Appellation: IGP des Cotes Catalanes, Languedoc & Roussillon

Grape: 100% Grenache Gris
Yield: 12 hl/ha

Bottles produced: No more than 10 barrels a year
Packing: case of 12 bottles
Ageing & other info: The Guardian is an limited edition of the winemakers’ labour of love. Scattered within our Grenache noir vineyards are a small number of Grenache Gris vines. At harvest, Richard and Sarah work their way through these vineyards collecting the pink berries from these few, precious vines. As each yields only 3 or 4 clusters, the annual production tends not to exceed 10 barrels. The wine is cool fermented then aged in neutral French oak for approximately 8 months and does not undergo malolactic fermentation. ( * Some winemaker prefer not to use this step so as to avoid taking away part of the character of the wine.

Rating & Award: Previous vintages rated from 90-94 by Wine Advocate, Jeb Dunnuck. 2020 is yet to be confirmed.

Maturity/drink: This wine can drink young, but believed to be in best shape from 3-5 years of span. With the high alcohol, the wine is expected to live through 6+ years.

Tasting Notes:

Notes on previous vintage 2017 : ‘ I loved the 2017 Côtes Catalanes The Guardian Blanc (100% Grenache Gris). It shows how good the whites from this region can be, especially the ones based on Grenache Gris. This beauty is loaded with notions of white citrus, green herbs, spice, and a liquid rock-like minerality, which is one of the hallmarks of Grenache Gris. Concentrated, layered, and ripe, it’s a powerful white that will shine on the dinner table, and I suspect evolve beautifully for a decade (although there’s no need or reason to hold off ‘ - 94 points by Jeb Dunnuck (November 2018)

2020 TBC.

Things you need to know:

Richard Case, the British born winemaker of Domaine de la Pertuisane, is an expert of producing great wine. His project Department 66 is collaborated with the American iconic winemaker, Dave Phinney, who is a Napa wine legend that produced some big names such as Orin Shifts - The Prisoners and The Locations Wines.