{"product_id":"les-vignes-des-enfants-2023-magnum-anders-frederik-steen-anne-bruun-blauert","title":"Les Vignes des Enfants 2023 Magnum - Anders Frederik Steen \u0026 Anne Bruun Blauert","description":"\u003cp\u003efrom anders…\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlways made from the little parcel called Les Vignes des Enfants, planted in 2000 with Petit Sirah (also known as Serine), on seven small terraces at Valgrand. Valgrand's soil is dominated by Marne Bleue, and the pairing of its salty minerality with the small fragile tannins of Petit Sirah is fascinating. Despite being a southern wine, these vines always give something reminiscent of Pinot Noir, fittingly, grape researchers believe Petit Sirah is ancestral to both Pinot Noir and Syrah. In 2023, half the grapes were destemmed and macerated 20 days in the directly pressed juice of the other half. After décuvage the wine went back into the tank to ferment through winter, soutirage in spring 2024, then into demi-muid for another year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe producer\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the midst of the dynamic and collaborative viticultural and winemaking esprit emanating from the remote valleys of southern Ardèche, Anders and his wife Anne remain distinct among their peers in both ambition and approach. The undeniable individuality of their wines is a result of their deep commitment to their process in the vineyard and cellar techniques developed over 15 years in Valvignères, where Anders first began making wine with the enigmatic Jura vigneron Jean-Marc Brignot at a small cellar in the village in the noughties. Anders had met Jean-Marc during his time working as a sommelier at Noma, and by the time he had opened Relae and Manfreds as chef sommelier with Christian Puglisi, the seeds of this collaborative winemaking project had been sown.\u003cbr\u003eAnders' path to wine was somewhat serendipitous, resulting from a brave decision he took while working as an ambitious young chef in Copenhagen. The bright lights of San Sebastián were an irresistible draw for most of his colleagues, with elBulli in its heyday at the centre of world gastronomy. Swimming against the current, Anders took a job at Noma as a sommelier. For the budding chef, bridging the divide between kitchen and service could only deepen his understanding of cuisine.\u003cbr\u003eThe timing here is important. Pontus Elofsson was the head sommelier at Noma at the time, and the restaurant began serving wines that upheld the philosophy already at work in the kitchen. Anders would never look back.\u003cbr\u003eFirst splitting his time between Valvignères and Copenhagen, Anders became fully immersed in viticulture and winemaking with Jean-Marc. Eventually, after Brignot moved to Japan, Anders moved to southern Ardèche full time and was joined by his wife Anne and their young family, setting up in a tiny, 2,000-year-old cellar at the heart of the village. Initially Anders bought fruit from his neighbour and mentor Gérald Oustric and his wife Jocelyne, who had been farming organically in the village for 40 years and making wines in the way they learned from Jacques Néauport. Anders also rents a small cellar in Alsace, where he heads directly after the harvest in Valvignères every year, buying fruit from the Bannwarth family in Obermorschwihr. They now farm 3 hectares of vines themselves around Valvignères, growing on clay and limestone, with a small holding of Petite Serine growing on a vein of Marne Bleue that goes to their cuvée Les Vignes des Enfants every year.\u003cbr\u003eIn the vineyards, Anders is exacting, refusing to use sulphur or copper, preferring the lactoferments and tisanes he brews from local bush herbs and the seawater he collects from the Mediterranean. In the cellar, the fruit is most often pressed slowly over several days, with Anders determining how each portion of the press will be used by tasting the juice. Fermentation is usually started in fibre, and a long élevage in barrique non-ouillé follows, meaning many of these wines take quite some time to rediscover their balance and be released. The idea is to let the wine go where it wants to go, reading the cues he detects as they evolve over time and following along.\u003cbr\u003eThe results are breathtaking, peerless expressions of Valvignères and Obermorschwihr respectively, wines that remain true to the place they come from while taking an entirely new perspective on what is possible with the ripe fruit of southern Ardèche or the rich, unctuous fruit of Obermorschwihr. Often lightly oxidative and salty in expression, the wines have a complex structure that does not rely on acidity. Anders picks at the very last minute, prioritising phenolic ripeness above all else, building instead on a thread of saltiness and fruit drawn out over these long, thorough presses. Since expanding their cellar a few years back, Anders and Anne have moved to lengthen the élevage in their wines further. The results speak for themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe place\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese vines grow on old terraces just outside the village of Valvignères. The vines were planted in 2000 on a vein of blue marls, or marnes bleues. This is the Bas-Vivarais, where Urgonian limestone caps the hills. The surrounding slopes have older, softer soils, where the fine mixture of clay and limestone never ossified. The blueish grey cast of the soils tells us about the conditions they were formed under, with organic matter breaking down in oxygen starved water millions of years ago. Petite sirah, or Serine, is a small berried Syrah that was selected for, giving a finer expression of the variety's characteristics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrapes:\u003c\/strong\u003e Petite Sirah\/Serine\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Valvignères, Ardèche, France\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 14%\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Anders Frederik Steen \u0026 Anne Bruun Blauert","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54988710019410,"sku":"17000197","price":104.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/files\/bw-les-vignes-des-enfants-2023-magnum.jpg?v=1793699099","url":"https:\/\/www.brianswines.ie\/products\/les-vignes-des-enfants-2023-magnum-anders-frederik-steen-anne-bruun-blauert","provider":"Brian's Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}