Great Natural Wines from Cyril Fhal, Clos du Rouge Gorge!
("L'Ubac" Clos du Rouge Gorge (Photo: E. Lillie))
We are proud to offer wines from one of the finest producers of natural/biodynamic wines in France, Cyril Fhal at Clos du Rouge Gorge.
The wines of the Clos du Rouge Gorge are elegant, balanced and full of character, perhaps the finest from the new generation of wine-makers in the Languedoc-Roussillon. They are products of living soils, uniquely beautiful with pure silky fruit, moderate levels of alcohol and firm acidity - delicious examples of the indigenous grapes of the Roussillon. Cyril Fhal came to the Roussillon from the Loire Valley and found small parcels of north-facing hillside vineyards on gneiss, near the village of Latour-de-France, about 20 miles north-west of Perpignan, with the soil, exposure and altitude of the vines giving freshness and minerality to the wines. The vines have been tended in biodynamic farming from the beginning, with light plowing by hand, horse or rototiller. Natural composts and biodynamic treatments have revitalized the soil, and plants and flowers among the vines bring beneficial insects and a diverse fauna - the mountainside vineyards have a magical quality and seem to blend in with the surrounding sparse vegetation. Cyril rejected the AOC regulations of the Roussillon, which require 30% Syrah or Mourvedre, not indigenous to the region, "which by their excess of maturity and lack of acidity in this climat, result in fat and heavy wines," thus his reds from the local Carignan and Grenache are Vins de Pays Cote Catalanes. The local Macabeo for the white is the most apt, according to Cyril, at expressing the mineral character of the soil 'with a certain transparency." Yields at Clos Rouge Gorge are normally 10 to 20 hl/ha, harvesting is by hand into small baskets, light crushing by foot is followed by slow fermentations (traditional, not carbonic maceration) with no extraction, alcoholic and malo-lactic fermentation in barrel. These are wines of great purity and finesse that combine delicacy and power - bravo to Cyril Fhal for his superb work in the vineyard and cellar! (Taste the wines soon at Racines NY!)
-David Lillie
