Estézargues 'Kiffe' Vin de France Rouge 2022 (750 ml)
Estézargues 'Kiffe' Vin de France Rouge 2022 (750 ml)
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Cépages: 75% Grenache, 25% Syrah
A kiffable field blend of 79% Grenache Noir, 18% Syrah, 3% Carignan, this juicy medium-bodied red comes to us from the South of France, near the Rhône Valley. Planted to stony soils, these super old-vine grapes are hand-harvested, native yeast fermented and macerated for 10 days then left on their lees for 7 months in cement. The wine is then unfined and unfiltered at bottling. It tastes of happiness and sunshine, with bright red and blue fruit on a medium, mouth-coating frame frame that ends in a long delicious finish. "Kiffe" is a common word used in French that refers to something that brings a sense of well being and happiness. This wine from our friends at Les Vignerons d’Estézargues was made in the most environmentally conscious manner and will bring a sense of well being and happiness to everyone who tastes it. We hope you kiffe this wine as much as we do, and pass it on the left hand side to your friends.
A stone's throw from the medieval city of Avignon, you'll stumble upon Les Vignerons d’Estézargues - a truly exceptional cooperative endeavor. Unlike most coops, which typically churn out humdrum vintages in grandiose quantities, Les Vignerons D’Estézargues stands as a wholly distinct entity, a paragon of dissimilarity in this sprawling co-operative milieu, both in scale and philosophy.
Just some twenty minutes from the famed medieval city of Avignon (Chateauneuf du Pape, anyone?), in an eponymous village, Les Vignerons d’Estézargues operates a very rare kind of co-operative. The caves co-op, as they call them in France, are a traditional and still very important part of the wine landscape, especially in the South, as sharing know-how and the cost of cellar space and equipment brings important synergies to the participating growers. In most cases, the co-ops make conventional wines in large batches and process grapes from many different vineyards together, focusing on quantity and cost-efficiency rather than quality or environmental respect. Les Vignerons D’ Estézargues, on the other hand, is a whole different animal on both accounts.
Estézargues was established in 1965 and, as early as the 1980s, shifted towards natural winemaking thanks to the arrival of Jean-François Nicq, a talented winemaker influenced by the ideas of natural wine legends like Marcel Lapierre. Nicq (now making wine in his own boutique Domaine des Foulards Rouges in Roussillon) put the cave firmly on track towards respectful farming and practically no additives in the cellar. No commercial yeast, no enzymes, no gum arabic, no acidifiers, and also almost no sulfur. “We use a minimal amount of SO2 at bottling if needed, to make sure the wines are safe even when exported overseas, but that’s it,” says Armelle Rouault, Estézargues’ congenial current CEO and winemaker as we chat on Google Meet, the tasting room of Covid-19 times. Funnily enough, the company never felt the need to label themselves as vin naturel (“and we’re not going to start now, all of a sudden,” Armelle adds), but it’s a bit of a trade secret nevertheless: the well-informed patrons of Parisian bars as well as buyers overseas know that choosing an Estézargues label equals no-BS-added honest bottles.
Another feature rather untypical of a coop is Estézargues’ focus on vinifying many of their terroirs separately—a practice promoted by Nicq’s successor Denis Deschamps. Deschamps even had the cuverie doubled in 2018, thus making it possible to showcase the unique personalities of the grower’s best plots even more. These wines proudly bear the name of the particular domaine on their labels (such as Genestas or Grès Saint Vincent), and represent “a great way to valorize the work of each grower—we vinify the wines in almost the same way so it’s really up to the grapes to show what’s in them. And I can’t help but see the personality of each grower in the final wine as well,” Armelle smiles. She’s happy to have both the individual and all-together approach featured in the roughly 20 different cuvées that Estézargues produce every year, as the communal bottles such as Grandes Vignes Blanc or Rouge are a good symbol of the brand’s collective nature. She affectionately calls the community “village gaulois” in a reference to the beloved Asterix & Obélix comics and the fact that most of the original founding families are still members today, with the third generation now in command.
With such colorful heritage all around, one wonders which shade Armelle hopes to add to the picture herself (besides the modern cellar door that they’re currently developing as one of the projects with the new sales director Anna Tyack). “Fully finishing the conversion towards organic—three quarters of our surface is already certified, and the rest is on the path as well,” she enthuses. The village of Estézargues is located on a sun-drenched windy plateau, quite a bliss for organic viticulture: “As we say here in the South, the mistral is better than one [anti-disease] treatment,” Armelle laughs before drawing a compelling metaphor: “Take breastfeeding, for example: it went out of fashion for a while in favor of formula, but now society has once again accepted the old truth that nature has all the resources. And I love to see the wine world going back to this balance as well.”
