M&M Blanc 2022 - Es d'Aqui
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M&M Blanc 2022 - Es d'Aqui
Mauzac, Muscat · Limoux, France · 75cl
Pickup available at 3 Cornmarket Street
Usually ready in 2-4 days
Muscat and Mauzac from sandy, limestone soils around Limoux. Two weeks of whole-cluster maceration, then ten months in clay jars. Muscat's floral, terpenic aromatics play wonderfully with Mauzac's quincey structure, and we feel a sense of verticality that speaks to the time ageing in clay. As we have come to expect from Jean-Louis, this is lucid and detailed, a perspective on these varieties we shoud see more of.
The producer
Jean-Louis works from an unassuming cellar below his house in Moulin-neuf, close to Limoux. Trained as an oenologist, he worked at large commercial wineries in the mid-noughties, at one point managing a cellar that produced 160,000 bottles a year. After tasting the wines of his friend Antony Tortul of la Sorga, Jean-louis was convinced to walk a different path, and established his own label the following year.
Predominantly a micro-negociant, Jean-Louis scouts fruit from remote and isolated vineyards across the South-West, from Gaillac out to Saint-Chinian and further afield, as well as working closely with respected growers like Remi Poujol. A varying portion of his output every year comes from his own vines nearby, depending on the vintage. Bottling under the label Es d'Aqui, meaning "from here" in Occitan, Jean Louis reminds us that each of his wines is a singular expression of where they come from. Producing about 10,000 bottles a year, some cuvées in tiny quantities(sometimes as little as 400-800 bottles), Jean-louis' wines catalogue the breadth of intricacies that define southern wine.
The place
Mauzac is an indigenous grape of Limoux, providing the backbone of Blanquette de Limoux and Crémant de Limoux, growing on the sandy limestone soils of the Haute Vallée de l'Aude for many centuries.
Grapes: Mauzac, Muscat
Region: Ariège, France