than one created by man.  The winemaker needs to learn to understand it and nourish it, to let its vibrato resonate through the wine.  Later, much like a conductor, the winemaker can give free reign to his creativity through the art of blending.”  -- Michel Gassier

The What: The blend features all five white grapes grown on the property.  According to the winemaker, this bottling is “more about freshness, purity, and balance than about exuberance.”  Grenache Blanc and Roussane are both whites that produce full bodied, perfumed wines.  

The Where: Costières de Nîmes is the Rhone Valley’s most southern vineyard, descending to the edges of the Camargue. Melting glaciers in the tertiary era created the ancestors of the Rhone and the Durance Rivers. Carving their separate ways to the sea, they dragged boulders, rocks, gravel and silt. A mosaic of terroirs, Costières de Nîmes has a very unique common characteristic: the moderating effect of sea breezes. Freshness and purity of fruit is preserved and full maturity is guaranteed, especially for late ripening varietals.