Pedres Blanques Rouge 2021

Rousillon // France

This is the 5th vintage of Japanese winemaker couple Rie & Hirofumi Shoji. 

The couple currently makes only one wine for sale – Grenache, vinified and aged in Banyuls in a facility they share with 9 other winemakers. The wine is fermented with whole-clusters and indigenous yeast without temperature control. Élevage lasts for 6 months and the wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined with minimal sulphur at bottling.

A beautiful wine from what was an incredibly challenging year. This is mostly Grenache from vines of 30-50 years of age planted over granite and schist between 250-300 metres above sea level. The grapes were fermented as whole bunches in cuve for around a month, before being pressed and fed by gravity into old barrels of various sizes. A year of élevage has rendered an absolute masterpiece. With delicate notes of black fruit, minerals and iodine and a palate that is just pure silk, this is arguably their best work yet.