Emmenez Moi Au Bout de Terret

Named after a Charles Aznavour song and roughly translated as ‘Take me along’ or Take me away – to a place in the sun, where one can escape, and forget, the misery of life’ – this ethereal, and nervy, little white from Clos de Gravillas certainly does that!

You can expect the unexpected here, as this is very different from the everyday white wines of Minervois. It’s a lean, green, linear limestone machine, made from organically grown Terret Bourret grapes grown on blindingly white rock from a single hectare plot – Yep that’s one hectare – and aged for eleven months in large Austrian barrels. It’s as fresh as new mown hay, or a new May morn, and picked between the first and third weeks of September.

Gravillas means ‘gravel’ – in the local patois – and the plateau that the Clos du Gravillas occupies has been used – to grow grapes – for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Situated about 300 metres above sea level on slopes beneath the Montagne Noire the vineyards catch the cool evening breezes, allowing the grapes to retain a bright, zippy acidity. The high summer temperatures add the necessary alcoholic oomph to balance that acidity, and create the structural depth and maximum ripeness, concentration and intensity required to make this an unforgettably glorious wine.