Mas Coutelou Amphore Métissée 2022

Amphore Metissee is a natural white from Jean-Francois Coutelou, a Languedoc vigneron who took over his family's twenty hectare estate in the 1980s and converted it fully to organic farming, planting olive and fruit trees around the vines as part of a polyculture approach. The blend is Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris, warm climate southern French grapes that ripen fully in this dry Mediterranean setting, which is why the alcohol sits at 14.5 percent. The wine spends twelve months in clay amphorae. The porous clay allows a gentle, controlled oxygen exchange without adding oak flavour, which softens the wine and develops a savoury, nutty complexity, while extended contact with the fine lees and some skin influence builds phenolic texture and grip on the palate. Made without additions in the cellar, it shows the oxidative, textural character of natural wine rather than bright primary fruit. Expect a golden colour, a nose of dried apricot, orange peel and almond with an aniseed and dried herb note, and a dry, broad palate with a saline, slightly tannic finish. Serve at 12 to 13 degrees in a wide glass.